Daylight Savings Time 2007
Technology Services Alert: Action Required
Daylight Saving Time Change
Starting in 2007, Daylight Saving Time will be extended by 4 weeks in most United States and Canadian time zones. Daylight Saving Time will begin the second Sunday in March (March 11th), three weeks earlier than in past years. Daylight Saving Time will end the first Sunday in November (November 4th), one week later than in past years. This change complies with a provision of the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 and affects all U.S. time zones that observe Daylight Saving Time (DST).
What Is Technology Services Response?
Technology Services has assembled a work team to investigate potential effects of the DST change. The team is identifying risks and is performing appropriate remediation to address the impact of the DST modifications. The team is also providing assistance and communications to the entire college. This effort is requiring updates to all servers, workstations and network hardware. The team will attempt to identify areas outside of Technology Services and communicate the necessity to review applications, systems, and devices that also may be impacted by the DST change.
The change in DST will have an impact on many automated and technology reliant products. Daylight Savings Time transition rules are part of the time zone definition maintained by server and workstation operating systems. Computer-system related impacts include, for example:
Calendar / scheduling applications
Date / Time calculations (current and historical)
The team will also provide information on where to find the necessary DST changes for personal and home computers.
What are the consequences of Using Old Daylight Savings Time information?
Calendaring applications including GroupWise rely on the DST transition rules to correctly calculate and store appointment times. An appointment scheduled for the time period between the old new and new DST transition dates could be off by an hour. Specifically, an appointment scheduled to occur between March 11 and April 1, 2007 (the new and old start dates) will be scheduled at the wrong time because the wrong DST information will be used. This will only become apparent after updating to the new DST transition rules.
What can you do to ease the transition?
Everyone should give extra attention to meetings and appointments scheduled between March 11, 2007 to April 1, 2007 and October 28, 2007 to November 4, 2007, referred to here as the "extended DST period."
To minimize confusion during the affected date ranges:
- Include the time of the meeting in the Subject line of the meeting request so that invitees can double check the correct meeting time (such as, "Project brainstorming - 11:00 A.M. Central Time"). This will make it easier for you to correct calendar entries on or after March 11th.
- Exercise caution with the appointments and meetings in the extended DST period. When in doubt, verify the correct time with the organizer.
During the first week of March, Technology Services expects to receive a utility that will correct many of the GroupWise appointments that are off by one hour. Even after most appointments are "corrected" by this utility, it is likely that some appointment times will still be off by one hour.
What users can do to their own systems?
All users should update the operating system on their personal computers. Failure to update DST changes could result in your workstation having the wrong date during the transition periods and any calendar appointments you create from your personal computer could show as the wrong time.
Users with computers using Microsoft operating systems can find the patches and fixes at the following website: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst
Users with Apple Macintosh computers can find support here
View information for users that synchronize their PDA calendar with GroupWise.
View information for users fixing their GroupWise Calendar.
Informative Websites
Microsoft Systems
Preparing for Daylight Saving Time changes in 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_topissues
Daylight Saving Time Update Guide
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst
PDA(s) Windows Based
Updating Windows Mobile-powered devices for the new Daylight Saving Time
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/daylightsaving/default.mspx
PDA(s) Palm Based
Updating Palm powered devices for the new Daylight Saving Time
http://www.palm.com/us/support/downloads/dst_palmos.html
Daylight Savings Time Concerns at Home
Early DST means reprogramming at home as well as office
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=12&articleId=9010798&intsrc=hm_topic
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