Time Bomb Y2k

[DanaK]

Quote

As the clock counts down to the dawn of the 21st century, the world faces the largest potential technological disaster to ever threaten humanity. The problem is comically simple yet incredibly complex - a bug that could cause computers to misinterpret the year 2000 as 1900, sowing chaos throughout the world as electronic systems failed. Crafted entirely through archival footage, TIME BOMB Y2K (12/30) is a prescient and often humorous tale about the power and vulnerabilities of technology. By re-appraising both the cooperative efforts and mass hysteria surrounding this millennial milestone, this film explores how modern life has been dramatically transformed by the digital revolution.

Premieres on HBO on December 30, time to be announced, and streams on Max

[DanaK]

Time of premiere is 10pm ET

Full press release http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2023/12/12/hbo-original-documentary-time-bomb-y2k-debuts-december-30-538315/20231212hbo01/

Trailer

 

[SoMuchTV]

I've been in IT for 20+ years on each side of Y2K,  and remember a lot of the technical concerns well, so I was interested in seeing this.  It turns out... I'm not sure what I expected, but this wasn't really it.  It was basically a collection of clips of everything from concerned programmers to doomsday preppers, with a lot of "man-on-the-street" types.  I was hoping for more of the inside technology side of things, somehow.

I did get a chuckle at the irony of the new year's baby in the onesie that said something like "New Millennium baby 01-01-00".  Have we learned nothing, people?  How will future civilizations know if that baby was born in 1900, or 2000, or 2100...?

[DanaK]

6 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I've been in IT for 20+ years on each side of Y2K,  and remember a lot of the technical concerns well, so I was interested in seeing this.  It turns out... I'm not sure what I expected, but this wasn't really it.  It was basically a collection of clips of everything from concerned programmers to doomsday preppers, with a lot of "man-on-the-street" types.  I was hoping for more of the inside technology side of things, somehow.

I did get a chuckle at the irony of the new year's baby in the onesie that said something like "New Millennium baby 01-01-00".  Have we learned nothing, people?  How will future civilizations know if that baby was born in 1900, or 2000, or 2100...?

I was a programmer too, for the Federal Government. We fixed our issues a few years before Y2K and then I watched the stupidity of the media worrying on the eve of 2000 about what could happen because they forgot to ask the tech people how they fixed things. And of course the preppers went berserk. This was a reminder of the clueless stupidity of people expecting a meltdown when the problem had been fixed a few years before because people did end up taking the problem seriously. At least the program covered the opinion that right wingers were trying to profit from the fear (nothing changes right?)

Edited January 3 by DanaK