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By Claudia Lynch, Benchmarks
Online Editor
Last month we published an
article by Brian Richman, EIS Technical Services Team, titled
"Daylight Savings Time Zone Changes." As Richman noted, beginning this
year ". . . the daylight saving time (DST) start and end dates for the
United States will change to comply with the
Energy Policy Act of
2005. This means that the dates when DST changes in the
United States will start three weeks earlier (2:00 A.M. on the second
Sunday in March [March 11]) and will end one week later (2:00
A.M. on the first Sunday in November [November 4])."
What does this mean for you?
Basically, what it means is that everyone who owns a computer and/or
mobile devices such as BlackBerry, Treo, Windows Mobile etc. could have
system clocks that are an hour off. Microsoft has set up a
Daylight Saving Time
Help and Support Center that explains the potential problems and
offers solutions for Microsoft users. As noted on the site:
- Unless certain updates are applied to your computer, it is
possible that the time zone settings for your computer's system clock
may be incorrect during this four week period. This depends on where
you live and which time zone you have selected. To see the time zone
settings on your computer, follow
these
directions.
When your time zone settings are incorrect your clock may be off by
one hour, and certain applications running on your Windows based
computer may not display the correct time. To address this, Microsoft
is providing many free updates and tools that will update your system
automatically.
While the change in daylight saving time applies to U.S. and Canada,
the change may impact customers based outside North America. Companies
or organizations with operations, customers or vendors based in North
America may be affected. In addition customers who interact or
integrate with systems that are based in North America or rely on
date/time calculations may be impacted. Customers who live outside
North America and yet are impacted should follow the guidance provided
on this site to prepare for the adjusted daylight saving time.
Please note that Mexico will not be following the new DST 2007 rules
with the U.S. and Canada. Accordingly such systems configured to use
U.S. time zones (for example, Pacific Time) will need to change their
system configurations to use the new Mexico time zones.
CITC and distributed support staff are working to make sure all
campus workstations and servers have updated software, but of course
they won't be coming to your homes and updating your computers or your
mobile devices for you.
Jason Myre, Email Systems Manager,
provided this helpful information for updating the following mobile
devices:
- BlackBerry:
Blackberry device users should point the device's browser to the
following link, and follow the prompts to install the DST update.
http://www.blackberry.com/select/dst2007/
-
Treo:
Make sure the Treo is configured to "Enable Local Network Time." This
way, the wireless network will update the device's system time
automatically.
Windows Mobile:
Instruction for device patch installation and appointment correction
is detailed at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/daylightsaving/default.mspx
Also, there is a potential problem for GroupWise users, since the
earlier DST start date could cause appointments scheduled within the
three weeks between the original date and the new date to be off by an
hour. This also applies to appointments scheduled during the added week
at the end of October. Contact your
Network Manager if
you think this might be a problem for you. They will be able to help you
resolve the issue.
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