Daylight Saving Time last-minute reminder

Here at TUAW we're all about the public service. Really. We would hate for you to be late for brunch on Sunday, so once again let us remind you that Daylight Saving Time starts in most of the US & Canada this weekend. This year, thanks to regulatory changes, the one-hour shift starts three weeks early and ends one week later than in previous seasons. Of course, any gadget or widget with date logic in it sold before 2005 has no idea of the new rules, so this seemingly minor change has the impact of a nano-sized Y2K -- off by an hour, off by a millennium, same hassles.

The good news for Mac users is that OS X has, since version 10.4.5, included the new schedule; the recent software updates provided corrected settings for time zones outside the US and patches for 10.3 and Java. Better news: since OS X and similar Unix-like systems use Universal (Greenwich Mean) time internally, Mac clock chips don't have to worry about DST; the offset is handled in software. Windows, on the other hand, sets the hardware clock to local time; this causes the Boot Camp "five hours off" behavior and is the subject of much gnashing of teeth.

Of course, if it were a Mac-only world, things would be shiny and clean, but real life is gritty and messy. Assuming you're running some products from Microsoft, you can get the basics for fixes and updates here. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that things are going all that well with the big MS and DST: reader Chris points us to where eWeek has the scoop on the frustrations. Better call and check those brunch plans.