Y2K,err, DST Bug!!!!

**CingularDuality** · 03-03-2007, 07:07 PM

Is North America going to collapse? Or is it going to be another non-issue like the Y2K bug mostly was?

**Iamthefallen** · 03-04-2007, 10:16 PM

It has the potential for some interesting glitches for sure. The most obvious one will probably be that people will be showing up an hour late for meetings for the next 3 weeks as Outlook appointments aren't adjusted automatically.

For us developers it has some interesting consequences as well. Windows for instance doesn't allow for more than one than one definition of DST dates. Meaning, after you patch your system and the DST change date is defined as the second Sunday in March, Windows will use the same formula for previous years as well! This means that if you were to go back and check when DST began in 2006, it would use the wrong formula to calculate it.

**Pokerface** · 03-04-2007, 10:20 PM

Corporate sent out an email advising people not to schedule meetings for the overlapping three weeks. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.

perry · 03-04-2007, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pokerface

Corporate sent out an email advising people not to schedule meetings for the overlapping three weeks. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.

They told us to go edit the subject of all the meetings to include the scheduled time. Had to do that before a certain date, then we had a patch applied to update the timezone data. Then, after the patch, you could look at the subject of the meetings and go about manually moving things to the proper time.

I'm waiting to come in next Monday to no one being able to login to the domain due to time differences.

**El_Gringo_Grande** · 03-04-2007, 11:16 PM

It affects me quite abit. Our servers are on the east coast. The web apps record time locally. One of the things we record are tardies and due dates for assignments.

I have to convert some of this stuff to various time zones and account for the different DST.

Luckily they are almost all Central. I can hack my way around this. For the one or two in different time zones I have another hack that will compensated for that.

My fear is a bunch of students will be counted late or their grades will be affected by one of these "bugs".

Times and dates are one of the most annoying things about programming. None of the problems are insurmountable but surmounting them can create some ugly code.

03-03-2007, 07:07 PM	#1 (permalink)
CingularDuality Join Date: May 2003 Location: Dallas/Ft. Worth area of Texas, USA Age: 33 Posts: 16,806	Y2K,err, DST Bug!!!! Is North America going to collapse? Or is it going to be another non-issue like the Y2K bug mostly was? __________________ Become a supporting member! -- Shop at the Tactical Market! Take the world's smallest political quiz! "I was touched by His Noodly Appendage." TacticalGamer TX LAN/BBQ Veteran:

03-04-2007, 10:16 PM	#2 (permalink)
Iamthefallen Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Columbia, SC Age: 29 Posts: 928	Re: Y2K,err, DST Bug!!!! It has the potential for some interesting glitches for sure. The most obvious one will probably be that people will be showing up an hour late for meetings for the next 3 weeks as Outlook appointments aren't adjusted automatically. For us developers it has some interesting consequences as well. Windows for instance doesn't allow for more than one than one definition of DST dates. Meaning, after you patch your system and the DST change date is defined as the second Sunday in March, Windows will use the same formula for previous years as well! This means that if you were to go back and check when DST began in 2006, it would use the wrong formula to calculate it. __________________ \| Wearing the TG tags \| Reporting infractions \| How to get started with PoE \|

03-04-2007, 10:20 PM	#3 (permalink)
Pokerface Join Date: May 2003 Location: MD, USA Age: 29 Posts: 5,722	Re: Y2K,err, DST Bug!!!! Corporate sent out an email advising people not to schedule meetings for the overlapping three weeks. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. __________________ NS Game Officer. TF2 Admin. BF2 Admin / Scripter. PM with issues. Tempus: Pokerface is nailing it right on the head. Everyone who is arguing against him is simply arguing against reality. <anmuzi> it is not permitted to have privacy or anonymity <LazyEye> yeah when I play on TG the server digs though my trash Arm yourself with knowledge: TG NS TF2 BF2

03-04-2007, 11:16 PM	#5 (permalink)
El_Gringo_Grande Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: OKIE HOMY Age: 39 Posts: 2,527	Re: Y2K,err, DST Bug!!!! It affects me quite abit. Our servers are on the east coast. The web apps record time locally. One of the things we record are tardies and due dates for assignments. I have to convert some of this stuff to various time zones and account for the different DST. Luckily they are almost all Central. I can hack my way around this. For the one or two in different time zones I have another hack that will compensated for that. My fear is a bunch of students will be counted late or their grades will be affected by one of these "bugs". Times and dates are one of the most annoying things about programming. None of the problems are insurmountable but surmounting them can create some ugly code. __________________ Sen. Barack Obama (IL) For President '08 --- I’m not racists, I have republican friends. Radio show host. - "The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity". -Jacob Burkhardt - "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" - Emerson - "People should not be afraid of it's government, government should be afraid of it's People." - Line from V for Vendetta - If software were as unreliable as economic theory, there wouldn't be a plane made of anything other than paper that could get off the ground. Jim Fawcette

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