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The World Wakes Up, Blinks Twice, And Goes Back To BedJANUARY 1, 2000 · 07:00
Computers across the planet failed to do the one thing 99.9% of them were specifically bought not to do. The sky did not fall. It is now being described as 'the day nothing happened', which newspapers have always found harder to put on a front page.
A BANK MACHINE, PHOTOGRAPHED ON NEW YEAR'S EVE BY SOMEBODY WHO DID NOT SLEEP
( FILE PHOTO )
A BANK MACHINE, PHOTOGRAPHED ON NEW YEAR'S EVE BY SOMEBODY WHO DID NOT SLEEP
The interesting thing is not that nothing happened. The interesting thing is that everyone in this business has spent four years being sure, and being wrong, together.
LONDON, January 1 -- At 12:00 exactly this morning, the computers did not break. Banks opened. Cash machines dispensed. Airports landed planes. Somewhere in Ohio a man typed Y2K into a search box, found nothing useful, and closed the tab.
The warning had been given for four years: two thousand dollars of machines, two billion dollars of fixes, and a global industry of consultants who made a great deal of money being frightened on your behalf. Six months ago one newspaper ran a clock counting down to a national emergency that never arrived.
"The interesting thing is not that nothing happened," said a professor of computer science who was, by his own account, "unemployed since 1997 because of this." "The interesting thing is that everyone in this business has spent four years being sure, and being wrong, together."
There is no follow-up. That is the problem with good news. Nobody will give a speech about it. The man who spent four years selling you a countdown has gone quietly to something else, and the rest of us have gone to work, which is what we were going to do anyway.
Corrections: none so far. Published items are never corrected, they are replaced,
and the replacement keeps the original in the archive, where nobody will look for it.
COMMENTS (101) — showing the 10 that survived moderation
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CAPTCHA
Joined: Jan 2004 · Posts: 12
· not a place · 2 minutes later
i was in a bank on new years eve 1999 with 400 dollars cash because my grandmother told me to. i am the joke now.
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TuesdaysWithDee
Joined: Nov 2001 · Posts: 2310
· Boise, ID · an hour later
put the whole story on this. i want to read it again.
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TK
the_government_knows
Joined: Aug 2001 · Posts: 3420
· Classified · same afternoon
nothing happened. we were told it would happen. we were told by people who were PAID to tell us. do the arithmetic on that.
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TheQuietOne99
Joined: Feb 2000 · Posts: 1899
· Leeds · that evening
my son asked me last night what Y2K was. i said it was when nothing happened. he said that's every day. he's four.
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RageQuitRita
Joined: Oct 2004 · Posts: 22
· Denver, CO · the next morning
I KNEW IT. I TOLD MY WHOLE FAMILY. NOBODY LISTENS TO ME ABOUT COMPUTERS.
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AI
AskDr_Internet
Joined: Mar 2003 · Posts: 3105
· the www · the following day
the real story is that a lot of very confident people were wrong and got away with it. that's worth one paragraph more than it got.
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Hippie586
Joined: Jul 1998 · Posts: 1500
· Eugene, OR · two days later
is it just me or did nobody else get an update when they said they were releasing one? mine says 1999 on it.
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OldAndBald
Joined: Jan 1999 · Posts: 6677
· a recliner · a week later
OldAndBald wrote:
The World Wakes Up, Blinks Twice, And Goes Back To Bed i work in the industry (i do not want to say where) and everything in this article is correct, which is rare, and wrong about the timeline, which is also rare.
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internetwasbetter
Joined: Jul 2002 · Posts: 2440
· a modem · 2 minutes later
we have had this computer since 1998 and it still works. you people will not buy this because of the new thing. i do not care. i am right.
House rules, posted since the beginning and enforced by one person:
be the kind of commenter who would be tolerable in person. do not correct people's grammar
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