Time-shifting daylight saving time to wreak gadget havoc
posted August 8th 2005 7:30AM
No, not the good kind of time shifting about to go down up in here, but instead America's favorite old-school wartime tradition of energy conservation, daylight saving time (yes, no s), is about to get overhauled for 2007. We'll save our snippy comments about America's energy policy reform merely consisting of making DST three weeks earlier and ending it a week later than usual, but we would like to take a moment to think of all those devices out there that think they're supposed to switch over the first Sunday in April and back the last Sunday in October, and how their owners may be in for a rude awakening in a year and a half. Think devices with firmware not always easily updated, such as cellphones, alarm clocks, VCRs, etc. No, this isn't going to lead to the apocalypse, but just a big pain for a lot of consumers.
Ah, so that little corner of the globe US of A will for once join the rest. Question: will start/end of DST be flexible (but algorithm-based!) like in the developed world?
And why complain? You actually have gadgets over a year old??
I wonder how much the energy saving will be, couldn't find much info about it.
And slightly OT, anyone know where I get a similar clock to the one in the picture?
Things used to be simple first SUnday of October furst Sunday of April. Now we're stepping into the twilight zone with this here new policy. Second Sunday of April is it? sixth Sunday of October divided by 2? One Sunday carries over, add the totals and you get....a comfused public.
See? This is why all devices should sync their time off the electrical grid somehow. :-)
I wonder how many decades it'll take to recoup the energy wasted by all the effort in changing the dates.
#2: Have a search for 'Nixie Clock' and you should find what you are looking for. I think they run at about $200 - $300
http://www.amug.org/~jthomas/nixichron.html
For $500? No thanks! I'll settle for using an imrovised sun dial using my index finger and the palm of my hand.
Just found this:
http://www.amug.org/~jthomas/watch.html
The girls at school would be all over me when they see this. After all, it does come with a crusty battery.
i'm not getting, here..could someone explain.
frankthechicken - The savings from extending it the originally planed 2 months was about 1/2 of 1%. So we can presume the savings from a 1 month extension would be roughly half of that, 0.25%. There have to be better ways to save that little amount on energy.
why not just join the Kyoto pact?
It's nice to see that when our Special Olympians retire they have a career as a politician. Yeaahh!
Hardly a confused public at all - in the UK everyone just looks at their calendar or reads about it in the paper or hears it from a friend.
And how does the American public cope with Easter if they're so easily confused? ;-)
I see Christmas is on 25 December again this year...
Am I the only one who hates the clock going back? Sooo depressing.
If it weren't for the Scots (for whom daytime is shorter than us in the south) and farmers (though they're an endangered species anyway) I reckon the UK would be on central European time rather than GMT (or GMT+1 in the summer)
10 - yes, it does seem odd that the official US position is that global warming does not exist, oh but let's change our summertime just in case.
But the special olymics joke is a bit off colour - being physically disabled is not a mental impairment...
How many billons could we save just to stay on DST all year?
#13, it was intended solely on the mental impairment issue. No offense to anyone except our retarded politicians. I feel like they all put on cloaks and think they're Obi-Wan... There is no energy problem here. It's entirely a problem with the time. Move along now.
I wonder how much percentage of energy we'd save it all gov't buildings had to be solar and windpowered and all gov't vehicles had to be fuel cell by 2007? I bet more than .25 or even 1%.
Move to Arizona! No daylight saving time here. w00t!
I say we abolish DST altogether.
Where can I get that clock ?
Does anybody else have a problem with MS Outlook not adjusting for DST? Its clock is 1 hour behind my operating system clock.
I've never understood Daylight Saving ... it seems like some crazy big-government depression era mandate that never quite died ... why can't schools and businesses just have "summer hours" and "winter hours"? Aren't we smart enough to manage the hours of our lives without the government forcing us to constantly keep resetting our clocks? From a user experience perspective, changing clocks rather than schedules seems like the most idiotic idea ever. Kinda like reducing accidents by lowering the speed limit to 55 mph ... if that works, why not bring speeds down to 20 mph? The real solution is to build safer cars. And with Daylight Saving the real solution is to just acknowlege that the sun rises and sets at different hours according to the season, so just adjust your work and academic schedules accordingly.
#19 - there's a big reduction in road deaths by a small reduction in speed. I can't remember the exact figures but it's something like 80% fatality at 35mph, 20% fatality at 30mph (I'm talking pedestrians in collision here).
The 'safer cars' comment is well made but the probkem is that whiloe cars today are generally safer then ever, the safety is for the driver and passengers (ie the people in the car) and not for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. There's also a strong suggestion that safer cars are outweighted by the increased wrecklessness from the drivers - ie if you think you are safe you take more risks and thus are more likely to have an argument.
The only 'answer' is public transport, higher fuel costs and more expensive cars!
#20, a wreck is a crash. So wreckless driving is good.
I believe the term you want is "reckless" as in "careless."
#19...I would think your method would be more of a hassle then just resetting my clock twice a year and forgetting about it. Your way....I have to keep two schedules in my head...one for winter and one for summer. Yes the schedules are only off by an hour but if people are bothered by having to reset their clocks twice a year I think they would be more bothered with having to remember certain thing are at one time in the winter and an hour later in the summer.
I think DST is great! We have longer days in the summer so why not push an hour of the daylight to the evening when most of us can use it instead of leaving it in the morning when most of us are still asleep.
#23 - but that would mean school kids going to school in the dark, and would impact greatly on the poorer people in society (the real 'most of us') who generally work longer hours and travel further to work early in the morning and late at night (or did you think offices cleaned themselves, bread bakes itself, newspapers materialise of their own accord etc etc.
Like I said earlier, the annual debate in the UK about not putting clocks back in the winter is soon ended when road traffic accident statistics are taken into consideration, and the thoughts of millions of early morning workers as well. Plus the Scots.
#24 - No it wouldn't. That's the beauty of DST. because the days get longer, even when we move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening there is still the same sunshine at the same time that you would have in the winter months. In other words most kids will not be going to school in the dark...at least not during or because of DST.
When I say "most of us" I am referring to the majority of people that are going to work and school in the daytime. There is no such thing as the "real most of us" by excluding people from the majority based on how much money they make.
Sure a lot of people have to work evenings or nights...but majority of people do not...and that is why there is an energy savings benefit with DST.
You people are complaining about updating firmware or buying new VCRs - think about your freaking digital thermostat! How you gonna update THAT? Ok, ok, so they're the easiest part of a house to replace, but still. What a pain in the butt.
The entire DST issue assumes that people are only up during the day. This is utter nonsense. Many people, myself included, work strange schedules. I already have to remember what times businesses open and close, AND I have to change my f*cking clock too.
Not everyone conforms to the 9 to 5 schedule. Not only that, but it screws with my head when its still daylight at 10pm... So just leave my clock alone! Don't these people have a budget to balance, and a war to worry about?!?!
When the start of DST was changed from the last to the first Sunday in April starting in 1987 there were no computers or VCRs that adjusted for DST changes. This was not an issue back then. With a different day for sprint and fall changes you will have to get an update patch to uyour comptuer. In fact many might have been better when it comes to computers or VCRs would have been to make DST year round. Then you would simpley set the time and turn the DST adjustments off. For computers when you set the time zone you would set it for Arizona if you have PDT year round since they are both GMT -7. Saskatchewen would be used for MDT year round. Indian Eastern would be used for CDT year rounr. Puerto Rico would be used for EDT year round.