From what I understand Y2K
was
a real threat, but thanks to heightened awareness of the problem most systems were checked and fixed long before Millennium Eve.
Of course Y2K wouldn't have been an issue at all if the systems that it affected weren't still being used 30 odd years later. But then you have scaremongering along the lines of planes falling out of the sky and nuclear missiles firing on their own and all because the software would think its 1900, not 2000.
The software was of course patched and somewhere around the late 1980s everything new wouldn't have had an issue when Y2K came along. It was primarily the legacy stuff. Of course we now have the pending Year 2038 "bug" which isn't a bug as such but more a feature.
From what I understand Y2K
was
a real threat, but thanks to heightened awareness of the problem most systems were checked and fixed long before Millennium Eve.
Of course Y2K wouldn't have been an issue at all if the systems that it affected weren't still being used 30 odd years later. But then you have scaremongering along the lines of planes falling out of the sky and nuclear missiles firing on their own and all because the software would think its 1900, not 2000.
The software was of course patched and somewhere around the late 1980s everything new wouldn't have had an issue when Y2K came along. It was primarily the legacy stuff. Of course we now have the pending Year 2038 "bug" which isn't a bug as such but more a feature.
Some people made a lot of money out of the Y2K bug, yes there were issues that had to be and were solved, but a lot of disproportionate nonsense went with it.
Another bug that went by without a murmur three months earlier was the DOS-4 issue, that meant systems couldn't go beyond 09:09 hrs on Sept 9th 1999. Keeping this on topic, ISTR Odetitcs automation systems were affected, but all of that was quietly patched in advance.
I had to make a flight to Germany on Jan 3rd 2000. I had to jump through no end of corporate hoops, and a man in Japan had to give approval for me to board the plane.
There will be problems of course, but many will be grossly intensified by unnecessary and irrational panic actions by the public. Darwinism will certainly come to the fore !
Of course the big difference is that work on fixing the Y2K bug started a couple of years before it happened.... planning for the imminent difficulties has been left very very late
Y2K was a defined, international problem that would primarily affect business, with one major worry being a stock market crash. It left lots of black box software in its wake in a rush for compliance. The teams often took credit for modernisation of software in general, yet at least one bank after the turn of the millennium was still using £sd internally for all transactions.
Whilst the public were largely ignorant of the work that helped prevent significant problems, the IT industry were very self-congratulatory, and Y2K wasn't the massive success it has been claimed to be.
One idiot of a protestor keeps ringing a bell in the background of Sky News. Whilst Kay Burley’s voice being drowned out might be a good thing, it’s making it completely unwatchable.
How about just sticking to studio? Sky and Kay seem to be trying to cause an incident/stunt/viral moment by camping outside when they know how these protesters are.
How about just sticking to studio? Sky and Kay seem to be trying to cause an incident/stunt/viral moment by camping outside when they know how these protesters are.
