The Ides o' March bug

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Time change: Y2K all over again?

By Charles Babington

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON ? It seemed so simple and familiar: Spring forward, fall
back. For 20 years, that's what Americans ? and their technology ?
have done with their clocks on the first Sunday in April and the last
Sunday in October.

No longer. When few people were paying attention in August 2005,
Congress lengthened daylight-saving time by four ws in the name of
energy efficiency. The change starts this year ? on March 11 ? and it
has angered airlines, delighted candy makers, and sent thousands of
technicians scrambling to make sure countless automated systems switch
their clocks at the right moment.
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The codin' fools do it again..

Lovely!

<berlutte@hotmail.com> wrote in message
 news:knvfs2llk5reta5oa1dtilagrqgnjeampj@
4ax.com...
> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ht...>
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>
>
> Time change: Y2K all over again?
>
> By Charles Babington
>
> The Washington Post
>
> No longer. When few people were paying attention in August 2005,
> Congress lengthened daylight-saving time by four ws in the name of
> energy efficiency. The change starts this year ? on March 11 ? ..

I don't know that this will result in "Y2K all over again" but I do know in
this part of the country it will result in kids meeting (spring) and getting
off (fall) the schoolbus in the dark more days than under the current
arrangement.

Another brilliant 'solution' from those 535 people who believe doing
'something, anything'  is better than doing 'something, intelligent.'

MCM
Racine WI

In article <qr%xh.52655$QU1.50795@newssvr22.news.prodigy.net>,
Michael Mattias <mmattias@talsystems.com> wrote:
><berlutte@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:knvfs2llk5reta5oa1dtilagrqgnjeampj@
4ax.com... 
>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ht.../>
ication=rss 

[snip]

>Another brilliant 'solution' from those 535 people who believe doing
>'something, anything'  is better than doing 'something, intelligent.'

That may be a result of having democratically-elected representatives, Mr
Mattias; I believe it was H L Mencken who said something along the lines
of 'Give the people what they want... they deserve it.'

DD

On Tue, 6 Feb 2007 07:31:46 -0600, "Michael Mattias"
<mmattias@talsystems.com> wrote:

>I don't know that this will result in "Y2K all over again" but I do know in
>this part of the country it will result in kids meeting (spring) and gettin
g
>off (fall) the schoolbus in the dark more days than under the current
>arrangement.

I go to work in the dark so I can go home in the light.   But it is my
choice.   Changing the clock won't change how much light I have
available.   Daylight Savings Time was Franklin's worst idea.

I agree with China - only more so.  China has one time zone (whereas
Siberia above it has a bunch).    The US might be moving to ESPN time,
but I'd rather have us all on Zulu.    Certainly data processing would
be easier.

A while back, my son-in-law got an E-mail setting up an appointment to
talk to his bosses in Seattle.   So he flew out there and was an hour
late - Outlook translated his meeting time to Rocky Mountain time.

berlutte@hotmail.com wrote:
> WASHINGTON ? It seemed so simple and familiar: Spring forward, fall
> back. For 20 years, that's what Americans ? and their technology ?
> have done with their clocks on the first Sunday in April and the last
> Sunday in October.

Notice that's only for the past 20 years.  I remember when there was
even less DST than we had pre-2005.

> No longer. When few people were paying attention in August 2005,
> Congress lengthened daylight-saving time by four ws in the name of
> energy efficiency. The change starts this year ? on March 11 ? and it
> has angered airlines, delighted candy makers, and sent thousands of
> technicians scrambling to make sure countless automated systems switch
> their clocks at the right moment.

This is one reason that good system designers get paid more than
mediocre ones.  A good design for something like this is configurable,
especially since the USA is not the only country to establish DST
periods.  It's been different in Europe for a long time.

On our particular system, we don't have an "automatic roll" to DST,
because date/time offsets are configured at the unit level.  If a unit
is in Arizona, or Europe, or Guam, they may change at a different time.
Then, in our database, we store the history - what it was before it
changed, and the date/time that it changed.  Using these records, we can
convert local to Zulu as far back as the early 80's for some bases.

For languages with Date libraries, this is a simple swap of modules.
There should be pre-1987 adjustments for conversions, so just add the
post-2006 ones to it.  For systems that are a bit more inflexible -
well, they've known since August 2005, and have no one to blame but
themselves.

As far as airlines - I'd be really surprised if most all dates/times in
airline systems are stored as Zulu, and translated when presented to the
user.  In this case, all that has to change is the translation routine -
a much lower-priority (and usually more isolated) fix.  And again - a
year and a half should be plenty of time to change that.

Personally, I'd like to see us all go to a 24-hour Zulu clock.  So what
if you didn't go to work at "7" and get off at "4"?  Of course, since
EST is GMT-5, the old song "9 to 5" wouldn't flow quite as well...

