Microsoft Daylight Savings Time

[den]

Daylight Savings Time/Summer Time this year has been extended a week in the eastern states that do that sort of thing, so that we can all watch the Commonwealth Games at the same time. The trouble is no one has told Windows this and computers all over the South East will dutifully put the clocks back one hour, making everyone an hour late. Never Fear! Microsoft to the rescue! They have issued a patch to correct this problem. All Windows users in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania should patch their systems, or follow the official Microsoft advice "Do not create appointments during the overlap period until after the operating system time zone has been updated."

But don't forget: after April 2 you have to unapply the patch so your system clock will automatically update to the correct time.

Since I'm a bit techy and not afraid of doing things myself, I'll be double-clicking on the clock at the bottom right of the screen and manually advancing the time. I feel confident that I can do this without help, or at least without too much help, and I'm sure there won't be too many problems. james_b and makovette, if something does go wrong can I call?

Comments

[trpeal.livejournal.com]

You live on the edge, Den, for sure.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

The ragged edge, mate.

[azhreia.livejournal.com]

sliding down the razorblade of life, fersure.

[level-head.livejournal.com]

*chuckle*

You may be sent to your room with a time-out...

===|==============/ Level Head

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

It'll only be for an hour. I can handle that.

[hedgegoth.livejournal.com]

You Fool! You must not try to do anything at all manually to your computer!

The great and powerful Bob will be angry!

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I have a rubber chicken.

[hedgegoth.livejournal.com]

Oh. Well that's ok then.

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Narf!!!!

:-D

CYa!
Mako
Timely Zzyzxian

[cosmicjester.livejournal.com]

Things like this make me glad I live in Arizona. We don't do Daylight Saving Time here... when it's 110 in the shade, who wants more waking daylight hours? Bring on the cool darkness!

[jamesb]

Silly southerners ... All that extra daylight is going to fade the curtains, and is probably the main cause of global warming.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I have some left over from last year.

[jamesb]

I hope it's not all kept in one place. When it reaches critical mass, there's no telling what will happen.

[quen-elf.livejournal.com]

Argh! Don't do that! That's evil! Your computer won't know what time it really is! :)

Seriously, it probably doesn't matter unless you run servers. But computers these days like to know the 'real' time (number of milliseconds since Jan 1 1970 00:00 GMT) as well as whatever time it is where you are. That's why there is a difference between just setting your clock (which will change the 'real' time) and a patch that alters the dates on which time zones apply (which will change the timezone offset it uses for those particular dates).

I'm kind of surprised you have to unapply the patch afterwards - it should really apply 'for ever more', so that if (say next year) you ask it to convert a 'real' GMT-based time to local time, and if the real time is within the affected week *this* year, it would still know about the different time zone for that week. But perhaps they've done a mickey mouse patch rather than a proper one that applies specifically to this year.

Incidentally it certainly doesn't just affect MS. Time zone things are supposed to be decided years in advance, so it's a little bit unhelpful if a local government changes it on a random whim! Expect a lot of clocks to be wrong during that week. Time's important, and can get hideously complicated, so it would really be better if nobody changed time zones without at least several years' notice. That way software manufacturers could correct their systems properly, not with a hurried patch.

[klishnor.livejournal.com]

But perhaps they've done a mickey mouse patch rather than a proper one that applies specifically to this year.

Remember which company we're taking about here... have they ever done anything else?

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I think this a micky-mouse patch that simply changes the week DST stops, so if left in it would affect every year following 2006.

[annvole.livejournal.com]

In animation, there is the stange phenominum of absolutly perfect lip sync (based on the voice actor's real lip position for that frame) that looks out of sync. The sound track needs to then be adjusted a few frames off to make it appear to be in sync. This adjustment is usually called "Mickey Mousing". Sometimes live action can look off too and also need some Mickey Mousing but there seems to be no consistant logic behind this phenominum. What is the logic behind changing the DST details? None that I can see.

[quen-elf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I kind of got that impression from reading the links. :( Still hard to believe though, as that's really bad...

I guess it may be due to a limitation in their overall system, i.e. it can't be configured to have different times for DST in different years without making more fundamental changes. So that'd be an excuse, kind of... but still, nasty. (And still deserves a good kicking for the authority that decided to change it with no notice!)

[elektron.livejournal.com]

Except Windows doesn't care about the real time ;)

(there are also plenty of problems with GMT/UTC/etc as it is, so an hour isn't really that much)