Y2K a Mere Memory Now

ByABC News
December 26, 2000, 9:40 AM

N E W   Y O R K, Dec. 26 -- The nations Year 2000 czar is now a deputymayor in Washington, D.C. The $50 million Y2K crisis center housesGeorge W. Bushs transition team. The international Y2K coordinatorplans to relax with friends this New Years Eve.

A year after the turn-of-the-millennium computer scare, itsjust a fading memory for most people. But leading figures in theY2K consciousness-raising effort say the episode taught importantand enduring lessons.

It showed that we can, if we put the resources to it, solvetough global problems of our making, said Bruce McConnell, whodirected the international Y2K effort. It was a great story ofcooperation and hard work. It was expensive, but it wassuccessful.

For those quick to forget, Y2K was caused by decisions bycomputer makers decades ago to use two digits to represent theyear. The shortcut saved money on memory and storage, but alsocaused some computers to wrongly interpret 2000 as 1900.

Left uncorrected, the Y2K glitch could have fouled computersthat control power grids, air traffic, banking systems and phonenetworks.

Billions Spent on Prevention

Businesses and governments around the world threw some $200billion at the problem and then they watched nervously, hopingenough of the errant dates had been fixed to avert a worldwidedisaster.

For the most part they had. The lights didnt go out. Planesdidnt fall out of the sky. Nuclear missiles didnt launch in themiddle of the night.

Because few problems materialized, those who had sounded the Y2Kalarm had to fend off criticism from people who believed they werevictims of a big-money bamboozle.

Its like saying to a surgeon after he conducts a majorintrusive operation that because the patients fine, its not a bigdeal, said Harris Miller, president of the Information TechnologyAssociation of America. Problems did occur, and the fact that itwas so minimal means that people did a good job.

Among the failures: Computers that process images from U.S. spysatellites broke down. Some credit cards charged for the same itemsmultiple times. Japanese nuclear power plants experienced glitches among them, a failed clock on a reactor monitoring system butno radiation leaks or safety problems.