Word: bug
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What a letdown. People were hunkering in bomb shelters, stocking up on canned food and cleaning out gun shops, but for what? When Jan. 1, 2000 rolled around, there wasn't much destruction as a result of the dreaded Y2K computer bug. A few minor glitches popped up here and there, like people in New York and Nebraska being charged over $90,000 for turning in rented videos late or the New York Times' automated phone system telling people that it was the Jan. 3, 1900 issue of the paper. Ironically, the homepage of the self-proclaimed "inventor...
While many now decry the media hype and billions of dollars spent on the Y2K bug when no major consequences have occurred, the early efforts were what prevented serious problems from occuring. We must remember that the precautions taken by government and industry enable us to sit here and complacently take everything for granted. So while the wood stoves slowly trickle back to the shelves of Home Depot and Sears, be thankful that you don't have to eat Vienna Sausages for dinner tonight...
However, such prescience was not to be. And so the world spent an estimated $600 billion to squash the bug that our great nation unleashed through its own programming ineptitude...
...lauding our government for spending even more money just to make sure its very own weaponry wouldn't accidentally launch? Why are we proud of the fact that many firms and even government institutions exposed themselves to security risks in their frantic race against the clock to fix the bug...
...shouldn't be patting our backs because we narrowly averted disaster; we should be screaming at ourselves for getting so close in the first place. Developed countries such as Italy spent far less than the U.S., and they did just fine. An Italian newspaper printed the apt headline, "The Bug Was a Dud; the Great Fear is Over; But Some Accuse: It Was a Bluff to Make Money...