Few Glitches Reported on Leap Day

NEW YORK (AP) -- Leap Day brought scattered and minor computer glitches around the world today in perhaps the final echo of the Y2K problem that wasn't. John Koskinen, President Clinton's Y2K czar, said Leap Day was even quieter than New Year's Day. ''At this juncture, as we expected, we have received no reports of any major problems,'' he told reporters in Washington. Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska had problems with computers that track aircraft parts and vehicles. Lines grew at Reagan National Airport near Washington because some check-in computers failed. A Coast Guard system that archives electronic messages had trouble.

http://www.newsday.com/ap/topnews/ap660.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 29, 2000

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Here is a more expanded story from the above. Tuesday, February 29, 2000

Few Glitches Reported on Leap Day

By ANICK JESDANUN, Associated Press Writer

Leap Day brought scattered and minor computer glitches around the world today in perhaps the final echo of the Y2K problem that wasn't. John Koskinen, President Clinton's Y2K czar, said Leap Day was even quieter than New Year's Day. "At this juncture, as we expected, we have received no reports of any major problems," he told reporters in Washington. "This does not meant that no one has had a computer problem, but in many cases they are minor problems that can be fixed immediately." Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska had problems with computers that track aircraft parts and vehicles. Lines grew at Reagan National Airport near Washington because some check-in computers failed. A Coast Guard system that archives electronic messages had trouble. Some caller ID and pagers displayed March 1, and Wisconsin Public Service Corp. in Green Bay shut down a record-keeping program it knew was problematic. "We chose not to fix it or replace it," Public Service spokesman Kerry Spees said. "It will be fine tomorrow, next week, next month and next year." The U.S. Forest Service could not access some computer files, but a spokesman did not know whether Y2K was the culprit. "Who knows? It could be Leap Year related, or it could be a coincidence," said Rex Holloway, a regional spokesman in Portland, Ore. Overseas, a computer in the Netherlands could not transmit weather to the media, and merchants in New Zealand had trouble verifying banking transactions. The Jakarta Stock Exchange was closed as a precaution, and the Singapore subway system rejected some riders' cards. Passport agency computers in Greece and Bulgaria issued passports with incorrect dates. At Japan's Meteorological Agency, weather monitoring stations reported double-digit rainfall even though no rain fell, and 1,200 automated teller machines at post offices shut down. But the problems were dismissed as minor by Bruce McConnell, who heads a United Nations-World Bank monitoring group for Y2K. "It's completely low key," he said today. "There's no need for worry because it is being handled internally and it's a small number of incidents in any case." The North American Electric Reliability Council declared all power systems in the United States and Canada "in green status." The U.S. airline and banking industries also had no problems. "Even our oldest computer came up with the 29th of February," said Jim Van Dongen of New Hampshire's Office of Emergency Management. Computers have had difficulties in leap years before. Four years ago, for instance, Arizona Lottery players could not buy tickets because its computer failed to understand Leap Day. Sony Corp. said older video cameras and word processors might fail to recognize Feb. 29, and Microsoft Excel 2000 users might have problems computing financial bonds if they failed to get an update. This year is more troublesome because it is an exception to an exception. Normally, years that end in "00" are not leap years, but 2000 is because it is divisible by 400. But many of the problems were caught long ago as Y2K experts tackled the larger Y2K risk: the use of two digits to represent a year, a glitch that could have thrown off computers that run the power grid, air traffic systems and traffic lights. The Senate's Y2K advisory committee was taking the opportunity to disband. In a wrapup report prepared for release today, the committee identified more than 250 Y2K glitches in some 75 countries, including a nuclear power system failure in the Ukraine and a handful of 911 -system breakdowns in the United States. For the most part, the committee said, Y2K problems "have been quickly corrected and none have caused serious disruptions." It expects "continued reports of minor nuisances throughout 2000, but no major problems." A copy was obtained by The Associated Press. McConnell's International Y2K Cooperation Center also planned to close today, though members will monitor Leap Day developments for a few more days. Private businesses were handing Y2K responsibilities to regular maintenance teams. "This is sort of closure on the Year 2000 efforts, like the final frontier here," said Dale Vecchio, research director in St. Louis for technology consulting firm Gartner Group. Japan's rainfall glitch was blamed on old software, said Ippei Eguchi, spokesman for the meteorological agency. The error was discovered at 43 of the agency's 1,300 ground weather monitoring devices. The glitch came a day after computers at six observatories in Tokyo and other cities failed to correctly recognize Feb. 29. A Chinese government task force said crucial computer systems passed into Leap Day smoothly today, though government troubleshooters were ordered to be extra vigilant for two more days.

http://www.latimes.com/wires/20000229/tCB00V0453.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 29, 2000.