What does a "2000 fix" mean?

[Porter Wayfare]

Greetings,

Somewhere on this site I ran across the recommendation to read Piloting and Dead Reckoning by Shufeldt and Dunlap. It was a great book! Methodical, clear, wry. It shows how to interact with charts in a dynamic and meaningful way. Hey! More fun!

Twice in the book he mentions having enough information for a "2000 fix," but nowhere explains what a 2000 fix is. I just did the Google on it and didn't get anywhere. What does it mean?

Porter

[Captain Smollett]

Hi Porter,

Since no one else is offering a better answer, I'll take a stab.

Could he have been meaning the time of the fix, one done at 8 pm?

In a 'traditional' four hour watch cycle, the watch change at 20:00 starts the "evening watch," and it would be SOP to record a DR position or fix at the watch change.

[Oldrig]

I'm with John on that. I haven't read the book, but the standard way of writing times in 24-hour notation is without any colons. It would make sense to take a fix at 2000.

--Joe

[Porter Wayfare]

Duh!!! Thanks you guys.

[lenseman]

Greetings,

Somewhere on this site I ran across the recommendation to read Piloting and Dead Reckoning by Shufeldt and Dunlap. . . . . Twice in the book he mentions having enough information for a "2000 fix," but nowhere explains what a 2000 fix is . . . . .

The above book was written in November 1999 and at the time there was huge concern that the 'Millennium bug' was going to effect all computers at the start of the new century.

http://www.amazon.com/Piloting-Dead-Reckoning-H-Shufeldt/dp/1557506833

It has nothing to do with 'taking a fix at 8pm' (2000Z).  Fixes are taken at Noon 1200 UTC (Noonsite) not at 2000.


.

[Oldrig]

The above book was written in November 1999 and at the time there was huge concern that the 'Millennium bug' was going to effect all computers at the start of the new century.

http://www.amazon.com/Piloting-Dead-Reckoning-H-Shufeldt/dp/1557506833

It has nothing to do with 'taking a fix at 8pm' (2000Z).  Fixes are taken at Noon 1200 UTC (Noonsite) not at 2000.

Wow, I'd forgotten about the Great Year 2000 Bug Hoax. What a load of ##@#%!

--Joe

[Godot]

Wow, I'd forgotten about the Great Year 2000 Bug Hoax. What a load of ##@#%!

--Joe

I wouldn't call it a hoax. There was an honest, serious concern. Nobody knew what was going to happen, and companies spent millions and millions of dollars preparing for it. I was sitting in a data center on January 1, 2000, and after months of prep work, everyone breathed a sigh of relief when no serious systems took a hit. Months and months of firmware updates, code changes, programmers working all hours. We still had some low criticality systems go screwy, which we ended up just taking offline until new systems could be procurred (some of our servers were rather ancient, sadly).

[Captain Smollett]

The above book was written in November 1999 and at the time there was huge concern that the 'Millennium bug' was going to effect all computers at the start of the new century.

http://www.amazon.com/Piloting-Dead-Reckoning-H-Shufeldt/dp/1557506833

It has nothing to do with 'taking a fix at 8pm' (2000Z).  Fixes are taken at Noon 1200 UTC (Noonsite) not at 2000.


.

A boat's position can be fixed at whatever time the skipper/navigator does it.  1200 may be 'traditional' in ideal circumstances, but it's not written in stone.  For example, pilotage fixes are obtained all the time.  Also, anyone running GPS is essentially getting a continuous fix (or one whenever the GPS is turned on, etc).

"Noonsite" suggests celestial, but this is not specifically a CelNav book. 

Do you happen to have the book or can you provide quotes that support the notion this has anything to do with Y2K? 

I never dreamed a book titled "Piloting and Ded Reckoning" would have anything to do with a computer programming glitch.  It's doubtful to my mind that a book hoping to provide any meaningful Y2K solutions would be published in November of 1999 anyway.

[Captain Smollett]

I wouldn't call it a hoax. There was an honest, serious concern.

True, but some of the coverage was way overblown.  Airplanes falling from the sky?  Good grief.  Were all the pilots going to instantly and simultaneously die at the stroke of midnight?

It was hyped beyond rationality.

[Godot]

I wouldn't call it a hoax. There was an honest, serious concern.

True, but some of the coverage was way overblown.  Airplanes falling from the sky?  Good grief.  Were all the pilots going to instantly and simultaneously die at the stroke of midnight?

It was hyped beyond rationality.

Shoot. What isn't hyped beyond rationality now-a-days?

The 24 hour news cycle...One of the reasons I don't watch television.

[Captain Smollett]

The 24 hour news cycle...One of the reasons I don't watch television.

You and me both.  One of the reasons...

[SalientAngle]

a ten second sound bite will never provide clarity on any issue... avoid television news (in particular fix news and anything associated with Rupert Murdoch) and seek refuge in discovering the entire story in print journalism... do not shoot the messenger, I for one agree with Thomas Jeferson:
"If I had to choose between government without newspapers, and newspapers without government, I wouldn't hesitate to choose the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers, and be capable of reading them.?
Just my opine. cheers

[Godot]

a ten second sound bite will never provide clarity on any issue... avoid television news (in particular fix news and anything associated with Rupert Murdoch) and seek refuge in discovering the entire story in print journalism...

No politics, please! Pretty please!

[SalientAngle]

a ten second sound bite will never provide clarity on any issue... avoid television news (in particular fix news and anything associated with Rupert Murdoch) and seek refuge in discovering the entire story in print journalism...

No politics, please! Pretty please!

mea culpa, the thread went to millenium, then to television, then to being labeled politics... very sensitive readers  8) and, that said, maybe we need to read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_politic
cheers, no harm intended, it is after all exestential as we await godot... -jim  ;)

[Oldrig]

I owe the group a "mea culpa," too, since I called the Y2K business a "hoax." But, as Jim says, "no harm done." No more politics from me--at least for a while.

--Joe

[CharlieJ]

As one of the programmers who did the code that caused Y2K. I can assure you it was not a hoax. Over hyped for sure but the potential was there for BIG troubles. I'll fill in more when I get onto a full keyboard instead of this IPhone.

[Captain Smollett]

I still want to know from someone that has this navigation book and can tell from the context if "2000 fix" refers to a navigational fix or if it does in fact refer to Y2K.

If the former, this whole thread has veered WAY off the rails.  If the latter, I'd like to hear more about what this navigation book has to say about fixing Y2K bugs....electronics perhaps?

I'm curious.

[SalientAngle]

I still want to know from someone that has this navigation book and can tell from the context if "2000 fix" refers to a navigational fix or if it does in fact refer to Y2K.

If the former, this whole thread has veered WAY off the rails.  If the latter, I'd like to hear more about what this navigation book has to say about fixing Y2K bugs....electronics perhaps?

I'm curious.

read the book, don't have a copy currently, but smollet, I believe it was just a "popular metaphor" and not related to the clock, $0.02, your mileage will vary, cheers

[SalientAngle]

I still want to know from someone that has this navigation book and can tell from the context if "2000 fix" refers to a navigational fix or if it does in fact refer to Y2K.

If the former, this whole thread has veered WAY off the rails.  If the latter, I'd like to hear more about what this navigation book has to say about fixing Y2K bugs....electronics perhaps?

I'm curious.

read the book, don't have a copy currently, but smollet, I believe it was just a "popular metaphor" and not related to the clock, $0.02, your mileage will vary, cheers

and, some might enjoy this journal article... http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=58987

cheers

[jotruk]

I can say this about 2000 fix it is used in the Navy and I have checked the fix on the chart many a time at sea.