Looks like the verdict is in, Bill. Congrats.
December 31, 1999
How Areas Have Fared in Y2K Change
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Filed at 10:11 p.m. EST
By The Associated Press
A look at how various sectors, believed to be sensitive to a Y2K problem, have fared in the changeover to 2000:
AIRLINES: U.S. officials declared their airlines system working without incident after 7 p.m. EST, the critical milestone of midnight Greenwich Mean Time. The aviation industry uses GMT to track planes as they cross time zones, receive weather information from forecasters and are scheduled for fresh crews and supplies.
HOSPITALS: Based on similar equipment in Australia and New Zealand, the secretary of health and human services said U.S. hospitals should expect no major problems from the year 2000 changeover. Secretary Donna Shalala said her counterparts in the two countries reported Friday that a few sterilizing machines read the date incorrectly, but they continued to function properly. She said the date glitch was easily fixed.
SPACE: Commercial satellite providers reported no problems with ground facilities that contain tracking and control equipment operating on Greenwich Mean Time, or 7 p.m. EST. Clay Morrie of the Satellite Industry Association, which represents major commercial satellite providers, said the GMT hurdle was the industry's major potential problem area. Orbiting satellites are not dependent on date or time changes.
At NASA, officials said all its spacecraft and facilities remained fully functional after the GMT milestone. Mark Hess, a spokesman for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said: ''We're green across the board. No problems at all.''
ATMs: ATM networks throughout the country reported no problems with transactions made after 2 p.m. Friday, which normally are posted to the next day -- in this case Jan. 1, 2000. Officials said that means the networks weathered the Y2K turnover without problems.
They remained on guard against higher-than-normal demand for cash or balance inquiries, which could deplete machines of cash and receipt paper and cause them to shut down. Most machines were being checked more often than usual.
CREDIT CARDS: Many credit cards already bear expiration dates beyond Jan. 1, 2000, and have been working fine. American Express reported no problems Friday with card use in Asia after the date change there. Credit card companies said customer service telephones were manned continually to handle problems that do come up.
PENTAGON: Defense Department computers tied to Greenwich Mean Time made the transition to the new year five hours ahead of the rest of the U.S. East Coast, and officials at the Pentagon said they received no reports of Y2K-related problems. Most military computers used for communications, aviation and intelligence functions are linked to GMT.
ENERGY: Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said America's electricity system passed its first real test Friday night as a third of the power companies' equipment rolled through the Y2K transition without problems. They are the grid computers tied to Greenwich Mean Time, which passed into 2000 five hours ahead of the first U.S. time zone. Grid computers direct communications and transfer of power.
One moderate Y2K glitch was reported in an unidentified Midwestern electric utility company, however: Its internal clocks malfunctioned badly because of Y2K. Power supplies were unaffected.
WEATHER: U.S. weather forecasting's radars, satellites and other sophisticated weather machinery passed its Y2K test Friday without any problems, said James Baker, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. One reason the forecasters weathered Y2K, Baker said, was that NOAA began preparing in 1996 and among other things, replaced the National Weather Service's supercomputer.
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