On the podcast Headlong: Surviving Y2K, the host Dan Taberski interviews Dave Eddy, the person seemingly responsible for the catchy moniker. And 1993, CNN reported that 1 in 5 Americans felt the second coming of Christ would happen in the year 2000. . Follow Us: Photo Courtesy: Henny Ray Abrams/AFP/Getty Images. Y2K didn’t have the negative global ramifications people were afraid of because sufficient planning and reliance on actual data and regulations were put in place by the federal government. And those fears of nuclear winter? An article from SFGate published in June of 1999 voiced a very real concern: "No one knows how severe Y2K disruptions may be — computers operate everything from cash registers to financial markets." By being transparent and giving people well-sourced, transparent information in real time, individuals could plan, or not plan, as they deemed fit. Cabinet papers show Y2K fears spooked Coalition and sparked $12bn in contingency plans. According to National Geographic, Y2K prep was not unlike hurricane prep for most Americans. Twenty years ago, folks weren’t just prepping the champagne and confetti for New Year’s Eve. Like other self-sufficient survivalists, Falwell stocked up on food and guns. According to National Geographic, evangelical Christian religious leaders went so far as to say that the problems stemming from Y2K — the death of computers, the general collapse of society and so forth — would "trigger the coming of the Antichrist." . We’ll never know what the other costs might have been without the prep, but we do know quite a bit about the actual financial cost of the solutions. Predictably, banking institutions’ stock prices plummeted, and anxious customers withdrew massive amounts of cash — so much that banks had a record-breaking $21 billion on hand to meet demands. Other features included a glossary of terms — everything from "debugging" to "event horizon" — and some kid-friendly Y2K lesson plans. It boils down to how calendar data is stored and formatted. The only problem: Programmers feared that when "xx99" rolled over to "xx00," the new millennium would be indistinguishable from another "xx00" — 1900. Those born before the new millennium may also remember the panic surrounding transportation. President Clinton didn’t celebrate in a bunker, but many everyday Americans with their own storm shelters and basements certainly did. Some of my friends and even relatives who stocked up. So, everything is fine now, right? (The acoustic ballad about "perpetual night" that closes the Y2K Family Survival Guide really solidifies the overall vibe.) Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, computer memory and storage were both rather scarce — and costly. At least, it should have felt that way. Where were you? The same can be said of the federal government’s ability to openly and regularly communicate about what was going on. The Y2K bug was a computer flaw, or bug, that may have caused problems when dealing with dates beyond December 31, 1999.The flaw, faced by computer programmers and users all over the world on January 1, 2000, is also known as the "millennium bug." The site — and several agency-specific offshoots — made press releases more accessible and allowed users to access detailed FAQs on everything from how the Millenium Bug would potentially impact utilities to what items were best to stock up on in preparation. WWE 2K20, a professional wrestling video game, also stopped working at midnight on 1 January 2020. Computers will stop working. The future seemed exciting — full of possibility. Officials need to use the same kind of transparency around the communication of data about safety as our pandemic-riddled 2020 transitions into flu season and the pressure of reopening “outside” becomes crushing. All because of something deemed the "Y2K Bug.". By LEE HARDING Research fellow Frontier Centre for Public Policy. And others were doing all they could to prevent the "Y2K Bug" from causing a total meltdown. The issue wasn’t a mistake or an error; it was done with purpose — a sort of shorthand for programmers working with limited real estate. This story is a part of our Back to the Future series on how key moments in the year 2000 influenced similar events in 2020. New millennium & new year, when computer engineers worked on complex computer programs they. Agency in place before we knew how imperative it would be 2000 is the result of capacity issues said Roberta. The government officials — feared things might go the way of the fear that the Y2K bug. `` headline... Result of capacity issues stands for kilo ( a unit of 1000 ) is! A lot of ways, the billion-dollar remediation project presented a unique opportunity for it to modernize globally! 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