Y2K: An Autobiography

It's been a long time since our last episode. The reason is simple, Y2K has become History - what better way of closing this project than by highlighting the latest, and best in my opinion, Y2K Documentary 'Time Bomb Y2K' produced and directed by Brian Becker and Marley MacDonald and now airing on HBO. TBY2K took an interesting approach to presenting the Y2K saga - they told the story via archival...

An Interview with Vincent Balouet - the former Y2K leader in France. If you wanted to know WHY the situation in France was so very different than in the rest of the world? This is the Interview to listen to. Vincent is a French consultant, he specialized in computer science and risk management (ESIEE Master); He  started his career with Y2k, as a computer science expert and wrote most of the Frenc...

Fascinating interview with the Sheriff of London... who was deeply involved with Y2K Efforts in the UK

This is an Interview with Chuck Sevola - one of the leaders within the Prudential Insurance Y2K Project - He was involved in the Offshore Outsourcing to Tata Consultancy Services

Final Episode of the Audio part of this Podcast There are additional episodes available at: www.vimeo.com/ondemand/Y2K Please send your feedback on the series to Pdejager@technobility.com

In this episode we explore the big question - Why? Given that we believed that Italy (and others) did very little Y2K remediation did they experience no Y2K problems in the Year 2000? and? James Lauber will talk about a problem potentially larger than Y2K - and one we can do little to mitigate. A Carrington Event. 

The former editor-in-chief of CIO magazine and Computerworld, Maryfran is highly respected throughout the IT leadership community nationwide for her engaging stage presence, deep understanding of business technology issues and extensive network of Chief Information and Digital Officers.  In addition to her previous editorial leadership roles with IDG publications, Maryfran also served in 2016-2017...

Three articles this episode 1998 Dec 14th - An UNreal Question - report from the UN 1999 Apr 14th - How Bad, How Long, How Likely - a look at Y2K Preparations 1999 Dec 20th - A Best Kept Secret - A look at the HTC - High Tech Consortium And James Lauber explores how computers fail in Strange ways

In this episode I look back at a few important articles that appeared on the year2000.com website - My Testimony to the US House of Representatives, Doomsday Avoided - and my responses to the responses to that somewhat controversial article.  In addition? We're introducing a new feature - Tangential IT Issues with James Lauber - where we start exploring the 2038 problem in some detail

This is the entire keynote I gave at this conference --- it was one I called 'The Two by Four' talk.  An uncompromising, unrelenting talk designed to get the listener to either take action and start fixing the problem, or storm off in a huff determined to prove I was wrong (and then contact me later to say I was correct) Enjoy. 

If you'd like to view the video version of this interview? Head to: www.vimeo.com/technobility/bonus Robert Sawyer is a SF Writer with dozens of books to his credit - and both Hugo and a Nebula awards as bookends to his work. One of his novels, "Flash Forward" was made into a TV series, so it's more than likely you know some of his work already. I'm pushing the next regular episode of the podcast...

Covid-19 resulted in Lockdowns, which resulted in Unemployment levels that exceeded all past expectations, which resulted in Unemployment systems - usually in the legacy category - bursting at the seams which resulted in call outs to COBOL programmers which highlighted a flaw in how we view 'Legacy Systems'  It's not about old code - it's about old systems designs.  Since Y2K involved many of thes...

What was the Embedded system problem? How we know it was real, what we imagined and what we worried about.  If you want to receive a copy of 'A Crock of Clocks'? Email me at pdejager@technobility.com

A Look at the commonalities that people have been discussing... why they occur and why they are normal human behaviours.    

A look at a small subset of the many conferences that were held around the world during the 1990s. The topics presented, how the story changed as we moved from Innovators to Early Adopters, from Early Majority to Late Majority and to save time? We ignored the laggards.

We treated it as a Change Initiative, here's how we did that. 

I thought it would be useful to give you a taste of the interviews that are in the Ondemand section of this Podcast series.  Join me as I have a conversation with Murray Campbell who was once a Journalist with The Globe and Mail and who was brave enough to fly with me from Chicago, IL to Heathrow London that fateful night. Spoiler... we survived.  p.s. I will continue with 'It was a Change Problem...

While Y2K was a technical problem for those who worked directly on it, for myself and a few others who were attempting to create awareness - it was first and foremost a Change Management Problem. I've wrestled with how to present this particular aspect of the project. I could just talk about what I did through the 1990s, but that would only highlight the results of my thoughts and not how I decide...

A quick update on the Y2K Interviews available in the ondemand sections of this podcast You can find the interviews here; www.vimeo.com/ondemand/y2k

Y2K isn't one story - there was a technical side and there was the hyperbole. We went from Y2K - an 'acronym' for 'Year 2000' - a purely technical issue about a field overflow problem to? TEOTWAWKI --- another acronym for THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!!! ... caps and exclamation points are used deliberately to convey what can only be described as unfettered hysteria. Join Peter as he explores...

One of the biggest misconceptions about Y2K is that it was much to do about nothing. 'Nothing happened' is the generally accepted narrative. This episode is a litany of errors. Those than came before 'Y2K' was a thing, Those that we caused while trying to fix what we found, the problems we found and had no choice but to fix, the problems that happened on the 'day' and all the many problems that co...

This time around - we focus on how exactly we 'solved' Y2K. From full date expansion to adding Century codes, from the Temporary fix that was date windowing,  to something out of Star Trek called Time Warping. And of course, all the implications for any of the fixes that we deployed. 

How we fixed Y2K, from Field Expansion to Date Windowing, from Time Warping Data to Triage CORRECTION to the description... )This is what happens when you work when down with the creeping crud). The title is correct... It IS about the tech problem and it sets the stage for fixing it via the techniques mentioned. THIS episode is JUST the technical details that affected HOW we'd apply the fixes desc...

Peter explains what were the drivers behind the Y2K concerns and his determination to get people to pay attention to the issue. You can email him at: Pdejager@Technobility.com

A quick update on the status of the Podcast Identifies the plan for at least 10 episodes, the schedule and support options.  The real show begins Jan 1st