12/20/99 -- 10:08 PM

Y2K Not to Blame for System Failure in Trinidad, Bank Says

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) - When dozens of ATMs in Trinidad failed during weekend Christmas shopping, some debit card users feared the Y2K bug had arrived early. They were wrong.

Republic Bank announced on Monday that a power outage was to blame for the glitch, which halted machines connected to cash registers across the Caribbean island this weekend.

``We don't want people thinking it's Y2K related,'' said Derwin Howell, Republic Bank's manager of information technology.

The card system was working normally by Monday, he said.

In many countries, debit card machines have had to be replaced or reprogrammed because of the Y2K computer bug, a quirk in older computers that causes them to confuse the years 2000 and 1900.

The bug already has caused some debit machines to erroneously report that cards are expired if they expire after Jan. 1, 2000. Computer experts fear other computers also may malfunction or fail on that date.

-- NOT me (No@Not.Y2K), December 20, 1999

Answers

No, nope, not, couldn't be, impossible, no, don't even think it, no, no way, no, don't go there, don't venture to presume, no, nope, impossible, no, no

-- no (no@no.no), December 20, 1999.

A fix in one day? The power generating station or the bad bad software?

-- Polly-Morphic Doomer (greenem31@aol.com), December 21, 1999.