Y2K
 

This time last year the hot topic was the "Y2K" bug. The world was going to be plunged into disaster at midnight on 31 December. People were being advised to stock up with food, draw cash out of the bank and avoid flying. Many airlines cancelled flights, not because they were afraid of course, its just that no-body wanted to fly then.

Now we are halfway through the final year of the second millenium all is quiet. What was the fuss about? Did anything actually happen? I didn't see any press reports of any significant problems but does anyone know of any major system "crashes" or shut-downs?

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Through difficulties to the cinema

The only thing (although not a computer problem) I heard about was re IBM. It appears that in the first six months of 99 sales of mainframes rocketed; huge bonuses were envisaged by all, productions lines enhanced etc etc. Unfortunately sales then stopped dead. Subsequent analysis showed that a lot of big computer departments took the Y2K threat as a good excuse to replace obsolescent equipment but of course they left themselves plenty of time to install and commission the new computers so they all stopped buying in mid 99. On a similar line a friend of mine (self employed computer contractor) was given a contract to ensure that a company complied with Y2K guidelines - he spent a couple of hours a week ringing their suppliers and the rest waiting for them to call back