Y2K: Fuel the Panic, the NBC Movie 401
JediLuke writes "Ok, I think that us geeks are somewhat sure that Y2k is going to go off without a hitch ... but NBC thinks otherwise. Sunday [tonight] at 9:00pm ET." Nothing like a nice TV "disaster" movie to stir up a little panic -- and to remind us that nothing, not even technology at its most nefarious, can lick a Handsome Hero(tm). From NBC's blurb: "Nick must use old-fashioned ingenuity if he is to save the day in this race-against-time action adventure."
Re:Let's Plan This (Score:1)
So what? (Score:1)
Fuel the panic? Don't think that that the concept of Y2K panic being the worst part of the event is an original idea. Look at what the media's been doing in the last few months. I've seen no 'the end of the world is coming, just so you know' articles in this timespan; every article I see is 'x is certified Y2K compliant,' or articles about how it's a bad idea to stockpile food and water. In short, if we live in a society where fictional made-for-TV movies bear more credence in the average American's mind than the news.. then Y2K is the least of our problems. slightly disjointed thoughts courtesy of neil
Dawn of the millenium?!? (Score:1)
Ugh, they can't even get the important details right:
What, this movie covers a whole year? Doubt it. NBC, here's a clue: The 3rd Millennium and the 21st Century both start on January 1st, 2001. Why don't people get it?
--Joe--
Re:They're just targeting the only market they hav (Score:1)
Don't forget PBS and NOVA
That's my $(2^4*3+1/7%3*2/100)
Re:How I see it... (Score:3)
I just wanna know about my VCR, dammit! (Score:1)
Is that thing about setting it back to '72 real or just an urban legend?
Not that I ever really tape anything on the timer...
==============================
Windows NT has crashed,
I am the Blue Screen of Death,
I'm not so sure Y2K will go off without a hitch. (Score:1)
Why wouldn't anyone think this could happen? It's happened before, and it didn't take much. People are buying a spending at a staggering speed, never thinking of slowing down.
BTW I'm not an economist. If I'm totally wrong, say so. But I believe it's gonna happen.
Y2K (Score:1)
So when was "one" then? (Score:1)
There never was one. Nobody said, oh, this is year one now. People in the Roman empire were saying it's 753 Ab Urbe Condita.
We are celebrating, I believe, the 2000th anniversary year of Jesus' birth, as calculated wrongly sometime in the 500s by a monk called Dennis. We're actually too late for the real thing since he was probably born in about 4BC. Not that anyone knows for sure exactly when, but it certainly wasn't 1AD. And even if it was year 1, Jesus would have had his 1st birthday in year 2. Totally un-birthday like, in which you do normally start at zero... (unless you're Chinese, I think) Oh, and too bad if you're an atheist, or a Jew or an Muslim, or a Hindu etc etc.
Bleah. What a schemozzle. There's no good reason for picking any year to be year one. It's just an arbitrary starting point. Why shouldn't we celebrate reaching 2000?
Re:I'll watch it anyway... (Score:1)
Re:More to Y2K than most of you know (Score:1)
Apparently, this movie is about as firmly rooted in reality as Hogan's Heros was.
Actually, not being able to drop the control rods wouldn't be the worst thing to happen if this occured. When a nuclear reactor is fed cold water (relative to the current water temperature), the reactor will produce more power. It has to do with the water's density, and the fact that denser water thermalizes more neutrons, causeing more energy to be released. The best thing to do would be to dump hot water on the reactor. Granted, all of my theory comes from Navel nuclear plants, but the temperature seemed to be off by an order of magnitude. Also, the reactor looked to be unpressureized. What happens to water at four thousand degrees at one atmoshere of pressure? The steam generated would probably cause a large enough explosion to level everything in the evacuated area (ten mile radius).
Oh well, I guess that it wasn't too bad of a movie-of-week. But then again, what does anyone actually expect from a movie-of-week?
Re:NBC get your facts straight. (Score:1)
Well, they can... but for those of us who are clued in, it certainly makes them look like morons, and misrepresenting such things to the general public is a pretty poor and unprofessional thing to do.
Re:y2k and slashdot (Score:1)
Re:It's not the technology, it's *people* (Score:2)
> example, if people think banks will collapse, they'll take all their money from the banks -- causing them
> to collapse. If they think phone is not gonna work -- everyone will pick up the phone to make sure
> it works, etc. etc. So in this way, the disaster becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And this is why I am
US/N.America centric as usual. Look at the big pic (Score:4)
It's not the US east coast which will get hit by Y2K first. There's NZ, Asia, Europe and a few hours then only US east.
If the North Americans keep an eye on the rest of the world they'll have hours of advance warning of things to come.
Of course people like me who are in 3rd world countries won't have much problem with Y2K, despite what those _anal_ysts say. Why? Coz we're used to things failing in the first place. Power outages, water outages, traffic light failures, bank computers going down- we encounter these often enough to know how to cope and how not to expect too much from technology. We're not like that US Judge who couldn't believe a defendant's claim that the traffic lights were all green. Our judges would go "Yeah, those set of lights are terrible".
When things fail, it's people you have to rely on to get things moving. If people in general don't panic or freeze up, then I don't think it'll be catastrophic.
