Buck Fush

It's not just the alarm clocks, it's the TV's and the VCR's and the wristwatches and the car radios that are going to become a pain in the a$$. It's the cost of sending crews out to the traffic signals 4 more times a year to alleviate the same problem you'll have with the household devices. It is a rather high-profile(I mean what American isn't going to know about this by 2008?)"energy-saving"(^Refer to above post^) plan though.

A side bar question: I've seen a lot of references by farmers that this could hurt the cows. Anyone have a clue what they're talking about? The only thing I can figure out is that they'll be woken earlier by the commuters, but that's a pretty lame argument.

leejo

Maybe all those cows have fancy alarm clocks that set themselves?

Buck Fush

Nice.

CingularDuality

Bah....

When I'm working the day shift, it's dark when I go to work and dark when I go home...

Screw you all...

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SmokingTarpan

This has been my argument against the use of DST the whole time. Want more light? Get your butt out of bed at the appropriate hour. Don't make the majority of the country change their damn clocks.

I translate "it will hurt the cows" into "it will screw up our milking/maintenace schedule." Cows are photoreceptive (their productivity and activity is regulated in part by the sun), but their metabolism doesn't have a clue whether it's 5am or high noon. All they know is that there is either more daylight (summer) or less daylight (winter), and that is regulated by the world orbiting the sun. The whole clock thing is a silly human convention to avoid people getting up at 4am to meet the sunrise.

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Karkianman101

um... wait. Whats going on with DST?

rs_al

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_...ht_Saving_Time

It will now be 4 weeks longer, three earlier in the spring, one week later in the winter.

leejo

To all of you who say I should just get up an hour earlier, I ask you this: how am I supposed to watch the sun go down while nursing my 8th margarita if it sets at 7pm? HOW???? You tell me, cause I don't see it, and I'm not going to start drinking any earlier than 10am. That's where I draw the line sir.

=DdogG=

Well, this is blown out of proportion. "THE SKY IS FALLING!" I dont know about you guys, but I spent a few extra $$ (or they are designed to only work like this) to get clocks that get the time from another source, whether it be sat, cell towers, the cable company, the internet..... and the ones that dont automatically update the time constantly via whatever they are connected to, don't change at all. there has to be a way to turn of the static 'date to change the time on' since a lot of the US does not change the time... most of Indiana for example stays on EST all year...

and the decision to do DST is not a federal government thing. it is a state thing. the only thing that regulates DST is that the state must do whatever is decided globally, not one city or county just deciding NOT to do it. Indiana is split and half does and half does not, but it was decided to be that way by the state, not the feds. the only thing the feds are doing is changing the dates on which the 'voluntary' DST changes occur. That is all they have the power to do. DST is not a law.

Come on guys.... really, is it THAT big a deal to turn off the "feature" that make the time change on a hard coded date?

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Buck Fush

Yes, it is. That's a piece of functionality that will just have to go away on many devices, and for what? The US uses 20,000,000 (That's 20 Million) bbl/d (barrels of oil a day). That's about 333,333 barrels an hour. The only study I can find to estimate what this change will save us figures out to 10,000 bbl/d for a total of 280,000 barrels a year(Because they added 28 days). That's a savings of less than an hour's worth of oil a year. With almost 8,766 hours in a year that's a grand total of a 0.011407711613050422085329682865617% savings per year. That's just a little over 1/100th of 1 percent. The hassle it's going to cause is not worth the savings it's going to generate.



Notes:
1 DOE Page
2 Calif. DST Page

leejo

What hassle? You mean the fact that companies are going to have to do some work to comply? As in they may need to hire some people and spend a little money? That sounds like economic stimulus to me.

Also, don't forget that while may not seem like a lot, 1% of a 1.4 trillion dollar budget is....uh....well a lot. And if you're serious about "fixing" the energy consumption issue vis-a-vis national security, then I think you have to look at a percent gain here, a percent gain there, as positive steps.

I think the fact that it has anything to do with GWB has more to do with the complaints than anything else.

SmokingTarpan

That's like asking if it's THAT big of a deal to turn off the "feature" that represents the year as 2 digits instead of 4.

The answer to both is no, it's not- as long as you're planning in advance for anything at all that might ever change. However, major changes (and I classify major here as that which affects millions of items) on a sudden and short time scale are a big deal. I highly doubt anyone ever thought that DST would be messed around with, thus most of the time change dates are hard coded. And not everyone (I am, though) is lucky enough to have an alarm clock that's tied into an outside source. And that outside source is going to need a patch anyway; someone is going to have to do extra work- just not you.

So yea, it's kind of a big deal. Not in the way of "the sky is falling!", but rather in the way that it creates a lot of extra work for lots of people. Just think about all the work that was done to fix Y2K, which is an event (year rollover) that only happens once every 100yrs. Now you've got to fix something that not only changes twice a year, but was programmed for many many years stretched into the future.

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IceCold

No, most people change their alarm clocks manually, so changing DST has little to no effect on most people, except they get "a longer summer" and they save a teeny bit on their energy bill.

The advantages outweigh the disadvantages, that's for sure...

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Buck Fush

No, actually I was refering to the extra work that I, myself, will have to find time to fit in. In the project that I inherited these changes could take weeks or months and not even an extra dime for me. That stimulates me allright, but I'm not allowed to say where here in the sandbox.


$15 Million/Year, that's it. If that. I don't where you got 1% of a $1.4 trillion. That's just, well twisting words. In case you're wondering, that actually only figures out to 0.001% (Approx. 1/1000th of 1 percent.) Tiny.


I don't even know what you're refering to here. I've made no comment like this.


Get real. Dems are just as stupid. This is just a dumb idea.
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Buck Fush

What's the advantage again? How much gas is going to be wasted changing all the traffic signals?