Daylight savings update?

[seminole2001]

Wonderful...now all my national timers will move over to the correct time. However all my local timers here in AZ will be 1 off on my 508. (No DST here in AZ)

I wish DiSH would fix this.

ARRRG!

 

[cosmo_kramer]

And, in an obvious shining example of our government at work, we may end up reverting back to the original schedule at some point in the future:

(a) Amendment- Section 3(a) of the Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S.C. 260a(a)) is amended--

(1) by striking `first Sunday of April' and inserting `second Sunday of March'; and

(2) by striking `last Sunday of October' and inserting `first Sunday of November'.

(b) Effective Date- Subsection (a) shall take effect 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act or March 1, 2007, whichever is later.

(c) Report to Congress- Not later than 9 months after the effective date stated in subsection (b), the Secretary shall report to Congress on the impact of this section on energy consumption in the United States.

(d) Right to Revert- Congress retains the right to revert the Daylight Saving Time back to the 2005 time schedules once the Department study is complete.

Energy Policy Act of 2005

 

[Foxbat]

The IT folks in most of Indiana have had to deal with this for two years now. Last year, "our man Mitch" decided that we should follow the rest of the lemmings off the cliff and adopt DST when he knew full well that we'd all have to change all of our systems to the new 2007 DST rules the following year. We've spent big bucks on this for two years, erasing any possible energy savings that might have been realized.

Some application software does DST on its own, not using the system time as a reliable source. Sun's Java Run-Time Environment is in this category, as are some HR software, Time Entry Systems, reporting systems, etc., anything that might need to deal with a start time and end time that is off by an hour due to DST.

The biggest problem has been that the IT world has been very slow to recognize this, unlike Y2K where people were getting systems analyzed and upgraded years before the fact. Congress passed this law and the media ignored it due to other more pressing issues like the Middle East and various starlets' eating disorders... The result? I don't think most people are even aware that DST starts the 2nd Sunday of March.

Why Canada decided to join us in this lunacy is beyond me, as I have come to regard the Canadians I know as very intelligent people. Needless to say, I don't know any Canadian politicians! Mexico said, "No" to the change, but they're closer to the equator, so the seasonal change in sunrise/sunset isn't as extreme for them.

So, has anybody looked at meetings scheduled in Outlook for those three weeks in March? You may find that they're off an hour unless the meeting owner updated the event after fixing their PC and your PC has the new rules, otherwise you'll see it an hour too early. Wee!!!

 

[KE4EST]

Well I must say that I am pleasantly surprised to hear this. This is the first time that I heard about this and I am all for it. I don't mind changing a clock or two.

 

[AllieVi]

The expensive systems we all have must be closely "watched" to make sure they have the right time.

The battery-powered $10 clocks hanging on my walls always have the correct time (to the second) because they're constantly updated by the signal sent from Boulder, CO.

Go figure.

 

[Big_Ed]

I'll happily change my clocks to get more daylight in the evening versus early AM.

 

[8bitbytes]

My kids hate going to bed when it is still light outside

 

[Suppafreak]

On top everything, because of the change I have to work on the Feb 18th (SUNDAY) to make sure that our system patched correctly.

STUPID GOVERMENT!!! Like two weeks will make a lot of difference.

 

[kaman]

I agree the IT community is on the front lines as it relates to implementing the new change. And I am not an apologist for Congress either. But I do think the benefits overall vastly outweigh the headaches for the IT world and inconvenience of manually changing clocks. Although when looking strictly through the IT lens, the headaches may outweigh the benefits.

I'm glad a re-read Ronald_Jeremy's post about watering lawn. The first time I read it, I didn't notice the bottom of his post, saying he was kidding and that it was quote from someone else. I was about to lay in on him on how dumb that was..LOL

 

[NightRyder]

There may be no benefit, this isn't the early 20th Century anymore, things have changed.

Excerpt from the House Committee on Science:

Daylight Savings has a long history as energy-saving strategy in wartime, and more recently, during the oil embargo of the 1970's. The potential for reduced electric power usage was clear during the First and Second World Wars when the main use of electricity was the incandescent lighting. The shift of the beginning of the workday to 1 hour earlier resulted in an hour less electric light usage in the evenings, assuming people kept to their usual schedules. It is easy to see how this would have reduced total energy consumption and possibly peak energy demand as well.

It is important to recognize that our patterns of energy use have changed considerably since then so that it is not a foregone conclusion that significant energy savings will result from extended Daylight Savings today. Indeed, incandescent lighting is no longer the primary use of electricity and its use does not always peak after sunset. Peaks are now likely to depend on weather-related heating and cooling and vary from one region to another.

NightRyder