I'm sure some things will go down. So pray for those poor people behind the power plants, water plants, working their fingers to the bone to get things back up.
I sometimes worry that if say powerplant engineers
If you think about it, it's a miracle how a million things actually work and I can read slashdot 8000 miles away
Re:The REAL Y2K problem (Score:1)
Another is to ask people whether they will hold a large celebration on their 49th birthday (the beginning of their 50th year) or on their 50th birthday (the end of their 50th year).
The last day of this year may be a lot of things that are well worth celebrating (or being concerned about), but the end of the millenium/centruy is not one of them!
Re:WHAT IF EVERYTHING THAT COULD GO WRONG DID?!@@# (Score:1)
Back in march I left a job I had with a motorcycle importer. This company had been manufacturing fuel injected V-twins since 1993.
Since I was in the parts department I was usually the first line of defense for those owners who didn't get what they wanted from the dealer network.
I recall that one day early in February getting a call from a really worried customer. he had called his local dealer to find out if his fuel injected motorcycle was Y2K compliant
He wouldn't take his dealer's word for it and it took a great deal of time for me to convince him that 'No, we don't need to test your computer, it doesn't use dates.'
commercial time (Score:3)
Re:Is it just me... (Score:1)
I can't say as for the reactors in the US, but I asume the still use rods. And Chernoble was built the same way.
Actually, Chernoble was human error, they were doing a routine test (kinda like Apollo 13....) and the worker took out the rods a little too much (note: the reactor was already overheating, evidently the engineer in command wanted to get the test out of the way anyway).
Then again, I might be totally wrong....
That's my $(2^4*3+1/7%3*2/100)
Re:Y2k at CMU (Score:1)
..No. Haven't they told you?
All matter is composed of Atoms. Every Atom (in the Relevant Market) has a K-shell. Since the K-shell can only hold two Electrons, the K-shell cannot possibly represent a four-digit year correctly.
Therefore, ALL Atoms (excluding Hydrogen and some Helium ions) are Y2K "NOT OK!"
THEREFORE, ALL ATOMS will crash, as the power necessary to keep elctrons in their orbit will fail, and they are driven towards their protons, resulting in millions of simultaneous atomic reactions that will reduce Earth to plasma by 01/01/00 00:00:00.00000012GMT
_______________________________
Reiner Wolfcastle to star! (Score:1)
this in the wake of "Mary, Mother of Jesus" (Score:1)
Oh well, at least The X-Files is on...
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this space left intentionally blank
My mom is watching the movie. HAHA (Score:1)
It's so fake it will probably have a fake ending, "YAy, the nuclear wasn't really mealting, it was just the computers sending false messages!"
Whatever. Take it easy. Have some food on hand for 2000. Couldn't hurt. Computers aren't irrational, people are.
the Y2k Bug is Human... (Score:1)
I know of at least three countries whose respective national guards have been told they won't be able to take recreational leave between December 1999 and March 2000. For fear of riots, crime waves, and armed militia cults who think that the Day of Judgement comes with the new Millenium (which if I'm correct, actualy begins in 2001?).
The networks aren't helping anything. These movies aren't based on reality and play on the fears of the majority of the population, who don't understand enough about what the "Y2k bug" is to make intelligent decisions. Some caution is warranted, obviously, but not this hysteria.
If you take all of your money out of the bank, the bank WILL fail. If you buy six months' groceries in December, obviously there WILL be food shortages in January. And if people start looting and sacrificing animals, society WILL fall into chaos.
A request to NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, HBO, and the rest: please save your crappy Y2k doomsday movies for Summer 2000!
Hackers are in an interesting position. Y2k may not be so bad for us if tons of poorly written software has to be recoded. Can you say 'stock options'?
Good 'ol Y2K (Score:1)
Argh! everyone panic!
Re:Dawn of the millenium?!? (Score:1)
I think Kaa's Law applies here. (don't you?)
Re:How I see it... (Score:1)
Re:WHAT IF EVERYTHING THAT COULD GO WRONG DID?!@@# (Score:1)
Had to see it, I guess.
Re:Good 'ol Y2K (Score:1)
I'll watch it anyway... (Score:1)
"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."
Free Speech (Score:1)
We will know afterward whether NBC made a wise decision about airing the movie, when the ratings come out.
NBC must be hurting for ratings or something. (Score:1)
Genetic engineering and Y2K (Score:1)
It seems like everyone has a Y2K song (Score:1)
http://www.teleport.com/~botielus/index.html/Y2
The lyrics:
http://www.teleport.com/~botielus/index.html/Ly
Y WORRY 'BOUT Y2K
http://www.artbell.com/y2k.html
Good ol' NBC for you... (Score:1)
Who says you can't begin counting at 0? (Score:1)
But from a mathematical standpoint, 0 is the obvious startingpoint when you are dealing with length. Thus viewing time as a dimension and projecting it into one of our 3 dimensions, leaves you with a timespan with a set length. Look at a ruler. You'll find yourself measuring the length by starting at 0. This is the mathematically sane way to go about it. Why make it complicated, just because we "didn't have 0 before"? Mathematically, we should start at 0 anyways. It isn't like there didn't exist anything before year 1 you know.
