A Sampling of Y2K Glitches

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Dec 25, 2000 - 02:13 PM

A Sampling of Y2K Glitches The Associated Press

UNITED STATES - A spy satellite system was inoperable for several hours because of problems with software used to download and process information.

- The Oregon Statewide Year 2000 Project Office relied on an electronic device that stamped Jan. 1, 2000, as Dec. 32, 1999. A glitch also delayed processing of food stamps and other benefits for one day.

- A Chicago-area bank couldn't make Medicare payments to some hospitals. Medicare contractors had to send disks with processed claims so that payments could be made.

- A video store in upstate New York tried to charge a customer $91,250 after computers showed a rented movie was being returned 100 years late.

- Computers at 33 airport weather stations in Iowa briefly stopped sending reports.

- At the Oak Ridge nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee, Y2K disrupted a computer that tracks weight and type of nuclear material. Plant operations were unaffected.

- Merchants who failed to upgrade software from CyberCash posted some credit charges multiple times.

- Some caller ID and pagers displayed March 1 on Feb. 29 because they did not recognize the leap year.

OVERSEAS

- In Sweden, Y2K shut down equipment used to interpret electrocardiogram data at some hospitals, though the EKG machines were not affected.

- France's defense satellite system lost its ability to detect equipment failure but continued to operate.

- Glitches occurred at Japanese nuclear power plants on New Year's Day, but none led to leaks of radiation or safety problems. Most involved trouble with data transmission and were quickly fixed.

- Heat failed in apartments for about 900 families in Pyongchon, South Korea.

- Databanks in Venice and Naples, Italy, listed prisoners due to be released Jan. 10 as having completed their terms on Jan. 10, 1900.

- Eight computerized traffic lights failed in Jamaica.

- Up to 30,000 older cash registers in Greece printed receipts showing the year 1900.

- During leap year's extra day, weather monitoring stations in Japan reported double-digit rainfall even though no rain fell, and 1,200 automated teller machines at post offices shut down.

- Passport agency computers in Greece and Bulgaria issued passports with incorrect dates on Feb. 29.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAPOXYJ6HC.html

-- Carl Jenkins (somewherepress@aol.com), December 25, 2000


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