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'Daylight Savings Bugs' Loom
An anonymous reader writes "ZDNet has front page coverage of the looming daylight savings changeover, and the bugs that may crop up this year. With the extension of daylight savings time by four weeks, some engineers and programmers are warning that unprepared companies will experience serious problems in March. While companies like Microsoft have already patched their software, Gartner is warning that bugs in the travel and banking sectors could have unforeseen consequences in the coming months. ' In addition, trading applications might execute purchases and sales at the wrong time, and cell phone-billing software could charge peak rates at off-peak hours. On top of that, the effect is expected to be felt around the world: Canada and Bermuda are conforming to the U.S.-mandated change, and time zone shifts have happened in other locales as well.'" Is this just more Y2K doomsaying, or do you think there's a serious problem here?
and cell phone-billing software could charge peak rates at off-peak hours
Aiyeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And I thought that the year 1906 would pass with out any issues.
But I thought time would go faster if I compiled my Gentoo kernel with --omg-optimize!!1
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Oh Lords of Cobol, hear our prayers... So say we all.
This is worse than Y2K because Java needs to be patched, and JVMs proliferate on hosts like cockroaches. Older JVMs cannot be patched.
There are nearly 50 java instances on some of our hosts. The filthy little bastards hide everywhere.
Fortunately the fix can be automated and is very fast to install.
Using java's extensive built-in patch management and version management capabilities, of course.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Everything is fine in Australia? Remember folks, this announcement is coming from the country that gave us The Wiggles.
"daylight savings times and zones change constantly in australia and everything is fine here, no need to worry"
I take it that you don't work for a "The sky is going to fall unless you get 500 copies of our Timezone Prevention Software" Vendor?
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
When I'm benevolent fascist dictator everyone will go by Greenwich Mean Time (aka Zulu time aka Coordinated Universal Time). Yeah sure everyone will be all pissed off at first when they have to go to bed at 7:00 in Tokoyo or wake up at 23:00 in Los Angeles, but they'll get used to it. And it will be hard for people to change, but that's why I need to be appointed to the head of the U.N.'s Dictatorial Standards Department.
Remember you'll never have to reset your wrist watch again. NEVER. And when gets assassinated by in at 11:34 you will know exactly where you were at that exact moment. No calculations needed.
And then after that I'll get everyone to switch to metric.
Tell that to Amazon.
That's a damned lie and demeaning to Windows to single it out like that.
MS-DOS is the same way. Apple ProDOS too.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
The Wiggles had a personnel change recently and every computer in the country had to be patched!
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Mod parent up!
Changing daylight savings time or y2k will be childsplay compared to the Year 2038 32-bit time_t overflow. That is a really big problem with no easy fix. 32-bit times/dates are in everything from VCRs and microwaves to servers and desktops. 2038 will be everything that Y2K wasn't.
In principle, Linux and friends can fix this by redefining time_t to 64-bit - but lots of communication protocols and even file formats like tar use 32-bit dates. Admittedly we have 30 years to fix it, but we will need all 30.
Let's switch to the metric system while we're at it.
It serves no useful purpose any longer
Of COURSE it does! DST is so you can experience the joys of jet lag without actually having to board a jet!
As of now, though, DST still doesn't give you the pleasure of of taking off your shoes, standing in line, going through x-ray machines, and possibly getting strip searched. But don't worry, the Department of Homelame Security and the NSA are working on it. Soon ALL the benefits of airline travel will be available to everyone!
-mcgrew
Bite your tongue!
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
> 15 minute change window to apply patch, another 15 minutes to reboot successfully and come back
> online. Multiply 30 min x 1500 = 45,000 minutes, or 750 hours
Yeah, someone needs to tell my local cinema about that. They only show films for a few weeks, but with 1000 people in each showing, and the film lasting 90 minutes, that's 90,000 minutes, or nearly 9 weeks! There's going to be a lot of disappointed people...