I didn’t get anything prepared last night for today, and we’re doing daylight savings patches today at work on everyone’s workstations. It’s the Y2K thing all over again, courtesy of our friends in Congress who probably thought they were actually accomplishing something, and didn’t think about the technological terror they were constructing with this asinine change.
Microsoft wants $4000 bucks for the daylight savings time patch for Windows 2000. Now, it’s one thing to say something is off support, and they won’t be patching anymore. But they are still providing security updates and such for Windows 2000 for free. You have the patch, it’s critical for your customers, you provide that as a courtesy. This is a way for Microsoft to subtly encourage users to upgrade, if by subtly it’s meant that they are hitting you over the head with a 2×4 and shouting “Upgrade, bitch!” at you.
I’d love to switch to something else, but Microsoft has a good little monopoly going, and there’s not much we can do about it. I use Linux and MacOS personally, and at work, so I have no use for Windows. But try convincing people to go without Visio, and things like that. You won’t have much luck.  OpenOffice is a good substitute for Microsoft Office, but it’s almost formats things properly when converting back and fourth to word format. I deviate from my libertarian instincts when it comes to Microsoft, or monopolies in general.
Am I the only one on the right who really doesn’t mind the DST switch? I see a lot of people complaining about it, but I’m okay with it. Yes, it’s a pain in the ass for tech, but I blame the people who programmed things. :)
Errm
Mac has a virtual monopoly with iTunes and the iPod. They refuse to license the DRM to anyone else.
If MS did that everyone would be howling for their blood.
But I guess Jobs gets a free pass on that.
If you want to bitch about monopoly practices at least be consistent.
Apple’s DRM is easily circumvented, but you just can’t do it with a simple hack. Buy a song from iTunes, it’s got DRM. Burn it to a CD. Then rename the iTunes song to something else (or remove it from your iTunes library entirely) and rip the CD back into iTunes. It’s now an MP3 with no DRM.
I wouldn’t blame Apple for implementing it anyway. iTunes wouldn’t exist because the record lables would have never given their permission to sell electronic copies. Steve Jobs personally hates the fact that he has to sell DRM’d music.
It’s not really the programmers fault. Daylight Savings Time has a distinct beginning and end, which are programmed into computers so they can adjust accordingly. There’s no real way to get around that problem. I don’t mind the idea of extending DST, but Congress should have realized it would cause a major technological problem. DST is one of those things that should not really be messed with unless it’s just abolished. Too many things depend on it.
But just as many things would have to be fixed if they abolished it, right?
Not if you’re in Arizona! We ignore that silly Daylight Savings Time thing here.
Right, but you’d only have to do i once, and it would eliminate the problem entirely. The only issue after that could be if you switch the time zones around. Ideally, if computer engineers ran the world, we’d all just agree to use GMT. Then you’d just get used to when it’s high noon, local time. If noon were at 5, it’d be a bit weird, but you’d get used to it.
But computer engineers, and perhaps bloggers, rarely come out of their basements to look at the giant burning ball in the sky. It scares us.
I don’t understand the need to patch all of the workstations. Most computers, at least in the business world, get the time from a network server somewhere when they log on to their workplace LAN. I’d imagine that it would be easier to require that just the network server have to get patched, rather than all of the workstations.
Of course, it’s just a patch, but I get absolutely annoyed when I’m in the middle of working and one of those automatic Windows updates comes down and the message box pops up asking me if I’d like to reboot now.
Just set the right time when I connect to that Interweb thing.
When DST was changed, sysadmins everywhere cried themselves to sleep.
You could run Windows under a virtual machine in order to access Microsoft’s apps. Of course, Microsoft has basically forbidden it with their Vista EULA.
A remote desktop server would probably be ideal, but Microsoft tries to hook you into buying their most expensive software.
I think the network servers only sync the actual system clock. It’s still up to the local system to calculate Daylight Savings Time and time zone. Otherwise you couldn’t use an NTP server outside of your time zone.
Since NTP uses universal time (UTC), it may be possible to pass it through a proxy and modify the data to add or remove time. The system time only adds on the timezone and DST offsets after it receives the universal time.
I’d have to research this some more…
I’m a little sick of this fraud of Daylight Savings Time, and I’m getting pretty sore headed at people that pretend it is real.
I tried three years in a row. I really did. I bought the best jars (Mason canning jars, with rubber seal vacuum lids) and for three years in a row I set them out in the back yard when DST was declared and filled them to the brims. Sealed them, boxed them, and put them in the root cellar for safekeeping until winter.
Ok, I admit I may have done something wrong the first year as it was a new concept for me. But three years in a row? Even after upgrades in procedures? Nawww, I ain’t buying it. The light leaked out of every jar every time I tried it. I would go to the root cellar with the idea of placing the jars around the yard at sunset in winter during the short daylight hours and not a damn one of them did a thing to light the yard.
I am damn sick and tired of this fraud and frankly I am a little surprised that you are perpetuating this myth. Daylight cannot be saved. At least not with today’s technology. You guys are starting to sound like Al Gore. FOR SHAME!
In Europe, they just call it “summer time”,which is a far better description.