You may say year 1 is the first year of our history, big deal. That doesn't mean the rest of us are morons, idiots or obtuse. It just means you feel you need to pick on others to make yourself superior, which is really pitiful. You are probably one of those who'll look up the word 'obtuse' in one or more dictionaries, and point out why I shouldn't have used that word in that context. You are probably one of those who fails to see the obvious, and endlessly debates it. You could never be wrong could you?
It was a funny note though.
- Steeltoe
Re:I'll watch it anyway... (Score:1)
My roommate spraypainted his keyboard so that the letters wouldn't mess up his dvorak. Then
for an added touch he spraypainted the mouse along with it.
Rather interesting mixes of black and green!
Microsoft rant (Score:1)
Re:0F things I learned from Y2K: The Movie (Score:1)
10: When the power fails, lights go off one at a time, in timed sequence. Ditto for lorge-scale blackouts.
Re:How I see it... (Score:2)
Reminds me of a little radio show called War of the Worlds.
Re:X-files? (Score:1)
Re:The REAL Y2K problem (Score:2)
Thus, one millenium changes in a few weeks, and another changes in a year and a few weeks, and several others won't change for hundreds of years (like on the Muslim and Jewish calendars, etc.).
Re:The REAL Y2K problem (Score:2)
Translation in C, C++, Java, or Javascript is left for as an exercise for the reader, but approaches the trivial.
Yes, it's possible they'll just use it without thinking, and yes, that's what got us into this mess. But if they use it without thinking, we'll be fine. And if they do think about it, then that's at least a step in the right direction.
Here's a couple questions for you: considering the struct tm's definition of tm_year in so many languages
Re:Nitpicking idiocy (Score:2)
When people measure time, they start from zero. Go ahead, ask anyone how many years old a newborn baby is.
Accepted principles, my ass! They aren't accepted by the 99% of the population who will tell you that we're a little over a month from the change of the millenium.
NBC get your facts straight. (Score:3)
Even if you accept the fact and basis that all computers in the world will have problems (which they won't), you can't make false statements about Power plants that are not true.
In the movie they mention that a certain Nuclear Power Plant may have problems... Their reason that they can't shut it down is because even if they did "It would have to cool down for five days...".
This is a load of trash.
There are numerous mechanical systems that will stop the system in an instant. In Canada's CANDU reactors, the control rods are above the reactor held by magnetic fields. If there is a power disruption then the fields release and the rods drop Immediately stoping the reaction. The reactor may still be "hot" and very hot at that, but there is not more reaction. Not only that but NO more reactions can occur. The control rods absorbe all of the neutrons so that the reaction can't possibly proceed.
My point is that you can't take everything that they put in this movie seriously. This is just on example of an error that I am aware of.
nachoman
cdail@email.com
Re:The REAL Y2K problem (Score:2)
I'm not sure this rampant innumeracy is as annoying the rampant illiteracy of the Thousand Asses:
Curious: why are you all so certain? (Score:2)
We are all computer people. We know them, understand them, love them. We learned almost immediately the old GIGO rule and when we are faced with a problem that stems directly from the GIGO rule we simply make jokes and jeer at people who may believe otherwise. The incessant immature nature of many of the posters here honestly makes me wish for Y2K's worst possibilities to strike with impunity.
Right now I can go out and pull in pages and pages of testimony from experts in the fields affected by Y2K who say it will not be this cakewalk that so many of you stand upon your little soap boxes and pontificate upon. Listen folks, if an earthquake in a small Asian country can affect chip prices in the US and abroad, what would something like a small piece of software whose job it is to correctly manufacture those same chips do if it failed because of unforseen Y2K issues?
I am not saying Y2K will be a disaster. I am more talking about your blind assumption that because the majority of the world may fear it then they must be wrong. I am here to tell you folks that the majority of ther world does NOT fear it. In fact, they jeer it.
I have not seen one iota of proof from any of you that it will not happen, yet I can pull in reports from many people who work for the affected companies who have real concerns. Just because Linux will not suffer does not mean that others will not. No one here mentions the supply chain issues that will be the real problem. Sure, all of VA Systems may be compliant and may be open for business on Jan. 1, but will the companies who make all the parts they use be open? If one part becomes unavailable then perhaps VAS looks elsewhere for that part. What if that part is available at another company who charges more now that they know that they can. Prices go up. Tell me that you don't mind that.
All I ask is that the standard "here is another crazy, baseless Y2K thing to laugh at" mentality stop and be replaced with thoughtful discussion. This isn't theology here where we are discussing the existence of heaven or hell or the consequences of our actions here on Earth. We are discussing more tangible things that have an immediate affect. Stop playing Quake and take a moment to at least intelligently discuss the issue.
I challenge Slashdot to actually discuss the issue and moderate the baseless masses who just post "lAmEr" responses. Let's find someone in the know and submit questions to them. Sci-fi authors are great to read interviews from, but let's do something else for a moment. Don't be afraid to confront someone who makes it their job to study the problem.
Myxx
An insiders view (Score:2)
No, we are not going to see anything like the movie. At worst there will be things like rolling brown-outs and spotty system glitches. That's just in the US, though. Most of Europe is in the same situation but the rest of the world will see MASSIVE problems with power, communications, utilities, etc., systems. Nothing totally disastrous, just very annoying and inconvenient. (If you have money in any off-shore banks you might want to think about moving it.)
