January 12th, 2007
the times they are a-changin’ - Daylight Saving, that is
The great poet, Bob Dylan predicted these times:
Come gather round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'
OK, so maybe you won't get drenched or sink like a stone, but if you ignore this, you'll certainly be early for meetings for 3 weeks in March. Why is that, you ask?
Well, dial the wayback machine to August 2005, when the American Congress passed the Energy Policy Act which contained a provision to move Daylight Saving Time back 3 weeks in the Spring and extend it out a week in November. Now dial that machine back to today and hear yourself saying "OH SNAP!, Why didn't I look at this before now?!" Uh Oh.
So what's the deal? Normally, on the first week in April, your computers and automated systems of all kinds wake themselves up and know automatically to move everything forward an hour. (You manually reset the old fashioned clocks, including the ones in your car) How do they know to do this? There are settings - in Windows its registry settings, in Java its a table, in other systems - its other places, but there's a definition somewhere that tells the computer that on that date, at 2 AM, change things until I tell you otherwise, which as far as your OS knows now is the last Sunday in October. Problem is, this year, and until they decide to change it again, your computer will be wrong. That means everything that relies on your computer for knowing what time it is will be wrong.
Which is every piece of software you own.
OH SNAP!
What's affected? mmmm - let's see - all operating systems, Lotus Notes and Domino, Outlook, the Video Poker game you have over there listed under "Accessories", the magic automated, ceiling projection alarm clock on my nightstand, etc. OK, those are annoying, but let's talk real issues - credit card processing software, wire transfer software, stock trading software, electronic power and gas meters, things that cost real money will also be an hour off without intervention.
DOUBLE SNAP!
Mr. Dylan is looking smarter - feeling drenched? That's the sweat running down your collar because you didn't read the stuff that's been in the trade rags, (as far back as when the law was passed) and web sites like IBM's and Microsoft's, and Sun's.
"I'm late, I'm late for a very important date. No time to say hello, good-bye, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late" - The Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland
So, hop to it - hit those links up there and start planning - heck we're 2 months out! Start doing something! Start by prepping and updating your Operating Systems - they need to be told what the new start and stop dates will be this year. Look at Java and what its doing in your systems. (Sun and IBM have fixes for their Java) Then figure out the things that will cost your company money and get those updated. The existing calendar items will need to be updated, even after you get the OS updated, so we'll talk about those later (there's time).
I'll blog more and often in the time between now and Lotusphere. I'll be in the DPI Lab at Lotusphere if you want to talk about it also.
Here's the thing though - you'll get through it. Our friends Down Under just went through this with 3 weeks notice from their legislators and nothing imploded. Australia also changed the DST parameters for various sporting events in the past decade. Brazil makes Daylight Saving changes practically every year. Indiana changed some areas last year. It's our turn in the larger areas of the US and Canada now - we just haven't done it in a long time on a large scale.
Just what we needed, right? More coming soon!
