Before the Y2K issue, many people thought that when the year 2000 arrives, almost all the computer systems are going to stop or malfunction.

But nothing happened literally.


So when December 21st, 2012 arrives, it is just going to be another day.


Probably before we reach 2012, people are going to come up with a new date, how about 2020 it makes a nice number for end of the world.

When 2020 comes and nothing happens, some will waite until 2022, then again nothing happens.

Then nothing will happen and they will come up with let see, what is the next nice number, howabout 2031 because 31 is the reverse of 13 which means it is a unlucky year so 2031 is going to be end of the world...

How about 2044 that makes a perfect year for end of the world.

Oh no, how about 2050.

How about 2100

This one no one will challenge me, the 3000 wwooooow thats scarey, so the end of the world will be on the year 3000.

Mwahah, you know he's right, we just think all must come to an end because everything does allready

It's long been an item of faith among geeks that Tuesday, Jan 19, 2038 is the actual End of the World. That's when the 32 bit time register used in standard unix implementations fills up, and no more time can be added.

http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/critdate.htm#List has a nice list of critical dates, and what problem can be expected on each of them.

Every time i read a thread like this i have to wonder, Has anybody ever been right about any of these's dates.?

Out of the thousands of end-of the-world predictions that have been made, not a single one has come to pass.

From what I have read about the Mayan Calender, 2012 isn't really the end. It's supposed to be something good happening, not really bad. I believe that we are in the end or some crap like that. From like 1987-2012 is the last (forgot the word...)phase is the word I'm gonna use, even tho that's not the one I'm looking for. But I think 2012 is the end of the end, and a new beginning. Who knows....

My calendar ends Dec 31st 2005...

The end is nigh!

YOU MEAN TIME WILL STOP! With my luck I'll be at work, at a very dull board meeting. Can you imagine living the same moment over and over again. Unless your having an orgasm that could be real bad.

!

I forgot to take down last years calandar! What could this mean?

Y2K caused such a ruckus because of how all the computers were set up. They were set up to recognize a 2 digit year. '99 was the last number. There was a fear that if all systems weren't upgraded, then the computers would start screwing up. Computers control a good deal of things. Among the citizenry, there were thoughts of, "the computers controlling nuclear weapons are gonna mess up and blow us all to he--", and things of that nature. Religious fanatics and conspiracy theorists grabbed onto these dreadful scenarios and ran with it. That's why all the paranoia. I have to say though, that 1999 was the only year I stayed up all night waiting.

There were good reasons to be a bit wary . . . there is no end of things government in particular does by computer which would have been badly screwed up, let alone private industry. I personally feel that it was all the ruckus which made everything ultimately be OK. I worked for government for many years, and government usually doesn't do anything significant until emergencies happen. All the ruckus caused an emergency for politicians, and they responded, to everyone's benefit. Just my opinion.

Of course, you're right Larry. I don't think almost everything would've been upgraded in time had there not been a bit of a scare. I remember New Year's Eve, our IT guys frantically testing and retesting systems. I think some gray hairs made their appearance around that time.

All this talk of dates, makes me think of that song . . "In the year 2525"

I was a software engineer starting my first job in 1998 - roughly the time when the technical community was starting to assemble Y2K "readiness teams". I became involved in the Y2K planning and testing for the Fortune 100 company I was working for at the time that had systems as old as 40 years. Some of our systems would have failed had we not prepared. We knew that older systems would begin experiencing problems, most specifically when comparing dates. However, we are engineers. It didn't take a genius to identify that problems were going to occur. But at no point did any of us feel a sense of panic. We prioritized the systems, fixed what was important, tested it, and rolled them out. We left some systems to die. The problem with the Y2K scare was not that systems had "bugs" or "design flaws", the problem was that systems that were only designed to last 10 years or so, had become 30 and 40 year old systems - mostly undocumented systems. Those days, corporations and governments thought tweaking a legacy system (without documentation) was cheaper than full reimplementation (with proper design specs). For the most part, nobody thinks that way anymore. Systems today are built to be upgraded or thrown away after only a few years (good job security I think!) and are clearly documented so future problems can be easily identified and corrected.

Anyway, my point is, I was under the impression that this thread was making a point that either the hoopla around Y2K prevented disaster or that everything would have been fine without the ruckus. I simply don't believe either was the case. An engineering problem arose, an engineers worldwide did what we are paid to (and love to) do, the problem was identified, fixed, tested, and a solution was deployed. While I won't bet any money on the world NOT ending in 2012 - rest assured - it won't be a computer at fault.

Funny, I've been thinking I should be partying like it's 1999.

Now that's a really fine idea.

Mware, I think the post was written from an average citizen standpoint. Not an IT standpoint. The thing is, when imaginations run wild, and "ideas" start being spread, mass panic can ensue. People, like I said, take an idea and run with it. Overall, it was very anticlimatic.

This is just another good ex sample of thing's getting out of control.. That so many people where worried about what would happen and started to react to that.. No wonder the goverment hids so much from us..People freak about nothing.

It is clear to me that MWare never worked for government. In private industry, there are really people at the top who can say, "Do this," and "this" is funded and done. In government there aren't. Anything different that has to be done has to be in a budget . . . and that is a lengthy process indeed, often times several years or more to accomplish. Often times it also takes legislative approval too, adding a few more years to the process. In my last two years working for CalTrans (California Department of Transportation) (1994 and 1995) I was a member of a state wide task force and spent every other week in Sacramento working on it. Our task was simply to come up with a "data warehouse" which would "mine" the some 47 separate data bases kept by various departments of CalTrans and place the information into a separate data base which could easily be accessed by anyone in CalTrans, and decide on a new project scheduling program (to replace one written in the early 1960s). Many of these data bases had been created 30 to 40 years earlier, and written the computer languages of that earlier time. The information was kept on reels of tape, which had to be accessed by hand. Dates had already become a problem even that early . . . schedules already were showing "xxxxx" in place of a date because a date past "99" didn't compute. There is not a doubt in my mind that significant and massive crashes didn't occur when the year 2000 came around only because of the huge hue and cry in the mass media. Keep in mind that there are a slew of activities that only can happen with government permission, and when government computer programs fail, nothing happens until they get fixed.

I'm reminded of the last episode of ST: TNG "All Good Things".

Q says to Picard, "All good things must come to an end."

So whether the end of the world comes in 2012 or tomorrow, enjoy everyday to the fullest because you never know...

Your right AR..nor does anyone fore that matter, I am so sick of hearing about 2012, I could scream!

Use a pillow. It muffles the sound.

i would guess the world will come to a end on a day and year not predicted .

say 2013 ?--LOL welcome to the new world order-- congradulations the everyday low price just went up !--LOL