Daylight-Saving Time: What Savings?

Technology and legislation often seem at odds -- or at least out-of-sync -- with one another. A good example is the little-noted provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that called for this coming weekend's earlier start to daylight-saving time. The theory is that longer daylight in the afternoon/evening will save energy and, presumably, money. 

But even the best-intentioned legislation can have unintended technology consequences. One recent example is the Sarbanes-Oxley rules, intended to protect investors from thieving, conniving business executives, which turned the financial auditing from a backwater to a hot career path and a boon for the sellers of data storage for email. Just ask Intel.

Did our legislators really consider how much work, time and money this one-month change would require? The daylight-saving time change has created another Full Employment Act for software developers and IT patch teams. According to the New York Times, it could be a "mini-Y2K. Tech publication eWeek claims it could be "Bigger than Y2K?"

We're talking about a lot more than getting the system clock on your Windows desktop to display the correct time. Even the FDA has weighed in with this semi-alarming headline: "Advice for Patients: Change in Daylight Savings Time May Affect Your Medical Equipment in an Unpredictable Way." Think about every financial software package (payroll, accounts payable and receivable, ATMs, stock trading...), telephone systems (voice mail time stamps, call tracking and billing), airline scheduling (online ticketing), networked applications of all kinds like email, group calendars, backups, your PDA, cell phones ... the list goes on.

Those episodes of "Lost" you capture on your DVR? That programmed wake-up call in a hotel? The cute electronic alarm clock that promises you will never have to set it? Better check them.

But at least until early next Sunday morning, we can turn to the Web for help. Here are a few selected resources that can help you be in the know, up to date and on time -- at least for now:

• "Are You Prepared for Daylight Saving Time 2007?"
• "Daylight-saving time change: Tips for Microsoft users"
• "Daylight-Saving Time Change Impact"
• "Ducking the Daylight-Saving Time Bug"
• "Apple daylight-saving time changes"
• "IBM daylight-saving time alert"
• "Microsoft Daylight-Saving Time Support Center"

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