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Ask Slashdot: Where Do You Stand on Daylight Saving Time?

New submitter gbcox links to this article about how the switch between Standard Time and Daylight Saving Time can be dangerous, but writes Personally, I favor year 'round DST — I like the extra sunlight in the evening... but regardless, I just wish we'd pick one and stop futzing with the time twice a year. As it is right now, we only have about 4 months of standard time as it is... is it really worth the effort to switch the clocks for only four months? I think not. Where do you stand? If you have a strong opinion, it would be nice if you start your subject line in comments with "For it!" or "Against it!" If you think that the yearly clock-shifting is a good idea, when do you think each shift should occur? For those not keeping score, tonight is the switchover time for most Americans.

33 of 613 comments (clear)

  1. I'll take that bait by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't care what the offset is from GMT, just leaveitthehellalone. If businesses need winter hours, they can have those.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:I'll take that bait by corsec67 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yep, "National Fuck with the Clocks" Day (Which is of course twice a year) needs to just go away.

      --
      If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
    2. Re:I'll take that bait by Grishnakh · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not exactly true. The Navajo Nation within Arizona uses DST, because the reservation spans 3 states (the other two of which observe DST). Oddly, however, the Hopi have a reservation completely surrounded by the Navajo reservation, and they don't follow DST.

    3. Re:I'll take that bait by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't care what the offset is from GMT, just leaveitthehellalone. If businesses need winter hours, they can have those.

      The problem is it doesn't work that way. Businesses are timed to suit the population and within regulations, populations live to suit businesses. You can't say just let everyone do a free for all because a typical shop can't open from 7-3 and have the same customers as the 8-4 range.

      I don't care because I can start and stop work whenever I want. In summer I go to work at 6 and in winter at 7:30-8ish to maximise my day. But not everyone has that option. If I were working for a shop that forces a 9-5 working day I would have very strong feelings about daylight savings time. Given that in the summer we have 2 hours of sunlight which are effectively unusable due to noise restrictions in early hours of the morning, and lack of sun after work.

    4. Re:I'll take that bait by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't care what the offset is from GMT, just leaveitthehellalone. If businesses need winter hours, they can have those.

      Anyone who thinks DST is easy obviously hasn't done stuff worldwide.

      Because I've just had to deal with one customer in 4 different timezones - one in the US (Eastern time), one in Portugal (Western European) and the Netherlands (Central Europe).

      And it was a weekly teleconference call. We had Portugal already in regular time )WET), but the Netherlands was moving from Central European Summer Time to Central European Time, while us in North America were still in DST.

      Endless fun figuring out a convenient time for the meeting when DST transitions randomly for different people. For those curious, WET is UTC+0000, CET is UTC+0100, WEST is UTC+0100, CEST is UTC+0200. And we had to deal with PDT (UTC-0700), EDT (UTC-0400) as usual.

      Oh yay, now we have DST over. One last time to figure out the meeting times and this unnecessary form of calculation can be put to rest for a few months (seriously, when they all switch at different times it's meant recalculating the time weekly).

      FYI - Outlook sets the meeting time to always be whoever sends the meeting invitation out regardless of DST. So if they set it to 8AM PT, it will be 8AM PST, 8AM PDT, and whatever else that works out to be - so the meeting organizer's time stays at 8, while everyone else has to deal with a meeting that has moved an hour earlier/later. Very important if your customer says they want the meeting at 1pm their time.

      I say get rid of it. International dealings get complex quickly.

  2. I'm not sure what bothers me more, by Beck_Neard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    DST or the people who constantly whine about it.

    --
    A fool and his hard drive are soon parted.
    1. Re:I'm not sure what bothers me more, by TWX · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I hear a lot of complaining about daylight savings time, but I really don't hear much in the way of support in favor of it. That inclines me to believe that people really don't support it, but because it's not completely horrible the movement to abolish it hasn't managed to gain that much traction.

      I don't live where DST is used, so I can't really say either way how I feel about it.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    2. Re:I'm not sure what bothers me more, by Sene · · Score: 4, Informative

      I have never lived in an area where DST is not used and so far I think it is utterly useless.

    3. Re:I'm not sure what bothers me more, by SydShamino · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I greatly appreciate extra hours outside in the evening, and the ability to leave work while it's still light outside as a counter to winter doldrums. I would support moving permanently to DST except that means kids have to wait for the bus in the dark for a few months, which no one supports.

      --
      It doesn't hurt to be nice.
    4. Re:I'm not sure what bothers me more, by AK+Marc · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Then start school later on the dark days. Why is there such an opposition to businesses changing hours with the seasons, rather than changing the clocks?

