Daylight Saving Time, DST for short, is often the cause for missed television shows, missed appointments, and for some the mental block of one hour less sleep. At 02:00 AM local time, depending on where you live, you will need to move the clock forward one hour. Other parts of the world will move back one hour, and some remain the same. Clock changes will take place all month long. Oh the joy.
Did you remember to change your clocks? It’s Daylight Savings Time again. (IMG: HLC Hotels)
Business IT and DST
Exactly what does DST mean to you? Well, server logs for one thing will need to be checked. Unless the server logs are set using GMT, then there might be what appears to be a gap in data recording. This isn’t major, but it might give some pause and make others wonder what happened come Monday should they forget.
Sometimes, patches that are minor in scope - such as those related to time - are forgotten. Check desktops to ensure they are on the correct time.
At home with DST
For those of you are home, geeky or not, DST can just drive you nuts. To make things simple, on March 8, 2009 at 02:00 AM local time (no matter where you live, 02:00 AM for you is always local time) move your clock forward to 03:00 AM. This applies to The United States, Canada, The United Kingdom, Cuba, and France. (Though not all of France and the UK, to be technically correct.)
If you live in Hawaii, Arizona, Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Midway Islands, or Mariana Islands, there is no DST change needed.
If you live in Paraguay, on March 8, 2009 12:00 MIDNIGHT move the clock backwards one hour to 11:00 PM local time. If you live in Uruguay, on March 8, 2009 at 02:00 AM move the clock backwards to 01:00 AM.
Later in the month, on March 15, 2009, those of you in Argentina will move the clock backwards one hour at 12:00 MIDNIGHT local time to 11:00 PM. Depending on where you live in Chile, you will move the clock backwards on hour on March 15, from 10:00 PM to 9:00 PM or from 12:00 MIDNIGHT to 11:00 PM.
March 28 and 29, April 2, 4, 5, 19, and 23 are all the other dates where clocks need to be moved forward or backward one hour. If you want to see the complete list, and check out where in the world you need to live to move your clock back one hour on April 4 or forward one hour on April 23, go here.
Another hassle with DST changeover stems from the resetting of smaller appliances. TV sets, clock radios, car radios, VCR’s, DVD players, etc. each need to be changed as well. To that end there is an online search bank, which will help you locate the manual should you need it, so you can actually work the appliance and change the clock.
Go to this address: http://www.retrevo.com/setyourclock
Once there, enter the model number and the brand name of the appliance you need the manual for, the search tool will try to locate a PDF copy for you.
While the site asks for registration, you can skip that and go straight to the manual by entering a CAPTCHA (series of numbers) and downloading the file.
Not all manuals are there, but many of them are present, so that is a plus. To test the site, and prove that registration was not needed, the sample search term “Panasonic dmr es25 set clock” was used. The manual appeared as expected and contained clock instructions. A second test, using “Sony VCR SLV N750” as the search term, yielded the same results.
The reason some appliances need adjusting and others don’t depends on when they were made, and could have something to do with how the US altered the dates for DST in 2007. Often referred as the Y2k7 problem, you can learn more about it here.
So what if you missed the changes? What if you woke up early Sunday morning and realize the world is an hour ahead of you? This goes without saying really, simply move the clocks backwards or forwards depending on where you live. In some cases, do nothing at all.
As a final tip, while you are changing clocks and adjusting the “missing” one hour, change the batteries in your home smoke detectors.
[Edit: Added exclusions, altered title -SR]
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