A News Video I thought to post.

[tombogan03884]

The only thing that prevented it from being the major disaster that was feared ( Random computer crashes in systems from PC's to DOD systems ) was that it WAS caught in time, and the ".a one or two line change where needed" were pretty much all found and fixed. ( there will ALWAYS be people who are to cheap or short sighted to take the precautions they should. I would bet my current Employer had problems    )

After posting this I made the connection that if the cheap or short sighted people are in the wrong places it could have BAD consequences, think Katrina.

[fightingquaker13]

You live in Fl. and you STILL don't "get it" ?    

The people who bought MRE's and generators with the ones with sense enough to realize that with our societies  increasing use of computers, and microcirctry the odds of, as you say, "the Endtimes to begin next Tuesday", continue to increase.

quick example, the North East Black out 1967 ( ? ) MB will remember the year.    

Dude I've got the generator, second breaker box to accomadate and thirty days of water and food (not MREs, just canned goods I'll probably eat anyway so no wasted money). If you recall, I also purchased an AR with an eo-tech . I was just pointing out that you could probably have gotten one hell of a deal on a never used generator on January 3rd of 2000.  
FQ13

[tombogan03884]

Dude I've got the generator, second breaker box to accomadate and thirty days of water and food (not MREs, just canned goods I'll probably eat anyway so no wasted money). If you recall, I also purchased an AR with an eo-tech . I was just pointing out that you could probably have gotten one hell of a deal on a never used generator on January 3rd of 2000.  
FQ13

Actually, My Dad picked up a commercial diesel generator for $500 about the time of my 40th birthday ( Feb 2K )  

[Solus]

The only thing that prevented it from being the major disaster that was feared ( Random computer crashes in systems from PC's to DOD systems ) was that it WAS caught in time, and the ".a one or two line change where needed" were pretty much all found and fixed. ( there will ALWAYS be people who are to cheap or short sighted to take the precautions they should. I would bet my current Employer had problems    )

After posting this I made the connection that if the cheap or short sighted people are in the wrong places it could have BAD consequences, think Katrina.

I remember where I was working when I first heard the Y2K problem discussed.  It was between 1976 and 1978.  It was a matter of economics. Why make changes that won't be needed for 22+ years when current computer time and storage costs would make the total tab many 1000s of times greater than it would cost if we planned to do the changes when they were needed and the expense would be more reasonable.

It was a good and economical decision by the IT profession in general.  The situation was just turned into a crisis by th e Al Gores of that time frame.

[crusader rabbit]

I agree with most of what has been posted before, but I would add a couple of thoughts.  Solar flares have been around a lot longer than we have.  Obviously, they only began to be an issue as we discovered more ways to use electricity and radio signals and computers.   

I was sailing in the Western Caribbean during the last period of flare activity and discovered that the operative word was "may" as in "may cause..."

I operated an SSB station aboard my vessel, providing localized weather information to cruising boats throughout the region, and rarely had problems with communication--even on high activity days.  I found that solar activity actually improved my ability to reach distant stations in some cases.  The problem is that there is no particular norm--nothing that you can correct for with regularity.

For the most part, the greatest problem was an increase in static.  GPS worked just fine.  RADAR worked just fine.  VHF worked just fine.  FM broadcast and reception were only modestly impacted.

The most important thing from my perspective is that there will be an increase in Northern Light activity.  Go north and enjoy the view.

Crusader

[Sponsor]

[Ocin]

Tex,

Solar flares or 'sun spots' are a well proved occurrence that does interfere with communications.  Similar to EMP but not as powerful.

Respectfully Haz, I beg to differ.

It is true that the average solar flare may not be powerful enough to create world wide havoc, but if it is followed by a Coronal Mass Ejection, directed at the earth, we are in deep doodoo. A CME is a cloud of highly charged particles and plasma, several millions of tons heavy and with sufficient energy to wipe out most of the worlds electronics and power systems in one blast.

Luckily these kind of events are not only quite rare but need to be directly aimed at the earth. As it is said: close only counts with horse shoes and handgrenades.

Ocin

[philw]

I worked in the IT industry during the Y2K 'Crisis'.

The problem was that it was the practice to use a 2 digit year to save computer memory and disk storage during a time when computer memory cost $1000s per 1024 bytes.  

and wasn't is a $$$ maker to fix the issue over 98/99   

[Solus]

and wasn't is a $$$ maker to fix the issue over 98/99   

It sure was.  Much of it was farmed out to India since it was mostly beginner work to identify what code areas were affected.  Fixing it and testing it were a bit more complicated...but not much.

As an example of how the economics  of computer usage has changed, back in the late 70s era, there was a procedure called desk checking.  A programmer would go through his program step by step keeping track of all the numbers and data on paper to verify the results before the program was tested on a computer.  This process might take several weeks for a complicated program. 

Programmers were not cheap even them, but weeks of programmer time cost less than the 20 minutes or so of computer time it might take to do the same testing. 

The thought of desk checking a computer program today is ludicrous with the speed and comparatives dirt cheap cost of computer time.   In that same 20 minutes of computer time, the programmer might be able to test his program 10 times, not counting the time it would take to make the corrections.  And the computer might be sitting on his desk and cost a few thousands of dollars instead of occupying an entire floor of a office building and costing a few millions of dollars.