2008–09 Edit
In a 2008 interview with the former girlfriend of serial killer Steve Wright (the Suffolk Strangler), Burley was criticised for asking her whether if the couple had enjoyed a better sex life he would not have committed the crimes.[2]
Images from 2008 show Burley appearing to strangle photographer Kirsty Wigglesworth outside the Naomi Campbell hearing, which a Sky News spokesperson explained by saying "Kay Burley was provoked by a hard hit to the face with a camera."[16]
2010–11 Edit
In February 2010, Burley apologised to guest Peter Andre who "fought back tears" after she aired comments by Dwight Yorke who criticised Andre after he volunteered to adopt Katie Price's first child (and Yorke's son) Harvey. Burley wrote in her online blog that Andre consequently "sobbed on my shoulder".[17] Ofcom received 881 complaints from viewers, the majority opposed to the "intrusive" methods used by Burley; they found that Burley's interview was "persistent and probing" but not "bullying" or "intimidating".[18] Later on that month, Burley was forced to apologise on-air for offending Catholics when she joked that US Vice President Joe Biden, who had ashes on his forehead to mark Ash Wednesday, had a "large bruise" that he had picked up from "walking into a door".[19]
During the 2010 general election, Burley's interview with electoral campaigner David Babbs from 38 Degrees was criticised for "of bias and aggressive behaviour".[20] Burley said, in part:
“ The public have voted for a hung parliament. We have got exactly what we voted for ... so you marching down past Westminster today will make no difference whatsoever. ... Why don't you go home and watch it on Sky News?[21] ”
Ofcom rejected any complaints over Sky News coverage of the event, despite receiving 2,800 complaints.[20] Burley was subsequently heckled by protestors while reporting from College Green, who continuously chanted "sack Kay Burley", prompting Burley to say "Lots of demonstrators shouting 'fair votes now' – not sure what they mean by that" and "They don't like The Sun, they don't like us, they don't like Rupert".[22]
In September 2010, commenting on the News International phone hacking scandal, part of an exchange between Labour MP Chris Bryant and Burley went viral, whereby Burley asks Bryant to cite information claiming that phone hacking was "endemic" in other newspapers. Bryant did, accusing Burley of being "a bit dim"[23] and saying:
“ ...the Information Commissioner produced a report which if you had listened to the debate earlier yourself then you would know, or if you had read that report then you would see that he referred to more than 1,000 cases in various different newspapers. I think it was something like 800 – I've not got the figures with me now – 800 incidences in the Mail alone.[23] ”
Burley also falsely claimed that if he had changed his PIN, Bryant would not have been hacked. Bryant responded in an article for The Independent, saying that "My PIN had nothing to do with my phone being hacked. Someone phoned Orange, my mobile network provider, and tried to pretend to be me in order to gain access to my voicemails".[24] Bryant has since asked on air for Burley to apologise over the interview.[25]
2012–2015 Edit
On 5 October 2012, Burley was accused of insensitivity after she broke the news of the probable death of missing five-year-old April Jones live on air to volunteers who had been assisting in the search for her. The interviewees were unaware that the case had become a murder inquiry.[26][27][28]
2015–present Edit
During the 2015 general election, Channel 4 and Ofcom received more than 400 complaints against bias in their treatment against Labour leader Ed Miliband in favour of Conservative leader and Prime Minister David Cameron, including a "town hall" part of the programme which Burley moderated. Burley repeatedly questioned Ed Miliband about his relationship with his brother David, at one point telling him: "Your poor mother".[29]
In June 2015, Burley was criticised through social media for her interview of Nick Varney, the Chief Executive of Merlin Entertainments. This followed an accident on the Smiler ride at Alton Towers, which led to injuries for 11 of the 16 passengers. Responses to her behaviour dubbed it "disrespectful to everyone involved" and an "outright attack".[30] In response, Burley tweeted "For those concerned I was hard on Alton Towers boss, he'll get over it. Not sure those on his ride will be so quick to recover".[31] Her interview with Varney began a negative reaction over social media, prompting 1,816 complaints to Ofcom and also led to over 55,000 signatures on a petition to have Burley sacked.[32][33] Ofcom declined to launch a formal investigation into the interview.[34]
In March 2015, Burley repeatedly asked Cerie Bullivant of CAGE how he felt about the beheading of Western hostages by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. When Bullivant left the interview as he believed Burley's question to be "inherently Islamophobic and racist", Burley retorted that it was "nonsense", and told Bullivant to "get over yourself". This prompted 57 complaints to Ofcom, but no action against Burley was taken.[35]
Burley caused further controversy when, in response to the November 2015 Paris attacks, she tweeted a photograph of a Golden Retriever dog, to which she had added, "Sadness in his eyes #parisattacks".[36][37]
In 2018, during an interview concerning Boris Johnson's remarks about the burqa, Burley drew criticism when she used as an example the lack of visible facial expression of war hero Simon Weston, who had received severe facial injuries in the Falklands War.[38]
