True. The first image that pops into my head when I hear Y2K is a Simpsons joke where airplanes and satellites start falling from the sky and landing in their backyard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0bBYK-7ZiU
Oh, and Dick Clark melts.
Re:Ask HN: Was the Y2K crisis real?
by swiftgoose on Friday March 13, 2020 @11:56PM
(#22573070)
I was working for Hughes, now Boeing Satellite Systems, for a couple of years doing Y2K remediation. I was writing ground station code that were on VAX/VMS, basically older hardware and software. So that thought did occur to me of satellites falling from the sky. From what I understand, everything worked out ok. There might be only one instance that we know of that was unanticipated when the year roll-over.
Re:Ask HN: Was the Y2K crisis real?
by marcus_holmes on Friday March 13, 2020 @06:12AM
(#22566073)
This. So many parallels with every "looming disaster" since. The media went into frenzy mode a few times, predicting the End Of The World As We Know It and scaring everyone witless.
And a few people did take it really seriously and spend the Millennium in some remote place where they would stand a chance of surviving the collapse of Western Civilisation.
I agree with everything you and the parent said, but there was also hype and hysteria on top of it all - especially among the communities of preppers, back to the landers, and eco-extremist types. I met entire communities of technophobes who declared I was just ignorant or 'a sheep' and refused to believe me when I tried to explain that the industry was working on the problem and had a solid shot at preventing major catastrophe.
Frightening predictions of power plants going offline for days, erratic traffic lights causing mayhem, food and water supplies being interrupted, even reactors melting down were not uncommon.
As always, there is money to be made by exploiting people's fear. This hysteria was considered an irrelevant side show by most educated people, the way I look at the chem trail people or the way I used to view the anti-vaxxers [1], but the unjustified hysteria was real.
[1] Before I learned their numbers were growing and could threaten herd immunity in some areas.