-
- The lights stayed on,
the phones still rang and the computers
mostly rolled over smoothly to
2000. In the main, reports said this: Man
beat the Y2K bug that had
threatened the machines that help to run our
world.
-
- Uncertainty gave way
to relief, as midnight rolled around
the globe. A high-technology world
remained connected, networked and ready
to proceed in a new
millennium.
-
- Vital life-support systems worked through midnight and
into the
new year, the new century and the new millennium. Experts cautioned
that local problems are still likely to occur, and it will take months
to assess the final damage of the software bug.
-
- But the good news, thanks to
years of preparation and
billions of dollars: The lights, water
supplies, telephone and fax networks,
and aviation systems were intact
in Thailand and around the world. The
Bangkok Post editorial systems,
including links to world-wide news agencies
and services, appeared
unaffected. The Internet was up, running and apparently
unaffected.
-
- Bill Gates of Microsoft, which helped to create the dreaded
glitch, spent an unconcerned New Year's Eve on a yacht. He and his host,
fellow tycoon Kerry Packer, watched the Sydney Harbour fireworks.
-
- The United
Nations-sponsored centre for Y2K reports showed
all green on its
reporting bulletins-no Y2K emergencies across the board.
-
- The automated teller
machines, credit card transactions
and the electronic fund transfers
all were tested shortly after midnight
as each country or region
entered the new century. There were no reported
failures.
-
- Even better news to
many: The first Russian nuclear reactor
to cross the millennium time
zone survived fine. The Bilibinsk nuclear
power plant in Russian Asia
hummed into 2000 without a problem. "No
shutdown in the work of
the equipment was observed" at the automated
plant, supervisors
said. The plant is in Chukotka province, opposite Alaska.
Well before
midnight in Thailand, New Zealand began sending its utilities
and
emergency staff home. New Zealand's New Year began at 6pm Thailand
time-and by 9pm the country began to breath easily. There was not a single
Y2K-related incident reported.
-
- The country's official web site had 2 million hits from
nervous people wanting to see what happened in the first industrialised
nation to hit midnight.
-
- Shortly after, Australia's banking industry issued an
all-clear statement. Everything was working smoothly, and the staff began
clearing out to go home or to late parties.
-
- Thousands of people around the
world were on nervous
midnight duty yesterday, just in case. In banks,
offices, stock exchanges
and accounting firms, staff checked and
double-checked their computers
and systems before and after
midnight.
-
- Airport and air control centres were manned and senior
staff
were called in to supervise-even though hundreds of flights were
cancelled as even frequent flyers opted to stay on the ground through the
midnight period.
-
- The glitches which occurred were the type long familiar
to
computer operators, administrators and home owners. Many were not computer
problems, but were human-caused.
-
- In New Zealand, international
toll calls on cellphones
stopped working for a while shortly after
midnight. Harassed workers at
the Telecom New Zealand Y2K centre told
callers circuits were simply overloaded
by too many callers. All
circuits were working within an hour. A similar
problem was reported by
a Japanese mobile company.
-
- Computer hackers broke into the Web page of British
Railtrack,
and posted a fake message that Y2K problems had cancelled
all trains. Officials
fixed the page quickly-all trains were running
just fine. A practical joker
informed another Y2K site that IBM was
chartering planes to get badly needed
computer parts to Australia and
New Zealand, but the report was false.
-
- On the home page of the Tonga
government just after midnight
local time was a notice: "Just a
Reminder. There are only -1 days
until Tonga is the first to greet Year
2000!"On the Web site of the
world time clock, a date for New
Zealand showed as "Saturday, January
1, 19100." Meteo France,
a weather service, reported dates as "19.100."The
Web site of
a rival Bangkok English-language paper told visitors there
would not be
any more breaking news posted "until Dec 4"-presumably
meaning Jan 4. It was not known if the error was Y2K-related.
-
- In South Korea, a
court ordered 170 people to appear
for trial on Jan 4, 1900. A Spanish
worker was ordered to labour court
on Feb 3, 1900. Japanese shoppers
staged a mild panic, crowding stores
and supermarkets to stock up on
water, food and emergency supplies. Several
stores cashed in with
special sections for the Y2K-paranoid. They included
portable radios,
canned food and portable cooking stoves.
-
- The Internet itself held up as
predicted. The network
designed "to withstand a nuclear war"
was as robust and dependable
as usual. All 42 websites chosen for
special monitoring were up and running
as midnight raced around the
world. That includes , the Internet Thailand
main site.
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