2024-01-01 03:26:01
As the year 2000 approached, exaggerated theories emerged about the IT consequences of the turn of the millennium. The catastrophe predicted by sects and conspiracy theorists never took place, but correcting the problem – changing the digits so that machines would not estimate that they were in the year 1900 – cost billions and required the attention of governments around the world. Spain was no exception.
As it later emerged, the Spanish president at that time, José María Aznar, launched an emergency plan in case the feared collapse occurred. Among the measures were the reduction of supply power to 60% in the Spanish nuclear power plants, the increase in the health workforce that night and the establishment of a special group that was on guard in the secret facilities of the presidential residence.
A team – made up of around twenty officials from key ministries to ensure the continuity of basic activities in the country and chaired by Francisco Álvarez-Cascos, first vice president of the Government – spent New Year’s Eve in the bunker of the Moncloa Palace supervising that everything worked as it should. The group designated as the 2000 Transition Office remained in contact with other cabinets in the ministries, government delegations, autonomous communities, companies in strategic sectors and with the monitoring organizations that they established. United Nations and the European Union for the occasion.
The consequences of the Year 2000 effect
Assisted by the complex’s communications technicians, Francisco Álvarez-Cascos and his group remained on alert until the early hours of the morning. By videoconference, the group shared the toast to the year 2000 with the members of the ministerial emergency committees and even took the traditional grapes. Before one in the morning, the President of the Government, José María Aznar, appeared in the room and thanked everyone for their efforts. As was already evident, it was not going to be necessary to implement any of the planned emergency plans and the vice president of the Government ordered those present to leave at 3:30 a.m. A checkpoint stayed there until the arrival of the year in NY (six in Spain).
Set of buildings and institutional complex ABC
The electronic apocalypse was the most remote scenario of those proposed, but world governments contemplated public order problems caused by computer failures, such as a major blackout. In fact, that night there was one in the old town of Barcelona that lasted 15 minutes and had no serious consequences. Furthermore, in the rest of Spain, minor problems were detected in two nuclear power plants –Zorita and Garoña–, in some gas stations and in the traffic data collection system. Specific, some parking meters failed that they simply rejected tickets for cars parked before midnight.
The 2000 Effect was the name given to the software error caused by the habit that programmers had adopted of omitting the century in the year for storing dates (generally to save memory), assuming that the software would only work for years whose names begin with 19. The foregoing would have the consequence that after December 31, 1999 it would be January 1, 1900 instead of January 1, 2000.
The 2000 Effect was the name given to the software error caused by the habit that programmers had adopted of omitting the century in the year.
And although billions of dollars were invested in preventing incidents, several minor errors occurred at two nuclear power plants in Japan, the massive failure in 150 Delaware Slot Machines (USA), problems with credit cards worldwide and imbalances in the digital dates of various systems.
Even so, the consequences of the Y2K effect were far from the dimensions claimed by those who wanted to see signs of the end of times in a mere computer error. A ruling similar to the one that supposedly will take place in the year 2038 (known as Y2K38), which, in the opinion of several computer experts, could cause a part of the software to crash. Specifically, the issue affects programs that use the POSIX system-based representation of time, which is based on counting the number of seconds since January 1, 1970 at 00:00:00 (ignoring leap seconds). . And just like in 1999, no one knows for sure what effects it could have on 32-bit systems once the counter passes the deadline of December 31, 2038.
The Moncloa bunker
The main promoter of the underground facilities of the Moncloa Palace was the former president of the Government Felipe Gonzalez. With the present memory of the attempted coup d’état on February 23, the head of the Executive was looking for a complex that would allow members of the government to protect themselves from a possible crisis and coordinate the State’s response with the armed forces and other government entities.
The works were carried out by the Dragados companywhose employees had to sign all kinds of confidentiality clauses – since these facilities were classified as “official secret” – and it is estimated that they cost around 60 million euros, although the specific figure is unknown. The bunker, protected by a three-meter-thick concrete layer, is capable of resisting a nuclear attack and can house nearly 200 people on its three floors, where they could resist isolated from the rest of the world for several months.
The entrance to the facility is located in one of the administrative buildings of the Moncloa Palace and is connected to the rest of the buildings in the complex through a series of underground tunnels. Fortunately, it has never had to be used in a disaster or emergency situation beyond New Year’s Eve. Francisco Álvarez-Cascos and his team took the grapes inside.
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