Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Daylight Savings Time Reminder
We pointed this out last year, but the changes made to the Daylight Savings Time can still cause problems for you and your business this weekend. We posted many details and fixes last year.
This month makes it officially one year for the Small Business Tech blog. We have had many good comments over the past year. We appreciate your input on the 71 articles that we have posted in the past year.
Back to Daylight Savings Time...
Due to Indiana beginning to observer DST in 2006 researchers have finally been able to gauge the savings from this scheme...ahem...I mean plan. It turns out that we actually save very little. You can read the whole more here.
This month makes it officially one year for the Small Business Tech blog. We have had many good comments over the past year. We appreciate your input on the 71 articles that we have posted in the past year.
Back to Daylight Savings Time...
Due to Indiana beginning to observer DST in 2006 researchers have finally been able to gauge the savings from this scheme...ahem...I mean plan. It turns out that we actually save very little. You can read the whole more here.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
What Time Is It
Just a reminder that Daylight Savings Time did not end this weekend. In spite of the time displayed by many of your gadgets and possibly some of your computers, the time actually falls back one hour next weekend. In March at the start of Daylight Savings Time I posted some fixes for computer operating systems.
To add confusion to my older devices that still stick to the old schedule, I spent the weekend in the central time zone.
To add confusion to my older devices that still stick to the old schedule, I spent the weekend in the central time zone.
Labels: DST
Friday, March 2, 2007
Change of Daylight Savings Time
The United States Congress has given us a nice springtime gift. They passed legislation in July of last year to extend Daylight Savings Time. This is the equivalent to a mini-Y2K. The reason given for the change is to save energy. The belief is that since Americans use the most energy in the evening, if you move it ahead by one hour we will save energy. The new dates for the change are March 11th and November 4 this year. (Here is a chart for dates up to 2040)
The difference between this event and Y2K is that this will happen four times this year. Hopefully you will be able to fix everything just once. I have ran down some common computer operating systems and how they are affected and more importantly, fixed.
Windows Vista - The best news! It shipped with the problem fixed. You are good to go.
Windows XP - Great news! Microsoft has released a patch. Even greater news! It does not appear to break anything*.
Windows 2000 - Bad news! Microsoft has NOT released a patch. Good news! A third-party has created an easy to use patch utility that does not appear to break anything*. You can find the unofficial, third-party patch at Intelliadmin. Microsoft has a procedure, but it is not for the faint of heart.
Microsoft Office - Not so bad! The only patch available is for Outlook. The calendar function needs to be updated to handle future appointments. Microsoft has supplied a repair utility for Office 2003 and 2007.
Other Software - Just about every software vendor that provides mission-critical software has released information about potential problems. Most problems that I have seen are fairly minor. The most significant seem to be when data is moving across time zones. An example would be branch offices feeding data to a central data center. Check with your software vendor for any possible advisories.
*I have tested these patches in my environments, but they may not work with your particular software. Test any way possible before installing into a working system.
The difference between this event and Y2K is that this will happen four times this year. Hopefully you will be able to fix everything just once. I have ran down some common computer operating systems and how they are affected and more importantly, fixed.
Windows Vista - The best news! It shipped with the problem fixed. You are good to go.
Windows XP - Great news! Microsoft has released a patch. Even greater news! It does not appear to break anything*.
Windows 2000 - Bad news! Microsoft has NOT released a patch. Good news! A third-party has created an easy to use patch utility that does not appear to break anything*. You can find the unofficial, third-party patch at Intelliadmin. Microsoft has a procedure, but it is not for the faint of heart.
Microsoft Office - Not so bad! The only patch available is for Outlook. The calendar function needs to be updated to handle future appointments. Microsoft has supplied a repair utility for Office 2003 and 2007.
Other Software - Just about every software vendor that provides mission-critical software has released information about potential problems. Most problems that I have seen are fairly minor. The most significant seem to be when data is moving across time zones. An example would be branch offices feeding data to a central data center. Check with your software vendor for any possible advisories.
*I have tested these patches in my environments, but they may not work with your particular software. Test any way possible before installing into a working system.
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