About My Job: The Y2K Programmer and the Systems Administrator

by Conor Friedersdorf

A reader writes:

On December 31, 1999, I along with programmers around the world sat apprehensively in front of my TV watching the date roll starting in the far east.  As each hour passed, and cities still had power, I became more elated.  We had done it!  I think if you had asked most programmers coming up on the date change, we were confident of our company's efforts but not sure whether other companies had accomplished their goal.
 
To hear people refer dismissively to...