Random Thoughts

[Rhizomorph13]

Yeah. I was in IT at the time. I went in to work (3 sites) on a Sunday to check everything.

I was a reworker at Radisys working on Intel multibus boards. These were running in power plants and sundry other industrial equipment. The Y2K threat was real because BIOS back then would only index the last two digits so imagine a power plant thinking that the generators hadn't been serviced for 100 years! They would have been unable to turn them on. Around that time I spent lots of hours at work erasing e-proms and loading different firmware into them because they still used UV erasable ROMS. I knew enough kooks back then that were hoarding chicken and other bullshit prepper things like buying generators. sheesh

[arewethereyet]

Yeah. I was in IT at the time. I went in to work (3 sites) on a Sunday to check everything.

I was a reworker at Radisys working on Intel multibus boards. These were running in power plants and sundry other industrial equipment. The Y2K threat was real because BIOS back then would only index the last two digits so imagine a power plant thinking that the generators hadn't been serviced for 100 years! They would have been unable to turn them on. Around that time I spent lots of hours at work erasing e-proms and loading different firmware into them because they still used UV erasable ROMS. I knew enough kooks back then that were hoarding chicken and other bullshit prepper things like buying generators. sheesh

Not being terribly techno-savvy, even I understood the reason for concern regarding dates and how they were coded.

What still baffles me is the hoarding of toilet paper and paper towels because of a respiratory illness.  

I suppose I can understand the lack of cleaning/disinfectant products and antibac soaps but the stockpiling of TP is a head scratcher.

[onlinebiker]

Yeah. I was in IT at the time. I went in to work (3 sites) on a Sunday to check everything.

I was a reworker at Radisys working on Intel multibus boards. These were running in power plants and sundry other industrial equipment. The Y2K threat was real because BIOS back then would only index the last two digits so imagine a power plant thinking that the generators hadn't been serviced for 100 years! They would have been unable to turn them on. Around that time I spent lots of hours at work erasing e-proms and loading different firmware into them because they still used UV erasable ROMS. I knew enough kooks back then that were hoarding chicken and other bullshit prepper things like buying generators. sheesh

There's nothing dumb about buying a generator. 


It's only dumb if you pay too much.

[Rhizomorph13]

I was a reworker at Radisys working on Intel multibus boards. These were running in power plants and sundry other industrial equipment. The Y2K threat was real because BIOS back then would only index the last two digits so imagine a power plant thinking that the generators hadn't been serviced for 100 years! They would have been unable to turn them on. Around that time I spent lots of hours at work erasing e-proms and loading different firmware into them because they still used UV erasable ROMS. I knew enough kooks back then that were hoarding chicken and other bullshit prepper things like buying generators. sheesh

Not being terribly techno-savvy, even I understood the reason for concern regarding dates and how they were coded.

What still baffles me is the hoarding of toilet paper and paper towels because of a respiratory illness.  

I suppose I can understand the lack of cleaning/disinfectant products and antibac soaps but the stockpiling of TP is a head scratcher.

I read an article about that specific response and it doesn't make sense but that's why it makes sense. The gist is that the news about this virus is triggering a fight or flight response and since you intelligently know you can do neither of those you are left with this need to do something, anything, to show your preparedness and protect the things that matter to you. This manifests itself in buying all the soap, buying all the TP (maybe because there were rumors that covid-19 is a poopy cold), or even hoarding cooking oil! Seriously the TP makes more sense than mass buying cooking oil!

[Succubus#2]

There's nothing dumb about buying a generator.

Not until scared hungry people hear it or smell it. Those people will assume, not unreasonably, that you are also well stocked with food and water and they will come and take it.
No doubt you'll manage to pop a few caps in their asses but before the day is out you and your family will likely be dead.
A better idea would be stay in the cellar with a few candles eating you stockpile of food and wait till the power returns.

[arewethereyet]

There's nothing dumb about buying a generator.

Not until scared hungry people hear it or smell it. Those people will assume, not unreasonably, that you are also well stocked with food and water and they will come and take it.
No doubt you'll manage to pop a few caps in their asses but before the day is out you and your family will likely be dead.
A better idea would be stay in the cellar with a few candles eating you stockpile of food and wait till the power returns.

A generator is a better bet if you live in a rural area that gets damn cold winters...or at least did in the past.

I have spent five days in a freezing house with no power.  A generator would have been much appreciated.

[Succubus#2]

Not until scared hungry people hear it or smell it. Those people will assume, not unreasonably, that you are also well stocked with food and water and they will come and take it.
No doubt you'll manage to pop a few caps in their asses but before the day is out you and your family will likely be dead.
A better idea would be stay in the cellar with a few candles eating you stockpile of food and wait till the power returns.

A generator is a better bet if you live in a rural area that gets damn cold winters...or at least did in the past.

I have spent five days in a freezing house with no power.  A generator would have been much appreciated.

For random outages while society is still functioning then a generator is indeed a bloody good idea but in a universal power outage following some sort of catastrophy, not so much.

[onlinebiker]

There's nothing dumb about buying a generator.

Not until scared hungry people hear it or smell it. Those people will assume, not unreasonably, that you are also well stocked with food and water and they will come and take it.
No doubt you'll manage to pop a few caps in their asses but before the day is out you and your family will likely be dead.
A better idea would be stay in the cellar with a few candles eating you stockpile of food and wait till the power returns.

We will know about maurading hordes long before they get to us.....

They don't stand a chance.

...

Besides - we aren't worried about the end of the world. Just the frequent power outages.... I would give it a 40% chance we will lose commercial power in the next 48 hours. 

We have high wind warnings.... That frequently does it - trees into the power lines...

[DodosAreDead]

I really wish I was around to see the Y2K panic, but with the knowledge from the future that nothing actually happened. Would've been fricking hilarious

[Rhizomorph13]

I knew at the time nothing was going to happen and it was weird seeing people with crippling anxiety over literally nothing. The tech sector was able to spring to action to fix all the things. A similar weird thing was 2012 only that was much more stupid.