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20 Years ago tonight.....


RR007

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Many were contemplating that the turn of Century would wreak havoc with Bank systems the computing world and God knows what else. Vividly remember the wife in the Sailor Bar literally shaking as the clock ticked by. She had been so traumatised by her family in Nongbulamphu (unwittingly) of what would happen that as we went past midnight she hanging on to me like dear life thinking the world was ending lol....

On the 2nd January we flew (dont laugh) on Biman Bangladash the only flights available and she came UK for the first time lol. Never ever again would I fly with those jokers. Hard to believe all 20 years ago as seems like just few years ago.

Time goes so quick

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43 minutes ago, Thai Spice said:

Yep, I remember all those "preparations".

And a year earlier switching to the Euro ....

  For some older people it was their 3rd change of money denomination. 100 "ancien Francs" became 1 "nouveau Franc" in 1960.

PS : Brave man to fly on Biman Bengladesh !

 

 I had an unused return ticket Bangkok London valid for a year (I'd not used the return previously as the outbound had been so shit lol) but it was still valid....Went in Travel agent up Soi 8 and every (normal) motor out of Bangkok was booked solid until the 12th...... If you remember every man and his dog was in Thailand for that one......anyway agent says can get you out on the 2nd ludicrously cheap on Biman (for her) and revalidate mine. Bingo all sorted lol. Went Yangoon or Rangoon whatever it was then called on to Riyadh on to Rome on to Frankfurt and finally Heathrow lol

I did know about the stops to be fair but reckoned just put up with it on this occasion. She never moaned once, lands at T3 on January 3rd (you couldnt pick a worse time of year) and shes got this bloody great puffer jacket on we had bought from Tonys lol.....come out of Heathrow its misty but sooo mild lol 11c. After me telling/warning her this is gonna be cold for you she says "is this it" lol  😂😂

Edited by RR007
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Pretty amazing the amount hand wringing and hype of imminent disaster all because early programmers shortened the storage of a year to two digits to save a couple bytes of storage space. But then you have to remember in the early days of computers, storage space was limited and very costly.

For me the Y2K problem was great as it provided a very lucrative and successful change in my career path. I was working as an accountant in the 90's, but in 1998 software companies were recruiting far and wide to help with upgrades to their software. The result was I landed a job with an international software company as a consultant to help install upgrades at customer sites. The pay was great and even better I got to travel every week to different customer sites around the US.

On the night of the big event, I happily watched the clock tick over into the new year because this once in a lifetime event had just put even more money into my pocket. That was because the software company offered a 2k USD bonus for those that would agree to be on call for the 24 hours around NYE. Easy money for doing absolutely nothing. Thank you Y2K!

 

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1 hour ago, forcebwithu said:

Pretty amazing the amount hand wringing and hype of imminent disaster all because early programmers shortened the storage of a year to two digits to save a couple bytes of storage space. But then you have to remember in the early days of computers, storage space was limited and very costly.

For me the Y2K problem was great as it provided a very lucrative and successful change in my career path. I was working as an accountant in the 90's, but in 1998 software companies were recruiting far and wide to help with upgrades to their software. The result was I landed a job with an international software company as a consultant to help install upgrades at customer sites. The pay was great and even better I got to travel every week to different customer sites around the US.

On the night of the big event, I happily watched the clock tick over into the new year because this once in a lifetime event had just put even more money into my pocket. That was because the software company offered a 2k USD bonus for those that would agree to be on call for the 24 hours around NYE. Easy money for doing absolutely nothing. Thank you Y2K!

 

simlar for me. on duty all night @ power plant. but just 2x pay.

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I spent 50 beer vouchers (not yet Thai pussy vouchers) on one single firework. It was tubular in shape and came up to the height of my shoulder.

We had some friends and neighbours round and they were all out in the garden whisky's primed waiting for the bells to come round and ignition time.

We started the count down from 10 at which point I lit the "blue touchpaper"  and stood back just in time.

Nearly got it spot on and it was quite spectacular firing large numbers of star bursts etc up into the sky.

Was it worth 50 notes?

Debateable.

Edited by Jambo
No "e" in proper Scotch whisky
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1 hour ago, forcebwithu said:

Pretty amazing the amount hand wringing and hype of imminent disaster all because early programmers shortened the storage of a year to two digits to save a couple bytes of storage space. But then you have to remember in the early days of computers, storage space was limited and very costly.

For me the Y2K problem was great as it provided a very lucrative and successful change in my career path. I was working as an accountant in the 90's, but in 1998 software companies were recruiting far and wide to help with upgrades to their software. The result was I landed a job with an international software company as a consultant to help install upgrades at customer sites. The pay was great and even better I got to travel every week to different customer sites around the US.

On the night of the big event, I happily watched the clock tick over into the new year because this once in a lifetime event had just put even more money into my pocket. That was because the software company offered a 2k USD bonus for those that would agree to be on call for the 24 hours around NYE. Easy money for doing absolutely nothing. Thank you Y2K!

 

I started working in I.T in 2001, it didn't take long to hear all the tales down the pub about how much various staff and contractors had made out of the Y2K show. Also knew someone who travelled the world installing upgrades- lucky git. Soft job, hard to believe it now.

Fair play to you for cashing it on it.

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It was twenty years ago today

Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play,
They've been going in and out of style,
But they're guaranteed to raise the smile,
So may I introduce to you,
The act you've known for all these years,
Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

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5 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

Pretty amazing the amount hand wringing and hype of imminent disaster all because early programmers shortened the storage of a year to two digits to save a couple bytes of storage space. But then you have to remember in the early days of computers, storage space was limited and very costly.

For me the Y2K problem was great as it provided a very lucrative and successful change in my career path. I was working as an accountant in the 90's, but in 1998 software companies were recruiting far and wide to help with upgrades to their software. The result was I landed a job with an international software company as a consultant to help install upgrades at customer sites. The pay was great and even better I got to travel every week to different customer sites around the US.

On the night of the big event, I happily watched the clock tick over into the new year because this once in a lifetime event had just put even more money into my pocket. That was because the software company offered a 2k USD bonus for those that would agree to be on call for the 24 hours around NYE. Easy money for doing absolutely nothing. Thank you Y2K!

 

I remember people going crazy over the date ....

But, I worked for IBM in those days and we always stored the year in a separate field in a 4 byte format in everything we did .. so no worries there ....

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Was on waiheke island in Auckland harbour. 

Watched the light fade in drizzle on a beach on one side of the island, with others having a bbq, as only us Brits could.

Got up early the next morning, and watched it get light in the drizzle on a beach on the other side of the island. 

Was staying in a backpackers place, and spent the day popping a cork whenever new year arrived in a country where one of the residents was from.

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Quote

I should take this opportunity to mention that one of our ops took great pleasure in offering to supply Y2KY Jelly to the devs, intended to allow four digits in where only two fitted before.

Quoting because it isn't mine but I think some here will appreciate it.

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