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Daylight Savings Another Millenium Bug?

Posted by Ryan L. / March 5, 2007

20070303_bug.jpgIts an easy thing to forget about, but it may come back and bite us all in the butt in about a week. Last year, the US decided to change its rules on when to bring in Daylight Savings. Since then, most countries have realigned their own rules in order to make that silly old concept of "time" still apply in our universe.

Moving the day up about a month, and having it last for an extra week shouldn't be a problem right? We gain that extra hour of sleep back and still get the see the sun after a long day of work.

Well, there may be a slight problem with that. I'll give you a clue, it has to do with the box you're using to read this story right now.

You see, computers, and most digital electronic devices, aren't set to compensate for the change in date. Daylight savings may arrive and you wouldn't know it.

This may not be a big deal to people in their everyday lives. Change the clock, no biggie. But consider computers and the like that regulate things like airline travel, stock market openings and closings, energy savings, and a bevy of other automated goodness.

Its hoped that most companies in time sensitive areas are on top of this. But I would double check my plane ticket before setting out for Pearson next Sunday night. You never know.

Discussion

6 Comments

Sameer Vasta / March 5, 2007 at 11:28 am
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I'm stocking up on canned foods and heading into my storm shelter on Thursday. =)
BlairF / March 5, 2007 at 12:51 pm
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Apple's released an update to its software to compensate! :) Just so yah know ...
paul / March 5, 2007 at 02:15 pm
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It's not most countries - it's only parts of the Americas that are affected.

It's a shame NPR.org don't credit the source of their article - at least WebExhibits.org do. (See http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/k.html)
sookie / March 5, 2007 at 04:12 pm
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yeah, I did my mac update already. isn't there something similar to this in the PC world?
on the bright side I imagine it's put a whole whack of programmers to work just like Y2K.
Ben / March 6, 2007 at 09:06 am
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pff, storm shelter. I am taking a years supply of fresh water and going to live in a cave high in the mountains (just for a year).
Pera / March 6, 2007 at 06:26 pm
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"We gain that extra hour of sleep back"
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Wrong. We lose one hour of sleep when the clocks go forward 1 hour.

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