In the last hours of December 31, 1999 John Koskinen got on a plane to New York City. It ‘was, however, accompanied by only a few other passengers from a handful of journalists, including an revelers in tuxedo was disturbed to learn that, go through the airline Greenwich clock used, he would be the 20th century air reach. However, Koskinen has timed his flight deliberately in this way. He was President Bill Clinton Y2K “czar”, and he flies to demonstrate during the night to a nervous public – and the urgent examination that, after an extensive, multi-year effort, the country was ready for the new millennium. The term is an abbreviation Y2K is a problem from the collision of next year 2000, and first used by programmers to minimize the use of computer memory, the double-digit year format, so an expensive commodity. If the “00” computer interpreted in 2000 as in 1900, this could mean a headache defective mortgage calculations wild off some power outages on a large scale speculation and damage to infrastructure. It ‘been a problem that everyone has, but few really understood about 20 years ago in an interview. “The vast majority of people have no idea of how computers work. So if someone comes along and says, we have a problem … the year [participation] in two digits instead of four-digit year, with glassy eyes start, “Peter de Jeger, host says the podcast” Y2K: An Autobiography “E. but it was certainly not a new concern -. technology professionals, has been discussed for years, long before Y2K entered popular vernacular President Clinton was the center of government warned in 1998, “to put our own house in order”, and large enterprises – inspired its own tests – they have responded in kind, but accumulate a power estimated $100 billion in the US preparations included extensive coordination at national and local level and on a global scale, digital and other dependent nations to examine their own there systems. . was years behind the scenes when it concludes the work, the audience reached. in the midst of uncertainty, it provided accepting of Americans on food costs g, water and weapons in anticipation of an apocalypse of computer-induced. disturbing reports warned of a possible chaos if critical systems have failed, but behind the scenes, who instructed the problem was to be avoided – and rightly so – confident that the beginning of the new year would not bring the catastrophe. “The Y2K crisis had not happened, because people are prepared in advance began more than a decade for them. And the general public, which deals with supplies and stuff storage was simply not feel that programmers were working “says Paul Saffo, a futurist and an associate professor at Stanford University. But even among companies that they were safe in their preparations, there was enough doubt to keep winning to declare prematurely. The former IT manager of a food chain reminds Secret executives their efforts for fear of embarrassing the nationwide titles downtime of the cash register to post. As Saffo observes: get your fix history in one place “The best anonymous success as a public failure to be.” Sign for the weekly TIME History Newsletter After sigh of relief in the early days of January 2000, however has since transformed Y2K a joke, as a way to ridicule relief – as if warnings seem useless after that have been observed so often the case. It ‘been called a forgery; it is a waste of time to solve the problem. But what if no one had taken steps to address the problem? isolated incidents that show the potential for negative consequences – albeit with varying degrees of severity – from a comically absurd sentence century after shopping at a video rental store a failure at a nuclear plant in Tennessee. “We had a problem. For most, stares at us. The idea that nothing happens something is ridiculous,” said de Jager, who has been criticized for providing early warnings. “Industries and businesses are not $100 billion, or human resources to dedicate this to a problem that the expenditure they think it’s not serious,” says Koskinen, looking after two decades back. “… [T] he people who knew her best were the ones that the hard work and expense.” The countless programmers, months and years of dedicated implementation corrections received little recognition. (A project of programmer-Year Five recalls the reward for his company: lunch and a pen.) E ‘was a scrupulous, glamor effort, hardly the stuff of the hero’s story – still favorable for the outpouring of public gratitude , although it agreed to put in place in 1999 updates we are still used today smoothly to keep the computer systems around the world. “There was no incentive to tell all, should a monument to the anonymous COBOL [common corporate language] programmer that changed two lines of code in the software at your bank setzen.’Da this has been solved by many people in small ways “says Saffo. The dilemma inherent Y2K debate is that those at both ends of the spectrum – can be said that the result proved correct their predictions – the naysayers doomsayers. Koskinen and others in the know have heard a great deal of confidence 20 years ago, but only because they were aware of the steps that had been taken – give the knowledge that decades later a little ‘more gravity on the idea of Y2K. “If no one had done anything,” he says, “I would not run away.” Copyright Picture from Joe Traver Liaison Agency / Getty Images
20 years later, the Y2K bug seems a joke, because those who seriously behind the scenes it took