Anyway, it'll be an interesting time between Jan 1 and (probably) the end of March.
Oh, and for the record, we have 406 days as of 11/22/1999 'till the new millennium. That was probably the one good part of the movie, when the wife mentioned that the new millennium starts on Jan 1, 2001!
---
Eppur si muove (Score:3)
I have little doubt that, as you have written, "99% of the population [...] will tell you that we're a little over a month from the change of the millenium [sic]". Does one care? Returning to Galileo, the whole world can jolly well stand up and claim that heavier things fall faster than lighter things, but does that in any fashion whatsoever alter the nature of reality? Of course not. They'd simply be wrong.
Majority rule is irrelevant in matters of pure, hard mathematics. You cannot lobby your way into changing the fundamental laws. You can only deceive yourself and others, as so many appear to have done. Reality ignores you. There is no vote. There is no court. And there is no appeal. Cold, stark reality is no democratic institution subject to the superstitious folly of one's fellow moron. Thank God.
But then again, why should we believe people who can't even manage to figure out how to spell millennium, let alone understand why that difference is critical for discerning years from asses? :-)
Per your perspicacious suggestion, gladly would I inquire of a newborn's mother whether her child was now in his zeroth or his first year of life. (Mothers are quite sensitive to these things, and it was clever of you to make you witty proposal.) The answer all would give, of course, is that on his first day of life, that newborn has also commenced his first year of the same. You know this is true. And if you do not, you have but to ask. Try your own experiment.
I should be further delighted to ask a mother of a child of 24 months how old her infant is, and whether he's about to celebrate his second or his third birthday. And I hope you're there with me, for then would you see that each and every one of these happy women would be quick to report that her child was about to celebrate the completion of his second year, and thus would be celebrating his "second birthday". And in all likelihood, not just a few of these fine mothers would quietly or unquietly consider you a touch daft that you would even begin to imagine holding a third birthday party at the end of only four and twenty tender months of life.
The inability to reason has never been a trait hard to find in the muddling masses. This millennial matter is merely yet another clear demonstration of their collective inability to grasp numbers--or, given the profligate orthographic transgressions as evinced by your own posting, words as well.
And remember: The world wouldn't need so many nitpickers if there weren't so damned many nitwits.
Re:this in the wake of "Mary, Mother of Jesus" (Score:2)
This one [imdb.com] was shown last night. There is also this one [imdb.com] and this one [imdb.com].
Re:So where is Banks written Y2K gurantee to me? (Score:2)
We do put it in writing... our clients are insured up to $25 million in each account.
And since when is a publicly held firm an "authority"?
I have already made my preparations, thank you. The champagne and whiskey is already bought!
Re:The REAL Y2K problem (Score:2)
That means this year is still 1999, since the year 1 AD/CE and the year 1 by the astronomical dating system are the same year. But the first denarius was minted by the Romans in 268 BC/BCE, but -267 by the astronomical dating system.
Millenium means "1000 years". 1000 years from the year 0 (1 BC/BCE), the starting point of the astronomical calendar, is the year 1000 AD/CE. 1000 years from that is 2000 AD/CE.
OTOH, 1000 years from the start of the common calendar, which begins at 1 AD, is 1001 AD/CE. 1000 years from that is the year 2001 AD/CE.
I am frankly amazed that I would have to post this follow-up to Slashdot. Apparently the poster quality is dropping like a rock -- anybody who's ever done even a hobbist level of programming is familiar with counting from zero. Apparently we've sunk to the knowledge level of Wired.
Re:How I see it... (Score:2)
"OMIGOD these sandwiches are not Y2K compliant! For the love of gawd call the CDC"
Self-fulfilling Prophesy (Score:2)
What we and people in the banking industry are preparing for right now is the self-fulfilling prophesy; that people are going to run on the banks whether there are problems or not... just in case. So just about every bank is forbidding the majority of their employees from taking vacations at that time. The thought is also that a large number of people will be calling their banks, bokerages and checking ATM's right after midnight to just make sure everything is ok.
If they have a lot difficulty getting through, that might cause a bit of a panic.
Re:Nitpicking idiocy (Score:2)
This is a flawed analogy.
Enumerate your fingers for example. You have ten of them regardless of whether you use 1 or 0 as the origin.
Re:25 interesting things that you learn... (Score:2)
Re:Good ol' NBC for you... (Score:2)
The Y2K coverage by the networks is sponsored by the government so that people will be more accepting, even grateful, when the government 'saves' everyone by declaring martial law and putting us all in labor camps on Jan 1.
Any Y2K problems will be caused by:
A. Panicking hordes set off by a 30 second power outtage.
B. Terrorists or Religious whackos blowing shit up.
C. The goverment turning off the power so they can declare martial law, suspend the consititution and get rid of all of those damn free speech nuts.
Any actual techincal problems will be with the 20 year old government system or the IRS 386 win3.x systems.
Kintanon
How I see it... (Score:5)
Every natural disaster, there's a select few who plan to take advantage of it. Rodney King verdict, looters/riots, every earthquake/evacuation leaves some whacko behind with the intention to take all of his neighbors' belongings and make them his.
