Remembering Y2K -- two decades later

Here we are closing out 2019 and moving forward into 2020.
Can you believe it has been 20 years since the Y2K hysteria?
In summer of 1998, President Bill Clinton told a group of scientists, “Every business, of every size must face the future and act.”

The IRS commissioner even warned that 95 percent of the United States’ revenue could be jeopardized.

They were warning about when Dec. 31, 1999, became Jan. 1, 2000, that computer software and devices would glitch and think it was Jan. 1, 1900.
In 1998, the United States government even passed the “Year 2000 Information and Readiness Act” to help ensure readiness throughout the government and their vendors and launched the website Y2K.GOV!
The hysteria went into full swing!
Keep in mind that this was a time when most people got on the internet through their phone line with a dial-up modem. There were no smartphones -- very few of us even had a cell phone -- and most computers had no more than 512MB of Ram, and Sept. 11 was just a day in September.

I remember one instance of one person with his Packard-Bell computer, saying that he used only to type letters with Microsoft Works, called me in a frantic wanting to make sure his computer was still going to come on after the New Year.
Others would ask me if it would be the end of civilization as we know it.

Insurance companies sold policies that covered failure of business stemming from Y2K problems, law firms geared up for class action lawsuits against tech companies, and many firearm dealers saw sales skyrocket leading up to the end of 1999.
CNN even put out a Y2K preparedness checklist that included a three-day supply of food and water.

Needless to say, Y2K came without catastrophe. The worst thing reported in the U.S. was 150 slot machines monitoring horse races malfunctioned in Delaware.

Maybe it was just a big over reaction?

Maybe it was that more than $100 billion was spent in the U.S. alone on patches, research and readiness?

I guess these days we can laugh about the Y2K hysteria of 20 years ago.

Since this year is 2020, maybe we can focus on a vision for what we want our future to be, rather than panicking about the unknown future.

So let’s make it a great year, and if any of us are still around for Y10K we can deal with it then.

Happy New Year!