"Workin' 1400 to 2200, what a way to make a livin'..."  ;)

--
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~   /   \  /         ~        Live from Montgomery, AL!       ~
~  /     \/       o  ~                                        ~
~ /      /\   -   |  ~          daniel@thebelowdomain         ~
~ _____ /  \      |  ~      http://www.djs-consulting.com     ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ GEEKCODE 3.12 GCS/IT d s-:+ a C++ L++ E--- W++ N++ o? K- w$ ~
~ !O M-- V PS+ PE++ Y? !PGP t+ 5? X+ R* tv b+ DI++ D+ G- e    ~
~ h---- r+++ z++++                                            ~
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Who is more irrational?  A man who believes in a God he doesn't see, or
a man who's offended by a God he doesn't believe in?" - Brad Stine

Michael Mattias wrote:
>
> Another brilliant 'solution' from those 535 people who believe doing
> 'something, anything'  is better than doing 'something, intelligent.'

Just remember...  "Con" is the opposite of "pro", so "Congress" is the
opposite of "progress".

(For you non-US folks - Congress is our Parliament, Legislature, etc.)

--
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~   /   \  /         ~        Live from Montgomery, AL!       ~
~  /     \/       o  ~                                        ~
~ /      /\   -   |  ~          daniel@thebelowdomain         ~
~ _____ /  \      |  ~      http://www.djs-consulting.com     ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ GEEKCODE 3.12 GCS/IT d s-:+ a C++ L++ E--- W++ N++ o? K- w$ ~
~ !O M-- V PS+ PE++ Y? !PGP t+ 5? X+ R* tv b+ DI++ D+ G- e    ~
~ h---- r+++ z++++                                            ~
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Who is more irrational?  A man who believes in a God he doesn't see, or
a man who's offended by a God he doesn't believe in?" - Brad Stine

On Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:27:11 -0600, LX-i <lxi0007@netscape.net> wrote:

>Personally, I'd like to see us all go to a 24-hour Zulu clock.  So what
>if you didn't go to work at "7" and get off at "4"?  Of course, since
>EST is GMT-5, the old song "9 to 5" wouldn't flow quite as well...

I have never worked "9 to 5".

Do those people who work "9 to 5" skip lunch or do they work fewer
than 8 hours?

When customers are in different time zones, companies like having some
workers coming in early, and others leaving late.   This is a world
economy, and even though I now work for a university, I choose to be
at work at 6:30 - allowing me to leave while it's still light during
the Winter (provided we aren't in project mode).

>"Workin' 1400 to 2200, what a way to make a livin'..."  ;)

Howard Brazee wrote:
> On Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:27:11 -0600, LX-i <lxi0007@netscape.net> wrote:
> 
>
> I have never worked "9 to 5".
>
> Do those people who work "9 to 5" skip lunch or do they work fewer
> than 8 hours?

I think that's the "banker's hours" schedule.  Banks don't open at 9,
and since they close at 4, you get that extra hour to get everything
done.  I think they still take lunch, though it may be 1/2 hour instead
of an hour.

> When customers are in different time zones, companies like having some
> workers coming in early, and others leaving late.   This is a world
> economy, and even though I now work for a university, I choose to be
> at work at 6:30 - allowing me to leave while it's still light during
> the Winter (provided we aren't in project mode).

I grew up in Eastern time - standard time to start a job was 0800.
Since I've been in the military, I've been in Central, and sure enough,
most folks are in between 0700 and 0730.  It's weird how that works.

I was really frustrated with the time difference while I was deployed -
there was a small window to call folks back in the states (outside of my
wife, of course) where I'd actually be able to get someone.

My web host is open normal hours, but it's Pacific.  I can't call them
until lunchtime here, although I could stay up pretty late and still be
able to call them.  (On the upside, they have 24-hour e-mail customer
service, and the only time I've had to call them was to take care of
account issues.  Their e-mail tech support folks are pretty good.)

--
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~   /   \  /         ~        Live from Montgomery, AL!       ~
~  /     \/       o  ~                                        ~
~ /      /\   -   |  ~          daniel@thebelowdomain         ~
~ _____ /  \      |  ~      http://www.djs-consulting.com     ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ GEEKCODE 3.12 GCS/IT d s-:+ a C++ L++ E--- W++ N++ o? K- w$ ~
~ !O M-- V PS+ PE++ Y? !PGP t+ 5? X+ R* tv b+ DI++ D+ G- e    ~
~ h---- r+++ z++++                                            ~
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Who is more irrational?  A man who believes in a God he doesn't see, or
a man who's offended by a God he doesn't believe in?" - Brad Stine