[Vhfcn-l] Monday musings

[Gary Thewlis]

A rumor without a leg to stand on will get around some other way.

John Tudor

 

If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe
with fur.

Doug Larson

 

The trouble with jogging is that the ice falls out of your glass.

Martin Mull

 

Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users?

Clifford Stoll

 

A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly
strangled.

Sir Barnett Cocks

 

Stupid is forever, ignorance can be fixed.

Don Wood

 

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7 Wild Predictions About Y2K

 

History is rife with predictions about the end of the world. In modern
times, however, few have been taken as seriously as the Y2K fiasco. As the
1990s drew to a close, technology experts and doomsayers expressed varying
levels of concern about computers getting confused by the year 2000. Two
digits were used to denote the year, which meant some software might
interpret "00" as 1900. Would that glitch cause civilization's collapse?

 

Thankfully, it turned out to be not such a big deal: Tech experts made the
necessary updates and world's end was postponed. But that didn't stop a
number of experts (both accredited and not) from making some dire
predictions about what was about to happen on New Year's Day 2000.

 

1. Prediction: Prisons doors will fling open, freeing violent criminals.

Many Y2K fears revolved around the collapse of banking institutions and a
resulting loss of access to monetary resources. But for the truly paranoid,
it was the idea of prisons experiencing hiccups that kept them up at night.
According to a 1998 WIRED article, the thinking was that because prison
doors are often electronically monitored and operated, any computer
dysfunction could conceivably cause them to remain open, thereby letting
violent offenders loose on the population.

 

"You couldn't build a modern prison today without computers . it makes them
very vulnerable [to Y2K]," information technology manager Dr. Michael Harden
told the outlet in 1998. "The more modern the prison, the more likely it is
to be reliant on computer chips or computer systems for control of all their
security functions."

 

One even more bizarre theory: That normal citizens cut off from basic
resources as well as the electric grid might actually lay siege to the
nearest prison to take advantage of their food and amenities.

 

Naturally, none of this transpired. As a precaution, state prison systems
like the one in Colorado obtained back-up generators and invited staffers to
celebrate with non-alcoholic beverages in case they were needed.

 

2. Prediction: Planes will fall out of the sky.

A personal computer registering the year 2000 as the year 1900 might cause
games to crash or programs to sputter. But in a worst case scenario, a
computer getting confused with passengers 30,000 feet in the air seemed
catastrophic. Even a fleeting glitch in air traffic control operations or
cockpits could spell disaster. People wondered whether planes would crash as
a result of the turnover to the new millennium.

 

So did airlines: American Airlines vice president of information technology
Scott Nathan told press that "I don't believe everything will work
perfectly" and that he was unsure whether the computer problem would be "a
nuisance or something more serious." Airbus, meanwhile, flew a test flight
in early 1999 where pilots set the clocks ahead to see what might happen.
(Since you've never heard of the "Airbus Y2K disaster," the answer was,
thankfully, nothing.)

 

The issue with planes was of sufficient importance that then-president Bill
Clinton's Y2K "czar," John Koskinen, made a point to board a plane headed
for New York City that would have him in the air when the clock struck
midnight. The idea was to reassure an anxious public that everything was
fine, and sure enough, Koskinen made a safe landing.

 

3. Prediction: 911 could cease operating.

Imagine: It's January 1, 2000 and your toaster has caught fire because-well,
because of Y2K. You try to put it out and burn yourself in the process. Then
your house catches fire. You call 911. You get a busy signal.

 

Incapacitated emergency lines were one scenario floated by experts, as 911
call centers run on computer switchboards. Digital databases also bring up
information about the caller, which is then forwarded to personal radios of
emergency responders. Even one interruption along the chain could delay or
prevent urgent intervention.

 

All of it seemed like a recipe for disaster, as per a Bell Atlantic
spokesperson who spoke to the FCC about possible Y2K problems in November
1998. Local governments were urged to address any problems with systems,
while radio hardware companies like Ericsson were forced to provide
reassurance their equipment would still work.

 

Still, by August 1999, only an estimated 37 percent of 911 call centers were
Y2K-compliant, as reported by the President's Council on the Year 2000
Conversion. Some smaller municipalities urged residents to call fire
departments or police directly.

 

While it's possible there were isolated issues, by December virtually all
call centers proclaimed they were Y2K-ready. Any issues on New Year's,
public safety officials said, would likely be the result of too many people
test-dialing 911 to make sure the system was working.

 

4. Prediction: People will be using toilet paper as currency.

One of the biggest fears surrounding Y2K was a collapse of infrastructure:
utilities, stores, and ATMs might go offline, making transactions difficult.
Y2K futurist Gary North recommended people stockpile toilet paper-not only
in case of personal need, but on the chance they could use it as a barter
item. No reports of any toilet paper-related transactions occurred.

 

5. Prediction: GPS satellites could fail, leaving people stranded.

Before smartphones were commonplace, consumers used GPS devices in cars,
boats, and in portable form to navigate. The U.S. Department of the Interior
warned that GPS satellites might malfunction, rendering the receivers
useless-and campers lost in the woods.

 

"If you're out on the desert and you're not paying too much attention to
nautical navigation, there could be a problem," Interior Department
spokesperson Steve King told The Deseret News. "If we lose just one person
it's one person too many."

 

The agency urged people to check with their device's manufacturer to make
sure it was Y2K ready.

 

6. Prediction: Elevators will stop working.

One place Y2K-phobes didn't want to be on New Year's Eve: in an elevator.
Across New York City, several building managers ceased elevator operations
out of concern that blackouts might prompt them to stop working. Residential
buildings stopped the elevators at roughly 11:50 p.m. and held them, open,
on the ground floors for about 30 minutes.

 

7. Prediction: We're toast as a result of nuclear annihilation.

Like a scene out of The Day After (or Threads, for British viewers), some
Y2K forecasters worried that computer problems might influence nuclear
defense systems, leading to the accidental launch of weapons and mutually
assured destruction. Thankfully, this was taken extremely seriously by
nuclear superpowers the U.S. and Russia, who agreed to set up a joint effort
to quell any nuclear misunderstandings.

 

"We are less than optimistic that Russian early warning systems will
function [properly]," Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre said in a House
subcommittee hearing in 1999. "It is possible that Russian computer screens
could go blank."

 

It wasn't quite what you'd like to hear from a reputable source. But thanks
to DoD efforts, there was little opportunity for things to go haywire ...
mostly: There was a reported but unspecified glitch at a nuclear weapons
plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, then the nation's main uranium storage site.

 

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First released in 1964, the Ford Mustang proved one of the most iconic
muscle cars ever. Within a year, 400,000 units had been sold, which
quadrupled Ford's sale estimates.

 

The Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, first released in 1963, quickly became a
rival to the Ford Mustang.

 

When the Dodge Challenger was introduced in 1970, it quickly became a firm
favorite in the muscle car community.

 

The Plymouth Barracuda was a Hemi-engined vehicle that soon was a
sought-after muscle car model after its release in 1964.

 

The Pontiac GTO, released in 1964 as a convertible, hardtop, and coupe, is
one of the most iconic American muscle cars ever produced.

 

Another iconic muscle car is the 1967 Chevrolet Camaro.

 

Early versions of the Ford Thunderbird had many of the defining traits of
muscle cars, but there is a lot of discussion about whether it qualifies as
one.