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Impact of Daylight Savings Time Changes?
jason718 writes "With the pending changes to U.S. Daylight Savings Time, what impact will those changes have to existing systems and their applications? Are some operating systems more open than others with regard to the configuration of Daylight Savings Time start and end dates, or will we need yet another update or patch to modify the internal calendar?"
This seems like it is going to be a great deal of trouble. Although most software will be fairly easily patched, it still seems like a hastle. People will inevitably forget to patch, and different will be handling time differently.
Voice your opinion!
"Are some operating systems more open than others with regard to the configuration of Daylight Savings Time start and end dates, or will we need yet another update or patch to modify the internal calendar?"
I'm pretty sure all operating systems will need to be updated to work with this new system...lol. BIOSes too.
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
And about 10 years to get fully deployed. There are machines still running unpatched copies of Windows 98 and IE 5.0 out there.
I hope they give us several years' notice, so that we can all go out and buy New-DST-compliant VCRs along with our HDTV-compliant TVs.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
The absurdity of fooling yourself by changing the clocks (not really unlike those that set their alarm clock fast so they are never late) reminds me of a former coworker, who came in later to work every day. One day he came in as we were leaving for lunch. Soon he came in on a Friday as we were all leaving for happy hour. Eventually he "lapped" himself and started coming in so late it was early the next morning, and eventually he came in at a normal start time of 8:00 or so. Of course, the trend continued and he just started coming in later again.
Arizona's position on Daylight Saving Time is enlightened, and we should all follow their shining example.
If you want to go to work an hour earlier, just go to work an hour earlier. All this goddamn "pretend it's an hour later than it really is" bullshit is completely whacked. People who think DST is a good idea are like people who think setting their alarm clocks ten minutes later will improve the likelihood that they will get to work on time.
Noon should always be when the sun is directly over my time-zone. If you want to adjust the business day according to available sunlight, it makes more sense to: 1. Change the start time instead of the clocks. 2. Do it gradually, the way available light changes gradually. That way you don't fuck up people's sleep cycles either.
I wonder if the health problems (and sick days off work) due to disrupted sleep patterns has actually cost our society more than the energy saved by the whole DST concept. Seems like something which should have been studied by now...
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
I have about 54 Unix servers to care and feed.
I estimate that we will perform zero patches to handle these specific rule changes.
The switch already happens - it'll just happen on different days. And if you recall, these changes have happened before - so it isn't really unexpected for those who have been in the business a while.
The Y2K contracting folks will have you jumping off your seats, but for everyone who runs these systems: no big deal.
I'm sure some home users will be caught off guard, but then again most desktop users have their clock set to the wrong timezone.
Sheesh.
Ok, let's take as a given that Peak Oil has already passed, just for the sake of argument.
All that this means is that crude oil pumped from the ground will continue to become more expensive. Not in great leaps and bounds, but at a relatively steady pace.
As crude oil becomes more expensive, alternate fuels become relatively less expensive. Sooner rather than later we'll see both synthetic crude (from farm waste, of all things) and expanded hydrogen trade.
In a hundred years, we won't be back to hand-working on farms. We'll have a bunch of telecommuters working the same networked jobs they all want to work now, and the same green revolution farms, only the tractors will use more electric motors and less internal combustion.
Is Peak Oil going to give us change? Yes. It is going to cause a capitalist apocolypse? No, not really. We did rather well before gasoline, and we'll do farily well long after it's gone.
If you want to go to work an hour earlier, just go to work an hour earlier.
That would be nice if the other government rules and laws didn't mention time at all. But they do. In DC, they constrain when I can buy beer, play my radio audibly, ride the subway, etc. Changing DST has a real effect on those things.
rage, rage against the dying of the light
Ride in the morning, dolt.
Geothermal Heat Pumps! Now we're talkin'!
My Dad, about 17 years ago got holt of several hundred feet of stainless steel tubing. Nice fairly thick walls. We borrowed a drilling rig and bored seven shafts in the backyard. Each about 85 feet deep. Insert the tubing which Dad had wielded into long shinny 'wickets' about 78 feet long. Wield the 'wickets' together in series, and viola closed cooling loop. Add a heat exchanger in the form of a 130 gallon stainless steel canister. Add one reversible compressor and we had a geothermal heat pump.
