09 March 2007

PSA: Daylight Savings Time

In the U.S. and Canada, Daylight Savings Time stands to be more treacherous than usual.

First of all, if it seems like it's too early for all of this nonsense, you're right. The "spring forward" time change will being three weeks earlier (the second Sunday in March instead of the first Sunday in April). The "fall back" will also happen later (the second Sunday in November instead of the last Sunday in October). Supposedly, the lengthening of the time shift is to help conserve energy, like one that was also temporarily enacted in the U.S. in the 1970's.

My A5 day-per-page Filo shows the new start date, March 11, as shown here. My week-per-2-pages Personal size still shows the former, first-Sunday-in-April start date. I guess it was printed earlier, before the enactment. The European version -- Summer Time -- remains March 25th, shown correctly in both Filos, free from the mood swings we're so prone to in the Western Hemisphere.

But the trouble continues. This shift in daylight time is going to affect one heck of a lot more computers than there were during the Carter administration. Computers built before 2005 are unequipped to deal with this change. Some folks are even calling the situation Y2K7.

If you rely on a computerized calendar instead of a Filofax, and if you need to know exactly when your email was sent, you have a couple of options. You can change your computer's clock manually. Or, if you use one of the popular Mac or Windows operating systems, use your computer's Software Update feature to make sure you've installed the very latest updates. Both Microsoft and Apple have created updates that compensate for the daylight time change.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Filofax to debug ... anybody got a pen?

4 comments:

  1. Whilst based in SE Wales my office clock is set to PST (Head Office). So I now leave work an hour later but at the same time! Chocolate Filo says all will be put right on 25 March when Europe and America will once again be in sync. Personally I’d like to remain on good old fashioned GMT all year round. I’ve lost count of the number of clocks and watches that need resetting in the bi annual DST chore.

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  2. Tonight the clocks go forward by an hour in the UK and we loose an hour of our weekend. If the clocks have to be messed about with, is there a case for doing this mid week? Apple have a 72MB update for their OS to include “Time zone and daylight saving for 2006 and 2007” (as mentioned by Nan). Who said paper was inefficient?

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  3. Unfortunately, the majority of calendars were printed prior to the law taking effect. So the listing for 2007 DST change is incorrect in many brands (my wall calendar has the same problem).

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  4. My wall calendar doesn't even show Easter. That's really hedging the bets.

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