While most everything seems to be operating normally during the first workday of January, some Web sites and billing systems are convinced that the future is, in fact, now.
While the rollover from 1999 to the year 2000 passed without system shutdowns, a few pesky glitches and technological hiccups are portraying the new year as anything from 3900 to 19200.
The Kwikware Y2K Screenshot page made a running list of Web sites that experienced Y2K bloopers over the weekend, most of which revolved around botched years and dates.
Game-maker Nintendo, for one, revealed major Web-related woes Sunday, when the official Pokemon Web site displayed the date January 2, 3900.
On Monday, the site posted the date incorrectly -- as January 3, 3900 -- when viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer.
The date discrepancy was not displayed for Netscape browser users, however.
Don Jones, director of Year 2000 Readiness for Microsoft, said the year 3900 glitch was caused by a defect in the way Explorer renders JavaScript.
According to a Microsoft release, it is the result of "a difference in behavior of the JScript/JavaScript getYear() method call when it is run in a Microsoft browser and when it is run in a Netscape browser in the years before 1900 and after 1999. Depending on implementation, some sites viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer may show a different date than if viewed with Netscape Navigator."
Jones said the glitch should not cause too much of a problem, despite the fact that many Web sites are carrying incorrect dates when viewed with IE.
"It's minor," Jones said. The getFullYear call should be used to show the correct date. "It amounts to different implementation of the (scripting) standard. We chose to stay with the standard and other people chose not to do that."
In some cases, Y2K-related errors occurred on aviation Web sites, where year 2000 readiness was supposed to be of prime concern. Take, for example, the Auckland International Airport's Y2K Update News flash page, which assures visitors that all is well with Auckland's airport.
"The airport is operating as normal," reads the site. "No Y2K problems have been experienced and all operations are continuing as usual."
Too bad the site was dated 1 Jan 100.
Anyone with plans to travel on a blimp commandeered by the American Blimp Corporation anytime soon, best think again. By Monday morning PDT, the Web site displayed the date as January 3, 192000.
Y2K glitches even showed up in places where one would think webmasters would have known better. On the Netscape's Latin America Web site, the date reads "Sabado, 1 de enero, 19100," or Saturday, January 1, 19100.
On the Star Trek Voyager section of the Star Trek Web site, an upcoming program date showed a show slated to run on 1/1/1900.
Some problems are stranger still.
In China, according to an article in * The Wall Street Journal*, a customer returning a video was fined the equivalent of US$7,000 because the store's computer thought it was 100 years overdue.
The Journal, citing an Information Ministry official, also reported that Korea University sent out graduation certificates dated Jan. 13, 1900.
And the London Independent reported that a man in Germany logged onto his home banking computer account to find that he had the equivalent of $6,826,253.67 extra in his account -- and the transaction date was 30 December 1899.
It is not known whether he gets to keep the dough.
While many Web sites were reluctant to call attention to their errors, at least one Web site had the guts to call a glitch a glitch. After the date on its Web site failed to roll over to 2000 properly, Case Western Reserve University posted an honest disclosure.
"Despite our best efforts at averting Y2K problems, it seems that our Web server now believes that it is January of 1900. Please be advised that we are working diligently on the problem and hope to have it fixed soon. "
- The Big StoryPriscila, Queen of the Rideshare Mafia
