William Donzelli wrote:
11 years ago, I pointed this very fact out to
"journalists" who were
convinced that Y2K was all a scam to pad IT budgets because "nobody
would have gone to that much trouble to save 4 bits (00-99 fits in 7
bits, 2000 fits in 11 bits) even in the 1950s.
While it was not a scam, it certainly was used to pad IT budgets.
I would argue the public aspect of the issue was a scam.
The people who needed to know, knew already.
The public hype around the issue was overblown and unnecessary.
Remember the various experts and consultants railing about how microwave ovens
and cars and anything with a microprocessor in it (things that didn't even know
about the date) were going to fail?
I still have the bulletin from the government mailed out to every household in
Canada to prepare everyone for Y2K: a fine example of public folly.