On page 115 of the Sept. 6, 1993, issue of Computerworld, a Canadian computer consultant named Peter de Jager launched an industry: responding to Y2K. Learn more about De Jager in this edition of Pioneers in Tech.
De Jager warned: “The information systems community is heading toward an event more devastating than a car crash. We are heading toward the year 2000. We are heading toward a failure of our standard date format: MM/DD/YY.”
He went on to explain the issue—programmers had, effectively, cut corners (either to save storage space or keystrokes) by programming years as two digits. That meant that havoc would ensue when the clock struck midnight on Jan. 1, 2000, and computers didn’t know how to handle the “00.”
De Jager estimated an estimated $75 billion in costs to Y2K-proof systems in time for “Doomsday 2000,” as the article dubbed it. When all was said and done, research firm Gartner estimated up to $600 billion was spent preparing for Y2K. (Interestingly, the catchy term “Y2K” came about later, the brainchild of Massachusetts computer programmer David Eddy. Some called the issue the “Millennium Bug,” which implied a malware connection that didn’t exist.)
In 2003, de Jager recounted his NYE 1999 plans for The New York Post. After visiting 45 countries and taking part in thousands of interviews to warn about Y2K issues, de Jager was more than ready for a break. He planned to visit his favorite pub in Ireland. But even though he felt comfortable that adequate preparations had been made, massive concern still existed within the public. To prove that planes would not fall out of the sky at midnight, de Jager contacted United Airlines and received an airline ticket. He spent the dawn of a new century mid-air, flying from Chicago to London Heathrow.
Because of de Jager’s warning and how seriously everyone took it, Y2K turned out to be relatively uneventful.
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This post originally appeared on Smarter MSP.