When the Heat Wave of 00 hit we had the electric company making inquires about how little electricity we were using in August and September of that year. --Much malevolent laughter on my and my Dad's part--
I don't expect that the stainless steel tubing to give me problems over the next 30 years. A garbage can rack that my Dad made out of lower quality stainless in 1952 is still soldiering on with but the most minor degradation. Water line that Dad make from the same lot of tubing as the garbage can rack was used by several relatives as water pipes from their rural water wells. They have never clogged since they were installed in the late 40s. They have be reliable for nearly 60 years. I figure that my cooling loop should out last me.
Since the cooling loop in the major difference between a standard heat pump and a geothermal heat pump I should not have any greater maintenance problems than one would have with a standard heat pump.
With a house of just less than 1500 square feet I always get an electric bill of that is less than $100.00. Dad also had the house insulated out the wazoo, so that is also a help.
I use mostly fluorescent lighting, and am considering running 12 V wiring to power LED lighting. LED lighting used in conjunction with a bank of deep cycle battering being charged by photovoltaic panels would likely cut my electric bill by about $5.00- $15.00/month. Depending on the hours of daylight of that month. Mainly though I want lighting that will work if the power gets cut off due to bad weather etc..
I'm also strongly considering a solar assessed hot water system. He, he; the only natural gas that I'd use then would be for the cook stove.
Yo! Utility companies, Kiss my grits...
"Oh drat these computers, they're so naughty and so complex, I could pinch them." --Marvin the Martian
Look! Down the hall! It's Pedantic Man!
He knows it's Daylight Saving Time
(not Daylight SavingS Time)
I have yet to figure out why anyone outside of the states of Indiana, Arizona, and Hawaii actually give a rat's posterior about DST (because it's a part of life and takes place seemingly without effort). Those are the only three states which do not observe DST. Indiana has several clusters of counties near Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville which do so on their own. Indiana's legislature also enacted a law to observe it, but now it requires Federal action to finish it, including which time zone(s) are observed. So there's a "fact finding" tour underway where people can sound off regarding which time zone they want to "belong to".
One state legislator voted against it because it would mess up his constituents' schedules when they had to take their kids over the state line (to Illinois) and the time difference would force them to restructure their days. No one took the time to point out to this moron that part of Indiana was on "New York time" (an hour ahead of that area of Illinois) six months a year and on "Chicago time" (the same time as that area) six months a year. So being at the same time or a difference of one hour constantly is less confusing than switching every six months?
That's no worse than years ago when those in the rural areas I grew up in complained it would mess up the cows' milking schedules. No one pointed out to them cows' don't look at the clocks. What they meant to say is it would mess up their schedules but using the cows as an excuse seemed to make it sound like it was somehow more critical? You wouldn't have believed it this year. Parents whined it would screw up kids going to bed: "How can you tell kids it's time to go to bed at 8:30pm when it's still light out?" Drive-In theatre owners whined it would cause shows to start later (although the number of drive-ins around the country, including Indiana, is a pittance of what it used to be), restaurants bellyached it would screw up supper hours because people would go out to eat based upon how light it was, not the time on the clock. You'd think no one else in the world had ever dealt with DST before.
I think the only people who would have whined more are those who would have had a million dollars bestowed upon them - but in pennies and they'd have to count and lug them to the bank.
(To be honest, it was always good sport to watch the political turmoil. I find it no different than the current Supreme Court nomination. In spite of the long-term importance, and regardless of one's personal political perspective, I find watching political friction to be one of America's great indoor sports. The higher the level, the more interesting it becomes. All of the others (sports) have been ruined by tweaking the rules.
On a more humorous note, I actually had something cooked up to take advantage of the annual turmoil in Indiana's legislature. I planned to circulate a story to the effect:
Microsoft was behind the lobbying effort to stop the observance of DST because of all of the Windows machines which list Indiana as its own timezone. Microsoft was afraid they would find themselves responsible for creating and supporting patches for all of those PCs, even for OSes which are no longer under active support.
My intent had been to start on March 29-30 so there would be a couple of days to circulate and work toward passing it along to a couple of friends in the local media - hopefully, using some forged email as additional proof. I thought of it as an interesting birthday experiment (my birthday is April Fool's Day). Alas, the missus never permitted it. She was afraid there would be some legal repercussions, despite the opportunity for humor.
oh well.