  3. I'm surrounded by morons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I like the extra sunlight in the evening...

    Then wake up earlier! Futzing around with the clock doesn't change the length of the day. I loose a little more respect for the entire human race every year when I have to hear "more sunlight in the evening" again.

    1. Re:I'm surrounded by morons by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Informative

      I like the extra sunlight in the evening...

      Then wake up earlier! Futzing around with the clock doesn't change the length of the day. I loose a little more respect for the entire human race every year when I have to hear "more sunlight in the evening" again.

      Umm... that doesn't change the time when people get off work. The reason most people want more light at the end of the day is so they don't have to drive home in the dark.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    2. Re:I'm surrounded by morons by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Umm... that doesn't change the time when people get off work. The reason most people want more light at the end of the day is so they don't have to drive home in the dark.

      Then change work hours.

      If that time shift is something that we really want, as a society, then that shouldn't be too hard. Heck, I've known businesses, churches, and other entities that had "summer hours" anyway, even with the clock shift.

      Or heck, legislate a shift in work hours. It's hardly more oppressive than legislating capricious changes in the freakin' clock

    3. Re:I'm surrounded by morons by ranton · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What kind of moron thinks that he doesn't have the ability to choose his own career and work when he likes?

      So any grievance you have that isn't horrible enough to prompt you to quit your job is not worthy of complaints? Get a grip.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    4. Re:I'm surrounded by morons by dgatwood · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Most people don't get to choose their work hours. I realize that in high tech, folks insist on flexible work hours, but it isn't the norm in most industries, because most businesses are customer-centric, which tends to result in fairly rigid work hours built around when those customers need them.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  4. Helping retailers by jd659 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Interesting interview on the reasons behind the DST was on NPR with the author of "Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time". "The upcoming shift in the daylight-saving time change is designed to help retailers — and is a substitute for a genuine energy policy, says author Michael Downing. Congress moved the time shift up this year. Melissa Block talks with Michael Downing, author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time." http://www.npr.org/templates/s... No DST is fine with me.

    --
    There's no such thing as "illegal download"
    1. Re:Helping retailers by TapeCutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Here in Melbourne, DST means my street is clogged with the parked cars of beachgoers in the evening, and yeah it definitely keeps the small shopping strip alive. Like many people in IT I have flexible working hours, neither I, or my boss, or his boss, gives a flying fuck what the clock says. However the vast majority of workers are not so fortunate, for them it's fixed hours or nothing. So if these people want to change the clock so more daylight is available after they knock off why should I care?

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  5. Against it by ATMAvatar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Daylight Saving Time is an awful idea, compounded by the fact that the rules change from location to location and can change from year to year. In computer systems, it gets even worse when you consider that different systems have different rules still, and talking to two of them at the same time can lead to irreconcilable differences which cause all kinds of headaches.

    --
    "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
  6. Simple: Dumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Only the egotistical mind of a politician can fathom the ridiculous idea of starting and stopping the earths spin twice a year

  7. Make DST standard by ArchieBunker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Make it DST year round. Daylight in the evening is much better than the mornings. You're going to work in the morning anyhow, who cares how light it is? You get out of work and still have daylight left, awesome.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  8. Against it by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Statistics show that the heart attack rate shows a small but significant peak following the weekend DST is activated. You're fucking with the biorhythm of people in ways that are only rivaled by forcing them to travel from east to west coast twice a year and having to adjust the time accordingly. And for what? "More sunlight hours" in the Summer (because, yes, the NORMAL time is the time you have in WINTER!)? So more time that I have to deal with screen glare, yeah, that's what I want!

    4 out of 5 people are "night" people, i.e. people who have less trouble adapting to staying up later than they have to getting up early. And why the fuck are we catering to the 20%?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  9. Ben Franklin's joke by SternisheFan · · Score: 4, Informative
    " Back in 1784, hanging out in Paris and heady with Enlightenment, Benjamin Franklin had an idea. Struck by the fact that Parisians were sleeping during sunlight hours and then staying up late at night by candlelight, he calculated the number of candles that were being wasted -- and came up with a very impressive number, 64 million pounds worth of them. Franklin therefore jokingly proposed a massive schedule change, noting that a fortune could be saved through "the economy of using sunshine instead of candles," and even suggested at one point that perhaps cannons be fired at sunrise to get everybody out of bed."