To sum up, what I fear about Y2k are the idiots that are PLANNING on it. Maybe some things will go down, maybe not. But the people who've been planning to riot root and rob for the past six months, well, who's to say that the power staying on is gonna stop them?
Maybe there ought to have been more forethought in the making of this movie. I don't condone censorship, but its creators maybe ought to have thought better than to overdramatize a moment that's already going to have at least a few people in a far overdramatic state as it is.
Furthermore, why do they feel the need to make a movie/show on something that MIGHT happen? It's only speculation. Yes, I know that's what most movies are made of, but I can't see this having a good effect on the generally uneducated populace.
I'm done.
Re:More to Y2K than most of you know (Score:2)
I watched it for 5 minutes during a break in the X-Files, and the part I caught was totally unrealistic. In particular, I saw the beginning of the 'thermal runaway problem' in the reactor. The graphics displays were cornball 3D images, and they couldn't lower the control rods from the control room, so they were all in a big panic. Of course, in a real reactor all they have to do is trigger one manual override and drop the control rods in by hand. Apparently, this movie is about as firmly rooted in reality as Hogan's Heros was.
...phil
Re:The Real Ending (Score:2)
It's not the technology, it's *people* (Score:4)
While we may be ok on the technology side, you just never know what people are gonna do. For example, if people think banks will collapse, they'll take all their money from the banks -- causing them to collapse. If they think phone is not gonna work -- everyone will pick up the phone to make sure it works, etc. etc. So in this way, the disaster becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Here is an interesting historical fact:
Some time in 1500's it was predicted that the end of the world was coming that year. Thinking that the end is near, the peasants stopped planting crops. As a result, many people died of starvation. Does anybody else see the parallel with Y2K?
Media and Technology - cultural obsession (Score:2)
Y2K has and will become "popular" because it embodies a threat many consumers already feel. Yes, the potential demons live in their own home - on their kitchentops as microwaves, and in the sockets on the walls. Media constantly capitalizes on people's innate fears - so it is natural that a TV series would be produced around this theme. Actually I'm rather surprised there hasn't been *more*.
On the flipside the media portrayal is positive because although it shows an improbable (maybe) Y2K situation, this series seems to show human ingenuity triumphing over technology. This is what people really want to believe (and, is largely true - though human ingenuity with new modern techniques). So in a way I think this helps to aleviate panic, not perpetuate it. Yes, it may be innacurate, but I say anything is good that makes people feel more comfortable with technology
-Seth
MSY2K (Score:4)
Joe Morton ("The Astronaut's Wife" with Charlize Theron and Johnny Depp), Kate Vernon ("John Woo's 'Blackjack'"), Lauren Tom ("Friends") and Ronny Cox ("Deep Blue Sea," "Forces of Nature") also star.
Dick Lowry ("Mr. Murder;" NBC's "In the Line of Duty" movie franchise) directs from a screenplay by Thomas Hines and Jonathan Fernandez ("Crisis in the Kremlin"). David Israel, executive producer of last season's critically acclaimed NBC movie, "Mutiny," and the four-hour NBC thriller, "Pandora's Clock," the third highest-rated miniseries (behind "Asteroid" and "The Odyssey") of the 1997-98 season, is executive producer of the presentation from NBC Studios.
Steve Balmer (Olin) is a complex systems failure expert, an independent consultant working on the government's "Z2" (think zero, zero) project to insure that the new OS (W2K) is DOJ compliant.
As the minutes tick down to the new anti-trust decision, a concerned Balmer counsels caution, persuading his boss, the evil Mr. Gates , who heads up the program, to ground all planes before midnight because they are not compatible with the comapnies new operation system.
As Mr. Balmer watches and waits, clocks around the world begin to strike 12 a.m., bringing the United States closer to learning what the Micros~1 evil empire is all about.
As the millenium dawns in North America, most of the Eastern Seaboard enjoys major relief from the formely opressive molopolist. But the worst is yet to come.
Mr. Balmer must stay ahead of the unpredictable MS2K bug as it spreads across the United States threatening everyone, including his own family on the West Coast. While simple computer error is at the heart of the potentially catastrophic problems, Mr Balmer must use old-fashioned monopoly tactics if he is to save the day in this race-against-time action adventure.
Paraphrase of response to hoax-gone-by ... (Score:2)
Y2K will re-write your hard drive. Not only that, but it will scramble any disks that are even close to
your computer. It will recalibrate your refrigerator's coolness setting so all your ice cream goes melty. It
will demagnetize the strips on all your credit cards, screw up the tracking on your television and use
subspace field harmonics to scratch any CD's you try to play.
Y2K will give your ex-girlfriend your new phone number. It will mix Kool-aid into your fish tank. It will drink
all your beer and leave its socks out on the coffee table when there's company coming over. It will put a
dead kitten in the back pocket of your good suit pants and hide your car keys when you are late for work.
Y2K will make you fall in love with a penguin. It will give you nightmares about circus midgets. It will
pour sugar in your gas tank and shave off both your eyebrows while dating your girlfriend behind your
back and billing the dinner and hotel room to your Discover card.
It will seduce your grandmother. It does not matter if she is dead, such is the power of Y2K, it
reaches out beyond the grave to sully those things we hold most dear.
