So how was it for you ?

NEW YORK (Reuters) Jan 3 - The much-feared, but thus-far toothless Y2K computer bug has taken a small bite out of videotape rentals. In Colonie, New York, outside the state capital Albany, a customer at the Super Video store got the shock of the young century on New Year's Day when the charge for renting ``The General's Daughter'' came to $91,250. OK, it was a day late, but still. ``The clerk and I were shocked, and then zeroed out the late charge and gave the customer a free video rental and wished him Happy New Year,'' said Terry Field, owner of the independently owned store. Field said he stayed up past 1:30 a.m. on New Year's Eve running tests to make sure his computer system was Y2K compatible, but hundreds of his customers faced nearly six-figure charges for video rentals nonetheless.

ROME (Jan. 3) XINHUA - The much feared and perhaps overrated Y2K or Millennium Bug appears to have made an appearance in Italian southern city of Naples upsetting the computerized records of prisoners and detainees awaiting trial. Employees in the prisoner records office, in fact, returned to their offices Monday morning, after the holiday break, to find mistakes in the birth dates of some detainees, in detention orders, special parole permits and other measures. The court's chief magistrate, Angelica Di Giovanni, ordered staff to get out paper and pens to cope by hand with all urgent cases and briefs approaching deadlines. Paper and ink work will begin on records pertaining to the release of prisoners in such special circumstances as suspension of sentences for illness, release for good time, release to work- prison programs and the like. The head of personnel, Luigi Zuccarino, said Finsiel technicians were on the job and expected to have the entire system "de-bugged" by Monday evening.

JAMAICA – Jan 3 - Computerised controller cabinets in traffic lights at eight major intersections in the Corporate Area, which are not Y2K compliant, are out of service, the Ministry of Transport and Works reported yesterday. The controller systems in the lights will be replaced during the next two weeks, says Dr. Janine Dawkins, chief traffic engineer in the Ministry of Transport and Works. Dr. Dawkins said that of approximately 140 traffic lights in the Corporate Area, 90 were upgraded to Y2K compliance and 10 were electro-mechanical. "Recently, we examined all traffic light equipment to detect their Y2K readiness and established that some 35 controllers would be replaced. The eight lights which are currently out of order are among the set which were earmarked for replacement," she said.

COLOGNE, Germany, Jan 3 (AFP) - The switch-over to 2000 was not completely free from the effects of the millennium bug for a number of banking customers here, the German news agency DPA reported on Monday. An on-line customer of the local Cologne savings bank could scarcely believe his eyes when he logged in on Saturday to examine his bank account: it showed a balance of 3,930,129,930, but the currency was not specified, DPA reported. Similarly, a 43-year-old customer with the same bank found that nearly 13 million marks (6.65 million euros, dollars) had been erroneously credited to his account.

IRELAND Irish Times, Jan 4 - Eircom (Irish Telecom) customers were brought on a time-trip yesterday, courtesy of the millennium bug. Subscribers who inquired about their telephone bills through an automated dial-in service had their account balances backdated to 1900, decades before phones were commonplace in the State. The millennium bug struck the company for several hours yesterday despite earlier "pretty confident" predictions. This follows an investment of more than £25 million to keep it at bay. The glitch affected users of an interactive voice facility which allows customers to check their account balance by using the touch tones on their telephone. People who called 1901 for the automated account inquiry service were told by a prerecorded voice that their outstanding balance related to January 1st, 1900, instead of January 1st, 2000. The Y2K fault is likely to have bemused Eircom customers as the telephone was only invented in 1876. The first Dublin exchange in 1880 had only five customers. Eircom's Y2K project director, Mr. Dave Murray, last night described the glitch as "a minor irritant" in an otherwise smooth transition to the new millennium.

WASHINGTON - CNN (IDG) Jan 4-- The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms temporarily halted licensing businesses that sell firearms Monday after identifying a Year 2000 glitch that made it impossible for its computer system to read the correct date on their applications. The ATF licensing problem was by far one of the most serious computer snafus to emerge from the New Year's rollover to 2000. Although federal officials say its Firearms Licensing System will be suspended for only five days to fix the problem, it could affect functions in other law enforcement agencies, particularly the FBI, which uses the system to verify licensed gun dealers. Pat Schambach, ATF's chief information officer, said law enforcement officials decided to shut down the system after a test was conducted over the weekend at the ATF's computer facility in Atlanta. "They didn't like what they saw," Schambach said, when the computer was unable to read the correct date on a gun seller's application. The computer center processes about 5,000 firearms applications a month, a process that takes 6 to 8 weeks.

SPAIN Newsbytes, Jan 4 - Spanish officials have confirmed that two of that nation's nine nuclear reactors are experiencing Y2K-related glitches, Senate Y2K Committee staffer Don Meyer told Newsbytes earlier tonight. While there is little information available about the scope of the reactor glitches, the safety systems at those plants have not been damaged, Meyer said. In a separate development, Malaysia is reporting Y2K-related failures to some medical equipment, including defibrillators and heart monitors, Meyer said. But what has been remarkable about the rollover thus far has been what hasn't happened, Meyer said. "Everyone was just guessing, but we thought we had made a fairly educated guess that we were going to see failures in Russia and failures in Italy and failures in other countries" that had not been aggressive about Y2K remediation, Meyer said. The Senate Y2K Committee expected some of those failures to be both widespread and disastrous, he added.

PHILADELPHIA Investors were surprised to see the date Jan. 3, 100, on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Web site on Monday morning. But the minor glitch was only one of a few in the first day of trading in the New Year. The date error on the Philadelphia exchange Web site, which was fixed by lunchtime, was caused by a computer server, said Kelli Crudo, a spokeswoman for the exchange. The exchange itself opened with a ''seamless transition'' into the New Year, she added.

USA Ironically, one of the few spots infected by the bug was the campaign Web site of Vice President Al Gore, who last year claimed to have invented the Internet. His ''Internet Town Hall'' Web site touting his presidential candidacy carried the date ''Monday, January 3, 19100.'' The site was corrected later in the day.

CHICAGO Some computer screens flashed ''1900'' at four small airports around Chicago. Doppler weather systems also shut down for a few minutes in Chicago.

SWEDEN 100,000 people in Sweden were unable to access their bank accounts over the Internet because they had neglected to update their browser software. In Italy, computers at several courthouses mixed up some dates by 100 years.

PORTUGAL Isolated glitches were found in ministerial databases, government payment processing and hospital admissions. A small part of a Danish bank's payment system was erased.

Updated : Tuesday November 28, 2000 14:54