It made me lose some respect for my cousin... and baffle at the fact that he works IT. Thankfully he's usually a smart man. Just not on this occasion.
I recall him telling us once some time in 1999 that it wasn't just the date rollover thing....
He said that the vibrating crystals in the CPU's would all run out of whatever lets them vibrate around the 2k changeover, rendering all computers inert....
and he honestly believed this....
He was ... about 23 or 24 at the time, old enough that he had his certificates and whatnot needed to work as an IT tech guy, and he believed this.
And the conversation led me to believe that he got this information somewhere.. and thus other people believed it.
Even at 19 I knew it was horseshit... still baffles me when I'm reminded of it.