SeniorGeek
Below the Line
The new Daylight Saving Time schedule could be a miniature version of Y2K.
Y2K was not the crisis many had feared, because every nerd and geek became involved in heading off a crisis. The Y2K changes were about the ability to count beyond 99, but the DST changes are about what time it is (or will be) on any particular day in a particular place.
I think the change in the U.S. Daylight Saving Time schedule could create some of the types of problems we thought would happen on 01/01/2000, such as machine-controlled processes that happen at the wrong time. For instance: bank transactions that arrive after a cutoff time, so an entire payroll does not get credited to individual accounts on the right day. (I work in a building that has a timer system for most of the lights. If I arrive before 6AM, none of the wall switches work.)
About Daylight Saving Time - History, rationale, laws & dates has more info about Daylight Saving time, including the new dates and some history.
Two things that have a personal effect on me:
Y2K was not the crisis many had feared, because every nerd and geek became involved in heading off a crisis. The Y2K changes were about the ability to count beyond 99, but the DST changes are about what time it is (or will be) on any particular day in a particular place.
I think the change in the U.S. Daylight Saving Time schedule could create some of the types of problems we thought would happen on 01/01/2000, such as machine-controlled processes that happen at the wrong time. For instance: bank transactions that arrive after a cutoff time, so an entire payroll does not get credited to individual accounts on the right day. (I work in a building that has a timer system for most of the lights. If I arrive before 6AM, none of the wall switches work.)
About Daylight Saving Time - History, rationale, laws & dates has more info about Daylight Saving time, including the new dates and some history.
Two things that have a personal effect on me:
- I have an expensive watch that changes the time for me. The manufacturer does not yet have a way to update the watch.
- Because Winter officially ends the 20th or 21st of March each year, a week or two after the clocks move forward, this saying just does NOT sound right:
