Action. The Y2K Fund (now retired) contained the following projects:

• VCR2: "Make and distribute a videotape with packaging that claims it will 'scan any VCR for Y2K compliance.' When played, the video should show how, in the name of progress, of the future, of the Year 2000, corporations have permanently crippled public transportation, destroyed ecosystems, evaporated leisure, and are now again attempting to profit at the expense of our health, with genetically engineered food: these are the real 'Y2K bugs.'"
  This project was in fact accomplished, by the "Y2K Preparedness Committee," an anonymous group of videographers, who distributed it by reverse shoplifting to many video stores, where it warned countless shoppers of the perils of VCR Y2K incompliance. Unsuspecting viewers found themselves questioning whether any of the technology they use--car, dishwasher, computer, even food--was "Y2K compliant"--i.e., whether it lives up to corporate promises of enhanced social welfare through widespread technology usage.
• WARO: "Create a simulated but realistic radio news broadcast that urgently reports systems failures and the ensuing panic that results from the Y2K bug. In the spirit of Orson Welles' 'War of the Worlds,' broadcast and netcast the program on or near the day of January 1st, 2000."
• DEAD: "Assume the identity of Y2K man, a superhero who destroys computer systems in an effort to stave off the dreaded Y2K problems and save the world from that impending disaster. Must have an appropriate costume and be featured on television news to collect payment."
• 2KOK: "Get as many websites as possible to alter their html on or after Jan 1, 2000. Pages become unreadable, gibberish, or have a javascript alert telling viewers that this website is not y2k compliant and informing them of the dangers of non compliancy, followed by directions on shutting down their computers. A concerted hacker effort to alter major sites would be required. Code for voluntarily changing or altering your site could be cut and pasted from rtmark's site or sent out in email."
• ST2K: "Print up little round stickers with the words 'NOT Y2K Compliant' in the shape of happy and sad faces and then sticking them on all manner of objects; parking meters, produce, Bank Machines, birdhouses, cat litter, you name it!"
• LLAM: "Advertise Llama delivery service to compete with Fedex, UPS, Postal Service. Publicize damage that large-scale near-instantaneous delivery does to the environment, and point out the benefits of the pack-animal alternative. Play up Y2K fear with a tag line along the lines of 'When it absolutely has to be there after doomsday.' Must get television coverage."

Definition. Perhaps the clearest ®^TMark analysis of the problem is to be found in three PowerPoint^TM presentations, which were bolstered by widely-seen advertisements:

• Millennium: what might it mean to my business? gave several reasons to be concerned about the impending date change.
• ®^TMark and the Y2K "Bug" described ®^TMark's response to the bug.
• Finally, Y2K ist so geil! (Y2K is so cool!) showed that Y2K was, after all, a computer problem.