Daylight Savings Time

If you haven't changed your clocks yet, you have probably been running late all day. This year has seen a change to when DST has started, Congress changing the date in legislation passed two years ago. Of course there were unintended consequences.

The law of unintended consequences appears to be complicating IT professionals' lives once again, thanks to The U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, which was passed by Congress to help people reduce the amount of electricity they use. Among the Act's provisions is a change in the date when daylight-saving time (DST) takes effect, from the first Sunday in April to the second Sunday in March. The idea is that the additional daylight hours (DST also will end in November instead of October) will enable consumers and businesses to use less energy (a more appealing and less-politically sensitive tactic to encourage energy conservation than something like a gasoline tax, but that's a topic for a different editorial).

But of course, it isn't that simple. Time will tell whether or not extending DST actually cuts energy consumption. But because of the need to "manually" change computers' internal clocks, the move clearly is going to increase aggravation for IT organizations. As it turns out, IT groups will need to update and apply patches to everything from infrastructure and networks to handheld devices, and from databases to applications that process time-sensitive transactions and/or support scheduling and sequencing tasks (not to mention having to remind employees who might end up late for work or business appointments to update cell phones, PDAs and anything else that runs on embedded technology). Financial services IT executives probably have been having flashbacks to the Y2K scare, reliving their concerns, preparations and expenditures for the risks of systems disruption that the year 2000 was expected to bring. For better or for worse, we may never know if the fact that chaos did not ensue on Jan. 1, 2000, meant that the massive reprogramming efforts paid off -- or if it was all a big, tedious waste of effort.

Too bad Congress doesn't have to re-imburse these businesses out of their personal pocketbooks. Then they wouldn't pass such dumb legislation.

I don't like DST. The main reason I like to walk after dinner and being a Malignant melanoma sufferer, I have to avoid too much sun. By pushing us ahead one hour, my evening walks have to wait at least an hour past dinnertime. I hate it.

What is your opinion on Daylight Savings Time?

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