    .... "The researchers also had the cooperation of Duke Energy, which provided a massive data set of monthly utility bills for nearly 230,000 Indiana residents, organized by their locations. And they had weather data, meaning that they could chart energy use against temperature fluctuations (which are obviously a very central factor in heating and cooling). And the results, at least for followers of Franklin, were shocking: Daylight saving time increased energy use in the counties that had just switched to it, by about 1 percent during the period when it was in effect. The overall cost translated into $ 3.29 per person per year -- nearly $ 9 million overall across Indiana. And on top of that, the added pollution resulted in an additional $ 1.7 to $ 5.5 million per year in “social” costs. Ouch."

    Source : www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/31/daylight-saving-time-may-increase-your-energy-bill/

    1. Re:Ben Franklin's joke by Greyfox · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hopefully Franklin's takeway from this is that one should never make suggestions ironically because some incompetent twit will think it's a good idea and implement it.

      --

      I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  10. Re:I live in Arizona, and it's a pain by lgw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    TV schedules? Like, from the 20th century? My grandfather read about those in a history book once! People use to schedule their lives around entertainment which was, get this, broadcast to everyone at the same time. Weird, right? It's true, the past is a foreign country.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  11. Where I stand... by acroyear · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...is in a place where, after 15 years of /., I am sick and tired of having this very same, and pointless (since nobody ever changes anybody's minds here), discussion twice a year, every year, like clockwork.

    --
    "But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
    -- Joe
  12. So much fuss. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm not losing any sleep over it.

    1. Re:So much fuss. by geminidomino · · Score: 5, Funny

      You will in the spring!

  13. Re:Who cares if it makes sense,,, by rwa2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Eh, I just set everything to UTC and don't worry about weird things, like cron jobs between midnight and 1am running twice or not at all every once in a while.

    Of course, my last major employer has everything set to PST/PDT, since that's where their major data center is, even though they have rather large branches in every major timezones. And because of some stupid thing in Oracle 10/11 of all things, all of the new data centers in other time zones /also/ are running in PST/PDT, because it's the only way to get Oracle's XDCR to work.

    Which means their new international data center in China will not only be on PST/PDT, but will enjoy 4 DST transitions per year, since China switches their clocks a few weeks off from North America.

  14. Re:Who cares if it makes sense,,, by Noah+Haders · · Score: 5, Funny

    a pet peeve of mine is that when people quote a time like "1pm pacific time" but want to feel fancy they say "1pm PDT". about half the time they are wrong and should have said 1pm PST! When they're wrong I'm always tempted to show up an hour early or late and feign innocence, saying that I was just doing what they said.

  15. People don't complain when they are happy by sjbe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I hear a lot of complaining about daylight savings time, but I really don't hear much in the way of support in favor of it.

    That's because people tend to be loud if they don't like something but tend not to say much if they either like it or don't care. After all - what's the point of cheering for DST since that is what we already have? Yea for the status quo?

    Personally I wish we would go to Daylight Saving Time year around. I want as much time with sunlight after work as possible. When we shift back to standard time I go to work when it's dark and come home when it is dark. With DST I would at least get an hour or so of daylight in the winter.

  16. Re:I live in Arizona, and it's a pain by PAjamian · · Score: 5, Informative

    We don't celebrate DST in Tucson, but all my distant suppliers etc. do, so I have to adjust my mental clock to deal with their different offsets.

    Try living in New Zealand and having clients in California. Since NZ is in the southern hemisphere our summer is during your winter and vice-versa, so during our summer (and your winter) we are three hours apart* from US/Pacific, but during our winter and your summer we are five hours apart and in-between there is about a month where DST overlaps in both fall and spring and we are four hours apart.

    * Actually 21 hours, but it's easier to think of it as us being a day ahead and three hours behind.

    --
    Windows is a bonfire, Linux is the sun. Linux only looks smaller if you lack perspective.
  17. Re:Who cares if it makes sense,,, by Tough+Love · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We spent thousands of man years on making this shit work...

    It doesn't work. It has never worked. It will never work. It is nothing less than one metric ton of pure unadulteraded idiocy, always has been and always will be.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  18. Re: Who cares if it makes sense,,, by corychristison · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here in Saskatchewan, we do not observe Daylight Saving Time. The entire province is really smack dab center between two timezones. A number of years ago our provincial government decided to do away with DST. We are now, effectively, permanently in Central Standard Time.

    As a business owner, who deals with clients across North America, I have a lot of people try to correct me when I say our timezone is CST, and they believe it should be CDT. Some people simply cannot comprehend that we don't observe DST.

    As an aside, the only argument we have about the time around here is whether we are stuck on CST or MDT.