It moves your car randomly around parking lots so you can't find it. It will kick your dog. It will leave
libidinous messages on your boss's voice mail in your voice! It is insidious and subtle. It is dangerous and
terrifying to behold. It is also a rather interesting shade of mauve.
Y2K will give you Dutch Elm disease. It will leave the toilet seat up. It will make a batch of
Methanphetimene in your bathtub and then leave bacon cooking on the stove while it goes out to chase
grade-schoolers with your new snow blower.
Disclaimer: I can't seem to find the original author of this message, but s?he deserves a lot of credit. This is hilarious
A summary (Score:3)
A nuclear power plant in Switzerland blows up. The lights go off in France, one at a time. Jay Leno tells some awful jokes, and New York celebrates Y2K. The power failure must have been caught in traffic, because it took 30 seconds for all the lights to go off.
The Eastern seabord loses power, with a lame explanation from the hero. A hax0r chick talks to her friends on AIM, picks on her little brother, and then leaves for a party. The last fact is forgotten by the little brother because he has no idea why she left later on.
Something that looks like part of the movie turns out to be a Wendy's ad. The main characters obey the rules of computer cliches for a while. Some guy with weird hair points out that some nuclear power plant in Washington is going to melt down "and send jets of plutonium into the sky".
The news shows actual journalistic integrity and chooses not to report anything since they don't have enough facts. Washington is evacuated, except the chick and her friends are too drunk to notice. Random violence ensues during the evacuation.
They shut down the power plant, which involves pulling a scram switch which apparently has no effect because they have to send men in radiation suits to run around and look important. Alarms sound. The hero decides that he has to run through the radiation and turn some knobs, without a radiation suit.
The knobs don't work either. He runs out of the plant unharmed. He concocts a brilliant plan that makes no sense whatsoever, but involves blowing a lot of things up. He saves the day. He is reunited with his wife, as well as his daughter (the hax0r chick) who happens to be walking by at the time. A feeble attempt at a cliffhanger is made. The screen fades out to the executive producer's name.
--
The scary thing... (Score:2)
who will watch this and believe it. The stupidity
of people never ceases to amaze me.
Just put this movie in the same category where
you'll find Cops or Jerry Springer: shows that
make me feel embarassed to be an American.
They're just targeting the only market they have (Score:3)
Now the most intelligent TV watchers wouldn't bother with the silly networks (except for maybe the Simpsons and the X-Files, and I have doubts lately about the latter), when there is such meaty fare as A&E, Discovery, the Learning Channel, the History Channel, etc.
So who is left? You guessed it. Stupid people.
The networks have always targeted the lowest common denominator, but with cable, the Internet, and that perennial favorite of mine, books available there just aren't as many people watching any more.
Does anyone remember "The Day After"? Does anyone remember that they dramatized the aftermath of nuclear war without really showing some of the worst effects? Do we really expect any better from organizations that have edged out shows like "A Current Affair" and "Hard Copy" with their own Network News.
Do we really expect any better in a world where "Mystery Science Theater 3000" has been cancelled?!
Let's face it, it doesn't matter that NBC is showing some silly, wildly inaccurate story about y2k, because if people were interested in really becoming more informed, they would be. Most people are willing to sit back and be spoon-fed most things and the networks are happy to oblige (to wit: the tripe passing for news most of the time). After all, if the audience doesn't really care about the facts, why should they?
Oh, well.
Re:I just hope.... (Score:2)
Besides which, didn't Pope Gregory (who I assume most non-Catholic Christian Apocalyptic Cultists would consider a tool of the Anti-Christ) eliminate a certain amount of time from the calender? Maybe it's the Eastern Orthodox new year that's going to be the Day of Judgement....
'Left Behind' is a pretty good book, as are the other 4 books in the series so far. Also, it can't have contributed to any kind of apocalyptic ferver as it doesn't give any dates. It's completely tim neutral. It has 1995-1999 technology, but that doesn't say anything about the actual date. I can't see how the book would cause uninformed apocalyptic hysteria... At best it would cause mass conversions to christianity, which I can't see as a bad thing.
Kintanon
y2k (Score:2)
The best is the missle that lost it's trajectory, and *just* misses impact with the city. Great Stuff.
Of course, we all know Y2K is going to be MUCH worse then everyone is suggesting. (said with dripping sarcasm.)
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Re:It's not the technology, it's *people* (Score:2)
I'm more concerned... (Score:2)
Or am I stupid?
Wait, don't answer that last question.
----------------
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein
Re:0F things I learned from Y2K: The Movie (Score:2)
This is because the speed of electricity is actually only about 70 mph. So we can watch as the buildings run out of electricity one by one, even down to running through a cooridor just as fast as the lights go out! >:)
Kintanon
Bank Poilcy: (Score:2)
There is however, a law that a bank my hold a check from a customer for up to 10 days... just to make sure it clears and everything.
But this is left up to individual bank policies. While the FDIC is fully insurnig Y2K concerns for the banks. Banks and tellars are required to be open.
Here is a Y2K policy being taken by a bank I deal with a lot:
Withdrawals over $200 require a picture ID.
$3,000 maximum withdrawal for the drive through. For larger withdrawals, you have to come in and sign a special notice stating you are informed of the dangers in carrying large amounts of cash around.
