Ok so Congress has decided to extend Daylight Saving Time in order to give us more daylight.

Comments on this?


(To a certain someone: Sorry, I decided to exercise the use of the NewTopic button)

I really have no idea, I'm not voting.

I don't know about any of the pros and cons this would bring.

Major PRO: The daylight "hours" would make better use of the actual daylight.
Major CON: Software updates out the wazoo. Not to mention everyone adjusting to a new 'schedule' for doing the hour forward/hour back.

More information:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8659492/

As a Brit, this doesn't apply to me so I won't vote but I have to say this much... I didn't understand a word of your Pro's and Con's explanation

I don't really understand your poll if I'm honest -- no, I didn't follow your provided link - I don't do links . Does the US have any daylight saving time? Is this just a widening of an existing daylight saving scheme or an introduction of something totally new?

"Software updates out the wazoo"? What the... what's that? As for "adjusting to a new schedule", we've done it in the UK for like... ever (not sure if it was introduced in WWII), it's no biggie. Someone always arrives for work early/late but that's the fun part

We have Daylight Saving Time, but they're talking about extending it by 3 weeks. (Starting 2 weeks earlier, in March, and then ending 1 week later, in November)

Pro is that we'd supposedly get more use out of the daylight
Con is that software updates out the wazoo (it's just to mean a lot of updates).. Windows would have to be updated (all versions), same with Linux, Mac, phones, watches, clocks, tv's, vcr's, etc. Also calendars that have already been printed would need to scrap their work.

You forgot the option SCRAP DST altogether, it's freaky.

It's confusing and pointless.

I might be missing the obvious here (but then I am a moron):

Why would software need updates?
Why would calendars need reprinting?

The dates are the same - but I'm guessing you're referring to printed matter with 'Daylight Savings Ends Today!' and stuff on it?

For printed materials, yes, the ones that tell when it starts/ends.

For software - Windows (as well as other OS's) do DST detection automatically, as well as calendar programs, just to name a couple. Anything that has DST internally programmed for turning on/off automatically would become a problem without being updated.

Surely things like that would be a very minor patch

If you have a legal windows shouldn't be a problem, everything gets updated via servers. Double click your time and click Internet Time and you will see what im talking about.

It's not as simple as that. You're thinking small scale. Think on a larger scale, because there are a lot of businesses that can and will get affected by this in a negative manner. (I do mean on the corporate level as well, which can indirectly affect home consumers too).

I use an auto updater, runs every hour. It's rare for my computer to be a few seconds off. The issue still comes in as anything that runs by it may be affected and require patching, even for products that may have since been discontinued but may still be getting used today.

You forgot the poll option of dont care .

Seriously, the rest of the US needs to follow in the footsteps of Arizona and Indiana and just get rid of the friggin' DST. It's pointless, and doesn't most of the world ignore it, anyway?

This is incorrect.
In NC, Sunrise can vary by up to 3 and a half hours from earliest (summer) to latest (winter)... cut it out, and its almost 5 hours.
Thats alot.

In the summer the sun has risen by about 5:15... that means that its well lit when I get on the bus.
In the winter, I can get to school around 7:45 and its not much. Imagine if that were 8:45...

I say change it. Updates are easy..
VCRs... at least none that I've tried don't update on a date.
Cameras... I have 2 very expensive Sony's... doesn't change.
Phones usually rely on Tower time... I have sprint and when I'm in the mountains (no service) it tells me that "Time is not available without signal after Power Down"

Who carea about a rodent coming out the ground .

Don't know about most, but it's definitely not an isolated concept... Read:


Now, when you have the sun coming up and lighting this earth at 6am (actually earlier) in the morning and setting at 8pm, and most people are leaving the house *after* 7am (often after 8am) and returning and doing things until 9pm, it makes more sense to take that hour of daylight from the morning and put it into the evening. I understand the concept behind it all and I think it's a rather smart concept. It's changing it as though it won't cause any grief that I'm irked about.

I wouldn't be surpsied, to be honest, if by the end of it all, it were to either be left alone or get returned to how it is now.

Doesn't congress have anything important to do? I thought there was a war on terror to fight and an economy to fix.

There is but it seems like Congress is more interested in the other stuff going on around them...

I dunno, maybe they have stock in things that would improve with this change.

Congress can multi-task.

Yeah, doing crazy things to save themselves money while lying in an effort to steal money.

i suppose just telling people if they want more sunlight, they could always just get up earlier is out of the question, heh.

Yeah because telling companies to let their employees have more flexible schedules is out of the question. I still say that more fast food companies should be offering services @ 4am in the morning.

Supply and demand my friend. If it was profitable to stay open at 4am they would stay open at 4am.

That's the catch-22

Majority of people stay on a "9 to 5" type schedule because that's what works for them because other businesses work around that as well. If other routine hours could work just as well for them, they would switch their hours. If they switched their hours, then those fast food joints would benefit from staying open later (as an example). Then as a result more people would start working different schedules. On the flip side of things, businesses staying open longer hours (or all the time) would make it beneficial for others to start working different schedules..

One won't budge until the other does, and the other can't budge because the other won't. (Either way you look at it)

They said that they're extending DST because the extra daylight reduces crime, traffic accidents, saves energy, etc.

One politician was quoted as saying "It just makes everyone feel sunnier." Ha! Please.

Another advantage that the politicians mentioned was that in October on Halloween, kids can go out and it will still be light out, which will make things nicer. Um, no! Trick-or-treaters want to go out in the dark, obviously - it's Halloween! Now everyone will just be out later into the night.

Daytime Halloween.. Hmmm.. That could work.. Maybe they should also make a law that limits fireworks to being used only during the day too. That way people can see better... (Please note the sarcasm).

As far as I know Windows XP time runs off a server for time. It checks and updates the time quite regularly, including DTS (unless you turn it off). Although with the other operating systems this could be a problem... I highly doubt Microsoft will patch the other OS's, like Windows 98, etc... Maybe Windows 2000, but maybe they wouldnt even do that... Why? Think about it. They can claim it's "out of date" and give people another reason to dump the old version, putting another nail into the coffin of the older os's. And when you do this, some people may have to get new computers just so they can run the new OS's even though they cant afford it.

I dont think daylight has anything to do with it. I think the economy may be still in some trouble, and this is just a desprate attempt to give it a boost. Computers and technology are the highest contributors to the economy. What happens when a ton of people have to buy a new computer, new operating system, etc... And most people dont have a latest and the greatest computers. Quite a bit of people still run of old stuff.

Personally I think this DST thing is plain crap. They should dump it all together. I mean, buisnesses do have the "9 to 5" shedule, but when a specific date comes around wouldnt it make more sense for them to switch to 8 to 4, or 10 to 6 (really not sure how this DST thing works. but you get the idea). It would cause less trouble for companies to do this. But they got the idea the government has to think for them....

If you read that article, you'll see that there has been a lot of protesting against it from a lot of people (and I do mean that to include organizations/companies as well).

The way DST works is like this:
In the Spring, you set your clocks ahead by 1 hour (DST goes into effect). By doing that, you are doing the same, as you said, of going from 9-5 to 8-4. But this moves EVERYONE, not just employees at companies. Since the sun is shining already by 6am and earlier, it's suddenly moved to 7am and earlier. Instead of the sun setting at 8pm, it's setting at 9pm.

In the Fall, you set your clocks back by 1 hour (DST ends), in a way you gain an extra hour of sleep, but also, instead of the light starting to shine at say, 8am, it'll start shining at 7am.

It makes sense the way it's being done now. It just doesn't make sense to change it.