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Y2K Sandglass

National Museum of American History

Object Details

TSR Hobbies
Description
One of the many computer companies offering products or services to assist with transitioning to the year 2000 was TSR, Inc. They provided “Catch 21” a Y2K software solution for IBM-based computer systems. Although Guardian Life Insurance Company did not use the software, they did use the TSR marketing gift, a three-minute sand timer encased in clear and blue acrylic.
Since the Y2K project had an unchangeable completion date, deadlines had to be met, decisions needed to be made without delay, and the people who could make high level decisions had to attend scheduled meetings. This sand timer was used at several meetings to reinforce these points. If given a response of “we need to get back to you,” the Assistant Project Director would set the timer on the table and give them until the sand ran out for a decision.
The project was completed on time and Guardian encountered no application outages or loss of business with the transition to the new millennium!
References: [last accessed 2019-09-23]
https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/tsr-inc-announces-retirement-of-chairman-ceo-joseph-f-hughes-2017-07-05
https://trsconsulting.com/trs-consulting-about-us/
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Thomas Mannix
1990s
ID Number
2004.3020.07
nonaccession number
2004.3020
catalog number
2004.3020.07
Object Name
Sandglass
sandglass
Measurements
overall: 10 cm x 4 cm x 4 cm; 3 15/16 in x 1 9/16 in x 1 9/16 in
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Computers
Advertising
Computers & Business Machines
Y2K
National Museum of American History
Subject
Y2K
Record ID
nmah_1271057
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ab-654e-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Related Content

  • 2000: A Year in the Collections

Y2K Sandglass
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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