For withdrawals over $25,000 they are requesting 24 hours to insure all branches will have enough. People who need it immediately are welcome to go to their home office.
People wanting to withdraw their entire life's savings will be heavily dissauded... but there is not much they can do about it.
Born int the U.S.E. (Score:2)
would you like to play a game? (Score:2)
-> THERMONUCLEAR WARFARE
w-o-u-l-d y-o-u l-i-k-e t-o p-l-a-y a g-a-m-e-?
-> THERMONUCLEAR WARFARE
O-K.
O|X|O
------
O|O|X
------
X|X|O
-> NO! YOU STUPID FSCKING MACHINE! I SAID THERMONUCLEAR WARFARE! NOT TICTACTOE!
[WHUMP WHUMP BANG BANG CRUNCH CRUNCH]
-> THERE. SUCK ON THAT YOU OVER-GROWN TOASTER.
--
The Real Ending (Score:2)
slashdot ate my subject (Score:2)
People have no education on the situation -- a special on things that WON'T go wrong....
---
This MOvie Was Horible, I couldn't look away (Score:2)
-Crutcher
Re:0F things I learned from Y2K: The Movie (Score:2)
Actually D is closer to being true that any of the others. The easter seaboard does have a very low power reserve with a lot of its power being routed in from Canada. That is why in the big snow storms of '93 and '96 the power companies had to institue rolling blackouts. They didn't have enought fuel at dome of the power plants, and with a couple down trying to run the full east coast load would have overloaded the remaining ones and and knocked all power offline.
Theortically caught by suprise one big plant going down could overload a few more plants and when they go offline overload the rest.
The original author is Michael Mehra. (Score:2)
That's why there's no URL here or anything. But replace "Y2K" back to "Good Times" and ask Deja News for the earliest match it can find.
--
Review at wired.com (Score:2)
Sounds like even within the genre cheesey made-for-tv disaster movies, it doesn't rank too highly.
-
<SIG>
"I am not trying to prove that I am right... I am only trying to find out whether." -Bertolt Brecht
Isn't NBC Taking a Risk? (Score:2)
Also, I'd think twice about running such a neo-Luddite movie, if I were an executive at a broadcast network. Wouldn't this increase the risk of the Script Kiddies attacking them?
--
Dave Aiello
Re:geez (Score:2)
...phil
Irresponsible (Score:2)
If anything does happen at New Year's and people do panic/riot I think NBC oughta be liable for inciting a riot. It's absolutely the most idiotic thing anyone has ever thought up.
Re:y2k and slashdot (Score:2)
...phil
Re:How I see it... (Score:3)
Geesh, I knew that you shoudn't log on as root, but putting it on par with rioting and robbing...
That's extreme in my opinion.
:)
-Joe
Sophist! (Score:2)
"Eppur si muove," eh? What moves? There is nothing there to move. There is no fixed physical point from which we must measure time. There is no physical reality of any kind to the date system.
When you ask a person's age, you do not get a reply of which year they are in, but how many full years have passed since their birth. When you look at a clock, it tells you how many hours have passed since midnight/noon (with 12 representing zero, and replaced by zero in modern revisions). The only common counterexample is the days of the month. Most people measure year dates by the "obscure" astronomical calendar which counts from zero.
Popular errors of language are not errors. Language is convention, our system of dates is a part of our language. Popular use is correct use in the modern living language. If "experts" use it differently, then that is just their jargon.
In similar vein, if 90% of people spell it "millenium" that makes it the correct spelling (if it's more like 20-80%, it's a competing valid form), just as if people pronounce the word nuclear as "nuke-yu-lar", use "literally" to add emphasis to an analogy (I particularly dislike this one, but it has become so common that stopping it would be like fighting the tide), or say "snuck" instead of "sneaked". Any objection that "that's not how they used it (last year|100 years ago|2000 years ago)" is as invalid as a demand that the word "electron" be used only to refer to pieces of amber, and not these newfangled subatomic particles. These things belong in footnotes of reprints of old books and in dictionaries marked "archaic."
I believe the current popular definition of "millenium" would be "a) a period of one-thousand years or b) the thousands digit in the year date." So people are celebrating the Big Digit Rollover and correctly calling it the change of millenium. Similar definitions apply to century and decade.
I spit upon your kind, you pathetic nitpicker, pedant, and sophist, who sits there as smug and sure as the scientists who daily usurp words in common use and bully the populace into adopting the new meanings (calling them fools all the while), knowingly destroying the meanings of old texts far more quickly than the innocent mistakes of journalists, politicians, and authors.
Idiocy about language. (Score:2)
Would you also ridicule me for calling the sky "bleu", "aoi", "blar", or "synthva"? It would depend on which language we're speaking, wouldn't it?
Individual proclaimation is not popular use.
This is dangerous. (Score:2)
Re:what me worry? (Score:2)
Source of 25 interesting things that you learn... (Score:2)
http://www.vertigo.org/cliche1.html#computers
Not surprising (Score:4)
That said, I don't entirely share the view that y2k will pass without a hitch. The interesting thing to me about y2k is that no one really knows what's going to happen. Those predicting widespread disaster and the collapse of civilization are bound to find the rollover anti-climactic, but the simple truth is no one knows what to expect.
