To ask what it was like to experience the change from 1999 to 2000?

[2020newstart]

Just that really. I was 10, so don't remember much. But oddly I do remember 9/11 all this talk about the new decade makes me wonder how it was like going from 1999 to 2000? If you're old enough to remember, how was the celebration? It must have been so weird writing the year 2000 on forms when you've been used to writing 19.. since you were born

Some pedants, like me, pointed out that a new century begins with Year 1, not Year 0, so the 21st century wouldn't start until 2001
No one was interested

That'll be me - I spent much of 2000 arguing that the new millennium hadn't started yet...😃
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/21st_century

It was like any other NYE, but there were more public events going on. My friend and I went to a lot of the local ones and it was fun. But really, it wasn't a whole lot different to any other year.

I remember being very disappointed that the bug hadn’t wiped out my overdraft and credit card balance. I also remember Prince being played a lot. Other than that, there wasn’t a lot of difference.

A bit dull really.

DH was in IT, he said he had to do a lot of work prior to it.

Not "wrong" Gin - just recounting my experience.
Maybe it was different in different parts of the country (or World) ?

Myself and future DH both worked in IT for a 999 service. We both worked the millennium watching servers tick over to 1/1/00. We'd both patched everything to the hilt and were geared up ready to pounce in case of disaster. We really had no idea which way it would go but then click... nothing happened. Geeky to say but I was sooo proud of my servers

We were lucky, at least we got to be together for such a momentous non event!

I was 20. Went to a crap NYE party in an effort to feet to know Uni pals better instead of one with my old friends. There was some genuine concern about the millennium bug so the atmosphere was a bit gung ho. Probably my age but I was generally underwhelmed 😂

In general computer systems developed during the 1990s will have been built to cater for the year 2000. It was those older systems built during the 70s and 80s when disk space and computing power was at a premium and every byte counted that were problematic. Dates would be held in a YY rather than a YYYY format ie 79 instead of 1979.
I worked on one where the year was held as a single digit and the decade was hard coded.

No one imagined those systems would still be in use fifteen or twenty years after they were implemented hence they were not designed to cater for the millennium.

The wheel wasn’t even finished which was an anti climax (although it is a fantastic addition to London) and everyone in London wanted “homes not domes”, which of course would have been a much better use of our money. I will never set foot in the dome.

DS was just a few months old. We had a house party and a friends daughter, 14 at the time, entertained the littlies while the adults ate and drank. I didn't drink much though. Was probably one of our better NYEs.

Remember watching the party in the Millennium Dome and when it came to Auld Lang Syne, the Queen didn't cross her arms and just held the hands of those either side of her looking a bit weird. Think it may have been Tony Blair.

I went to a house party, snogged the boy I liked, drunk far too much and generally had a great time.

I was 17.

Once the clocks ticked past midnight and the power stayed on, no millennium bug, it wasn't really that exciting, tbh.

The predicted y2k computer virus failed to materialise
Because a lot of people did a lot of work to mitigate it. It wasnt a hoax
I was working in IT at the time (specifically Import/Export Trade and associated banking for trading and payment systems etc) and although it is true there was work done to mitigate any potential issues for Y2K, by far the greater work, in that particular area, was to prepare systems for the adoption of the EURO across banking systems the year before (but no one at the time seemed to think that was as important, or potentially disastrous 🤷‍♀️). Anyway, no difference whatsoever between 31/12/99 and 01/01/00. As a prolific traveler at the time, much bigger shift in how I viewed the world, as PPs have said, came after 9/11.

There is another ‘millennium bug’ type thing coming up but I’m buggered if I can remember what it is now.
It’s something to do with how computers store data.

Year 2038 bug. To do with UTC dates.

Lots of hype but much the same really.

Massive anticlimax

Bit of an anticlimax really. We went to a party and watched the fireworks on telly.

I do remember thinking as a child that at 42 I would be far too old to enjoy the moment when it happened

Not from the London Eye though as, although that was made for the millennium, it wasn't ready. I think it was lying on its side, ha ha!

It wasn't ready but it was definitely upright as they raised it the previous September - I remember seeing it on BBC World while we were on our honeymoon.

Also, at the beginning of the (very lovely) summer of 1999 we used to drink on the Tattershall Castle and the Queen Mary pub boats opposite. When the wheel first arrived on its side we were like "what the bloody hell is that?!" as we'd not heard anything about it. I love the London Eye and conquered my fear of heights because I so desperately wanted to go on it.

Anyway I'll shut up now.

Actually the biggest anti-climax was the Blue Peter time capsule!

I must have mixed up two separate events in my mind then as I was sure I saw the wheel start turning at the millennium celebrations. But I guess we must have gone to see that another time!

Oh no I just googled it and I wasn’t imagining it! They did start turning it at midnight that night, but there were no passengers on it until March 2000 due to technical problems!

Massive anti climax, I was 24.

It was the best New Year's ever. Amazing party and atmosphere. I was 22. We went to a party at the Kensington Roof Gardens, very swanky and a real experience for me. Saw in the new year in style and was very excited to see if the y2k bug would materialise! Best night ever which I shall remember for ever.

I was 12, and what I remember most was my mobile phone network (Orange I think) went funny and gave me free calls for 3 hours after midnight. I had no credit on my phone but I was able to call people, and so was my brother, so we called everyone we knew to say Happy New Year.