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What Me Worry?
Another 'scary' deadline passes. Is Y2K a hoax?
By ERIC ELLIS
September 10, 1999
Web posted at 12:30 p.m. Hong Kong time, 12:30 a.m. EDT
If yesterday's concern over 9/9/99 was a dry run for the havoc some expect the Millennium Bug to wreak on the world's computers, then my advice to the worry-worts is ... Get a life! Buy a crate of champagne and join the party!!
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ASIA BUZZ
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The Sept. 9, 1999 mini-cybermeltdown didn't happen. And that augurs well for the big one on Jan. 1, when computers have to grapple with the sudden appearance of a 00 in their date code, suggesting, to the blindingly fast but ultimately stupid earlier-generation machines, that we've gone back to 1900, rather than ahead to 2000.
True, the 9999 alignment bug was a different species, a thankfully rare breed held over from the dinosaur days when computer code was written in languages like Fortran and Cobol. In early mainframes that meant "end of input," a wry joke by the old nerds but one that, thankfully, fell flat yesterday as the alignment of nines passed smoothly in even the lowest-tech of places. The damp-squib effect suggests that we have, in the main, developed a preparedness for Y2K. That's not too say that some things won't screw up, but the build-up to 9999 has clearly helped concentrate the cyber-mindset for Y2K.
Asia got extra-excited about 9999, partly because the number 9 is auspicious in many Asian tongues. In Chinese, 9 can be a homonym for forever (in Thai it can mean progress), making yesterday a good one to get married or have a baby. Thus the rush to the registry office in Singapore and maternity wards in Thailand, where hospitals reported an unusually large number of C-section birth requests. "I will name my son Khao (9)," a recovering mother told a Thai television station.
In the U.S., power utilities used 9/9/99 for a nationwide drill, led by the North American Electric Reliability Council. U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson symbolically supervised the test of the power grid as the clock ticked to midnight. The lights stayed on. Richardson said the country was 99% ready for the millennium (nice number choice, Bill). "But there's still that 1%," he acknowledged. Of the 3,000 utilities in the U.S., about 24 are not yet fully Y2K ready.
Other countries took precautions. Bangladesh's central bank turned off its computer network but then cranked it back up when private banks reported no problems. The Hong Kong Airport Authority used 9999 as a Y2K drill, as did the territory's Marine Department. Just to make sure, the Thai army grounded a helicopter that was supposed to take British Secretary of State Robin Cook to a refugee camp along the Thai-Burmese border.
For many Burmese at home and abroad, there were hopes that 9/9/99 would herald the beginning of the end of the military junta in Rangoon. The army killed hundreds of protesting students on 8/8/88, so this latest perfect string seemed like an auspicious moment to protest. Especially at 9:09 a.m. At 9:10, the junta was still in charge, thanks in part to the nine (!) roadblocks set up around Aung San Suu Kyi's home in Rangoon.
See you in 112 days.
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