I do think problems directly due to technology are likely to be the least of our worries. The biggest problems will be second-order effects. Some people worried about failure of banks or the stock market will take their money out, which is actually a pretty good way to stimulate the collapse of banks and markets. Even people who don't fear the y2k bug will have enough fear of the herd mentality that they join the stampede.
Since governments are increasing the money supply to deal with increased withdrawls, and presumably would close banks if things got out of hand, outright failure of banks is unlikely. Similarly, for every person frantic to dump his or her stocks there will be someone else grateful for the bargain (I will be one of them :-). So worldwide economic collapse seems unlikely, but there will probably be some effect. No one really knows how much.
Also a concern are all the nuts out there who expect the end of the world or the collapse of civilization, and opportunists just waiting for a good occasion to loot. Again, no one really knows what to expect, since most of the kooks are keeping their plans to themselves.
As for me, I won't be stocking up on ammo, but just to be on the safe side, my y2k celebration will be strictly limited to technology available in 1900. Anyone have an old Victrola I could borrow?
Lighten up! (Score:3)
From what I'm hearing from the majority here, I suspect slash dotters would have harped on Orson Welles' radio production of "War of the Worlds" in a similar manner (although I don't mean to overplay the Welles comparison -- I highly doubt tonight's movie will have anywhere near the class that Welles did)
So what if we all know that the Y2K bug won't spell doom and disaster like many in the general public seem to think. I think the scenario is just too good to *not* make a story out of. I would have preferred a comedy, though -- I think the comical effects of random everyday items failing and causing distasters would have been quite fun.
The REAL Y2K problem (Score:5)
This meatware bug will cause widespread problems in the community. During 2000, there will be a lot of arguments between people about which century that 2000 is in. It will cause riots in Los Angeles, shootings in the American Midwest, arguments on Oprah, a lot of bar fights everywhere, and general violence in many places throughout the world.
Sure, there will be a few computer problems during 2000 as a result of software not being fixed, but society will not come to a screeching halt. But the year 2000 will be a frustrating time for those right-thinking people who know that 2000 is in the 20th century and not the 21st, and who have to explain to the witless again and again. It promises to be about as much fun as banging one's head against a brick wall.
Meanwhile, I release under the GPL my patch for the Y2K meatware problem, thus:
Y2K Meatware Patch V.1.02
1. Grab a small number of objects - a few coins, buttons, matches or other small objects. Ask your subject to count them out loud one at a time. Note the first number they use; it should be "one" (1) and not "zero" (0).
2. Repeat once or twice for a set of different objects. They should use "one" as the first label for each.
3. Ask why they always start at "one" and not "zero" when counting.
4. Explain that years are counted the same way, and that if the first year of the first century was 1 AD, then the first year of the 21st century must be 20 centuries or 2000 years later, making the first year of the 21st century 2001 AD.
If that doesn't work, then here's another method to try:
Explain that years were (and in some cases still are) labelled using Roman numerals because Arabic numerals weren't introduced into Europe until about the 12th century. Ask them what the Roman numeral for "zero" is.
--
Check out the unofficial Y2k theme song (Score:2)
------------------
Re:ingenuity?! (Score:2)
25 interesting things that you learn... (Score:5)
Be sure to keep an eye peeled for these and other interesting things which NBC is sure to teach the public.
(I'm afraid I don't know the source of this list, so I can't give credit, but if anyone knows, then please speak up!)
Chris
Re:war of the worlds (Score:2)
---
Re:The REAL Y2K problem (Score:2)
ROFL!! This is about the BEST y2k solution I have heard to date! Yknow, I hope NBC blows up on 01-01-00
Er, thats 01-01-2000.
SLAM! (another y2k bug squashed!)
======
"Rex unto my cleeb, and thou shalt have everlasting blort." - Zorp 3:16
0F things I learned from Y2K: The Movie (Score:5)
2: The control rods in nuclear power plants care what year it is. The SCRAM button doesn't work anymore in 2000.
3: Ditto for the cooling pumps.
pi: All the gauges in the control room might think everything's okay, but that doesn't matter because "the computer might also think it's 1900." What, nuclear reactors were built stronger back then?
4: When in doubt, tap the gauges: that will make everything ok.
5: 31337 hAxORz use AOL Instant Messenger.
6: 31337 hAxORz like to listen to music that says "I hate my life" over and over.
7: They fixed Apollo 13 using nothing but a hammer.
8: Acetylene and oxygen burn in a 1:1 ratio.
9: It's perfectly alright to walk around inside the containment building of a hot nuclear reactor.
A: Water can cool a nuclear reactor from 4500 degrees without boiling or even getting warm. A corollary to this is that no matter what the core temperature is, the rest of the containment building stays at a nice, cool 72 degrees.
B: Altitude gauges on aircraft care what date it is.
C: Trig calculations can be performed simply by drawing circles on a sheet of notebook paper.
D: If one power plant goes down, the entire eastern seaboard goes with it. Note that the power grid is neatly divided into time zones: We can't get help from the Central time zone, because that would be cheating.
E: All soldiers are too stupid to tell whether a shotgun was fired into the air or directly at them.
F: When in doubt, blow something up to save the day. You get extra credit if there are a lot of big sparks.
Well, that movie was fun _and_ educational! We should make it part of the science curriculum!