Buck Fush

From the sound of past posts, I think we have a few software developers here. I was wondering what your opinion is of the changes that are going to happen in 2007 to Daylight Savings Time. Is it going to be a big deal or not? Do you think the measly energy savings will be consumed by the overtime needed to make the necessary software changes? jc

leejo

I'm all for it! I love daylight savings time. This won't be a y2k thing for sure. Shouldn't be too expensive to handle I wouldn't think. The OS or app will still perform the same basic function - leap forward or fall back - just the dates will change. Surely....SURELY nobody hardcodes things like dates anymore, right?!

RIGHT???!!!!

Rahn

What's going on?!

Is the sky falling?!

Time going forward?! Saving light?!

OMG!?!?!?!?

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rs_al

Most people don't understand the impact, but they understand that it will save them money. Unfortunately they're not told that they'll be lucky to save a couple pennies if anything over the course of the year, and they'll be losing a lot of time to making the change.

I mean seriously, do you have any idea what it will cost to have computer programmers go re-write every piece of software that displays a date to the user? Not to mention, the year has to be a factor now - because before 2007 it was one way, and afterwards it was another. Things like airline bookings will need to understand both, because you could have someone in late fall booking a flight for the next spring, which would require both systems. Hopefully most coders have been using dates in shared libraries or relying on the operating system, but it is still possible large affairs like, for example, an airline might have their own date calculation routines. But it's still a bitch to test.

Not to mention that doesn't say anything for embedded systems. You've got 1 year left to enjoy any device (with the exception of PCs and the more expensive portable electronic devices) that tracks the time and adjusted for daylight savings - cause that's all different now. TV's, DVD players, watches. My alarm clock's going to need to be changed 4 times a year instead of 0 starting a year and a half from now, all thanks to a handful of morons who appearently have little grasp of such concepts.

But hey ! Our energy crisis is over because we might not need to turn that lamp on for a few extra minutes. The government says this will save us 10,000 barrels of oil a day (this is the same number that they use for all DST changes, even though the further they push it out the smaller the number gets)! That means a 0.05% reduction in energy usage for a four week period (3 in spring, 1 in fall). Annually, that's a 0.00003% reduction in energy costs! Boy that's like money right in your pockets, isn't it? You just saved yourself a big 3 cents a year. Just pretend like software engineers don't cost money and you can almost imagine this is a good thing. Savings like that will replace my $10 alarm clock in just a little over 300 years!

leejo

Those morons are able to realize that if you adjust the dates on which the time changes, there are still only two time changes a year, smart guy

I like coming home from work and having time to take a walk, work in the garden, etc. I'm not complaining. Sorry for all your troubles.

rs_al

Need to think outside of the 'ol box.

1.) 3 weeks before DST should happen, I set my clock forward manually.
2.) When DST should happen, my alarm clock sets itself forward automatically, which I then have to manually adjust.
3.) When DST should happen in fall, my alarm clock set sets itself backward automatically, which I then have to manually adjust.
4.) 1 week later, I'll need to set it back again manually.

I like waking up with sunlight. Won't be happening if sunrise is pushed back to 7am, like this will do. A nice, dark commute. The push is worse in november, where it will be dark until almost 7:30am, a later sunrise than we would ever see under the current system.

leejo

See that's your problem right there. You live in the wrong place. I went to school in MA: dark all the damn time.

Move south, and get a cheaper clock that works.

Tempus

I for one will welcome an extra hour of daytime. I mean, what's the freaking point of having a beautiful day if you're stuck in an office all day.

And what's the bitching about? Progress sometimes has its price.

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Pokerface

There is no extra hour of daytime. Days and night aren't getting changed here (which I know that you know).

If you're stuck in an office all day, it doesn't matter if it's day, night, or otherwise outside: the clock is not the issue. It's the office.

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T_BEAR

Obviously you should quit work and enjoy all of the hours the sun is out.

Tempus

Excuse me..

I for one will welcome an extra hour of USABLE daytime.

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Contact me with server/player/admin issues.




-- Suits are what you wear when doing things you shouldn’t want to do anyway.

FROM THE TACTICAL GAMER PRIMER.
3) Support game play in a near-simulation environment. Where the focus of play would not be solely on doing what it takes to win, but doing so utilizing real-world combat strategy and tactics rather than leveraging exploits provided to players by the design of the game engine.

Tempus

Good idea. When do you start sending me the checks?

__________________
Battlefield 2/2142 Game Officer
Contact me with server/player/admin issues.




-- Suits are what you wear when doing things you shouldn’t want to do anyway.

FROM THE TACTICAL GAMER PRIMER.
3) Support game play in a near-simulation environment. Where the focus of play would not be solely on doing what it takes to win, but doing so utilizing real-world combat strategy and tactics rather than leveraging exploits provided to players by the design of the game engine.

TEMM

What needs to change is the calendar. There have been many proposed calendars where months have the same amount of days which would greatly simplify programming datekeeping.

Varp

use the system clock - M$ for example already have an Adjust for Daylight Saving on UK regional settings

copy n paste a bunch of UK code for doing daylight saving changes

how much it will cost is another matter

rs_al

If you <3 daylight so much, get up an hour earlier. You'll get more daylight. Magically. But a government mandate to force everyone to wake up an hour earlier is just silly. Where I live, the only people who will even benefit are people who get up after 8am and are home by 5pm. They don't sound like the kind of people to me who need sympathy. Personally, I'm losing an hour of usable daylight (the morning) for nothing.

But maybe this is a good thing. They'll just keep pusing the DST times out, and people will keep eating it up until DST is the whole year long. Then bam- no more DST we just hop one timezone to the right. All because we're apparently too lazy to get up in the morning.