I chose Y2K, but the real nerd apocalypse is this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

That said, it's been written by Computer Scientists, so they just call it a "problem" like true pessimists.

It's actually the *NIXPOCALYPSE!

Y2K as a geek/nerd and working as a SQA tester.

Not yet. The Mayan y2k isn't for a few hours yet, it's either late tonight or early in the morning on Saturday.

I want to know why everyone thinks that the calendar rolling over to a new cycle means the end of the world? I mean, unless they're all just angling for some great end of the world parties... in which case sign me up

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I don't think so - but it really fubared a lot of sites. Seems like a bigger impact than Y2K. >> ^ant:

>> ^dag:
No Amazon. We use these guys. http://www.maxcdn.com/ >> ^ant:
>> ^dag:
Works great from here in Oz. But it's a CDN ... So that means nothing. Is it Ok now? I know you're in SoCal - so you and @lucky760 should be on the same node.

Hmm, it seems OK. Wait, is this CDN using Amazon too that other web sites are having problems with like Reddit, Yuku, etc.?


Ah. I hope they don't have a leap minute bug like Reddit is having right now: https://twitter.com/redditstatus/status/219244389044731904 ...

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Those are some damn good ones. Let's see who does better. As for December 21st, @Boise_Lib - I predict that nothing will happen å la Y2K, but some people will still freak out and the media will fan the flames. There will be a big anti-climax let-down feeling when January 2013 rolls around. But there will be a large natural disaster in early 2013 that will be ascribed to the Mayans. By crazy people.>> ^longde:

1. The Koreans will start a kerfuffle that will define the 2012 elections like the Iranian Crisis defined the 1980 election.
2. The Chinese economy will contract, adding tension to the growing US/China trade war.
3. Putin will attempt to increase the autocratic controls in Russia, because next year's Russian elections will badly weaken his party.
4. To keep the Euro afloat, the EU countries will move closer to a federal system.
5. Mugabe will die. The western powers will attempt to install a figurehead and let foreigners confiscate the land.
6. There will be a major terrorist attack within the 3 months leading up to the US election. It will be instigated by domestic terrorists.
7. If the election starts to looks like a blowout weeks early, like last time, Obama or his family will be attacked on the campaign trail by domestic terrorists.
8. The Amazon tablet family will erode Apple's market share. Amazon will announce a smartphone.

Hey, thanks for taking the time to explain. Much appreciated. Rock on, srd. :-)


In reply to this comment by srd:
Well, this explanation is what happens on the hardware level, i.e. in the wiring inside the CPU. On the software side you can emulate the carry-over by allocating several pieces of memory and checking bounds and doing carry-over manually. So you're manually programming around the hardware constraints.

Trouble here is, the programmer has to anticipate that the given constraint isn't sufficient for the use case and needs to be worked around. For scores this was obviously the case. For the levels, I'm pretty sure that noone ever really anticipated that someone would go through 255 levels of pacman.

It's basically the same expectation management on a human level that brought us the fear of the Y2K problem.

Well, this explanation is what happens on the hardware level, i.e. in the wiring inside the CPU. On the software side you can emulate the carry-over by allocating several pieces of memory and checking bounds and doing carry-over manually. So you're manually programming around the hardware constraints.

Trouble here is, the programmer has to anticipate that the given constraint isn't sufficient for the use case and needs to be worked around. For scores this was obviously the case. For the levels, I'm pretty sure that noone ever really anticipated that someone would go through 255 levels of pacman.

It's basically the same expectation management on a human level that brought us the fear of the Y2K problem.

He was right on the money, a regular NostroFuckinDamus. Nobody listned in 1999 because we all knew the banks computers would all go blank from Y2K syndrome.

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It's Y2K.. 11!

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Hmm ten years ago I was 20. I worked at Krogers, and attended some community college. I had already racked up about 20 hours of music classes. I was depressed all the time and still in love with a married woman who I met in college and had a relationship with the year before. I had to work at Krogers that new years of the y2k bug and when we closed for the night I ran down the aisles "yelling its the end of the world!" That June I turned 21 and fell in love with a co-worker who was 17.... obviously that relationship was doomed from the beginning. I got another job at the mall selling sunglasses I was the manager. One of my employees committed suicide out in the parking lot one night. This was right after me and the 17 year old had broken up for the second time and I was now twice as depressed. I made it through that and ended up sleeping with one of my friends at the time who is now my wife. Not long after we started dating 911 happened. We were together for a while and I stopped "being careful" and we eventually came to the conclusion that I couldn't have kids... in 2003 we were proved wrong. In 2004 my son was born on a very rainy day in the afternoon but we had picked the name Noah months before. Having no job prospects we went to live with her mom and I floated through two jobs. The second job the company closed down and I landed another in the IT dept thanks to my brother in law where he works. And that leaves me to right now I just bought a house in July and Im attending community college again to get my associates.

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I spent Y2K in a nuclear hardened bunker.

2000 was a big year for me. Had a baby boy, began my life in Australia in earnest - lost a lot of money (stock options) in the dotcom crash.

The years until 2005 were a bit of a blur, I remember the peaks and troughs, but that's it. Bought a house, changed jobs a couple of times, climbed the corporate ladder.

At the end of 2005 something clicked- I wanted out. We sold our house and most of the stuff we own. I quit my job and we bought round the world ticket for the family. We spent the next 5 months backpacking - went like this: L.A, Las Cruces, NM, Alaska, Vancouver (Lasik), Ireland, Girona, Spain, Osaka, Japan Bangkok, Thailand and then back to Australia- pretty much broke.

In 2006 I rented a little office with a friend who was working on a motorized skateboard thing. I didn't know what I was going to do, but we were paying rent, and we had a bar fridge stocked with Coronas. I started plonking away on my laptop - and VideoSift was launched on February 16th 2006.

Aside from the birth of my son- the highlight of my decade was VideoSift - still feels great to be part of something like this. I've also changed jobs a couple times, taken a few overseas trips, moved house way too many times and watched the kids grow.

A decade ago I was wondering if Y2K was really going to bring down the world's computer infrastructure. I was several months into a serious relationship wondering how it would turn out. I was in community college as an uninterested business administration major wondering if I'd actually see it through. I was working in a great little company with a decent little job.

As of the end of this decade, Y2K is a joke, I'm married to that wonderful girl who turned out to be my soul mate, I changed majors to earn a BS in computer science, and I'm still at that little company enjoying every day I have the privilege to come to work.

Among the best things to happen for me this decade was being asked to come aboard this great little site I discovered called VideoSift.

I raise my glass to you @dag, James Roe (wherever you are), @siftbot, and the entire Sifter community. Auld lang syne and all that... Cheers!