Although nobody's crystal ball is clear on the impact that the change in the daylight-saving time rules will have on enterprise IT systems and applications, the problems could be bigger than most people realize.
That's because IT shops have had less notice in dealing with the time change than they did for Y2K, and because the issue doesn't have visibility at the highest levels of an organization as it did for Y2K.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2098954,00.asp
This year's daylight-saving time change is causing major frustration for IT administrators running Microsoft programs that need to be individually patched to reflect the change.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2102366,00.asp
Daylight-Saving Date Changes, Conservation Remains
Energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. Bedtime for most of us is late evening through the year. When we go to bed, we turn off the lights and TV.
In the average home, 25 percent of all the electricity we use is for lighting and small appliances, such as TVs, VCRs and stereos. A good percentage of energy consumption for lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home. By moving the clock ahead one hour, we can cut the amount of electricity we consume each day.
http://post-journal.com/articles.asp?articleID=13213
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 This act extends Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. beginning in 2007, though Congress retained the right to revert to the 1986 law should the change prove unpopular or if energy savings are not significant. The act stipulates that DST would begin on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday of November. To confuse the issue, the European Union begins DST on the last Sunday in March and return to Standard Time on the last Sunday in October.
Why Daylight Saving?
Accordingly, the practice of Daylight Saving Time was enacted to save in the economical use of the production of energy. In the average home, 25 percent of all the electricity we use is for lighting and small appliances, such as TVs, VCRs and stereos. A good percentage of energy consumed by lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home. By moving the clock ahead one hour, we can cut the amount of electricity we consume each day. However, this practice fails during the four darkest months of the year, November through February. According to research, by shifting time ahead one hour, many more people take advantage of the extra hour of daylight and are less prone to indoor activities which in turn, use less electricity. Studies done in the 1970s by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that we trim the entire country's electricity usage by about one percent EACH DAY with Daylight Saving Time. This translates to the saving of about 10,000 barrels of oil per day while on DST.
Why the second Sunday in March instead of the first Sunday?
There was a significant group who opposed the original proposition of adding two months to the 1986 enactment and the 2005 enactment, (which requested the last Sunday in February to the last Sunday in November for the DST period) is a result of a compromise ... four weeks instead of eight, for the addition.
http://www.wtoctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5893867
RANT
When will we do it AGAIN??? Previous legislation was less than 20 years old before this change. It really irks me that Canada blindly follows the US congress in these matters. We live after all in a global society, not a US society...
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