February 27, 2007 - News Article

Time runs out for computer DST fix

By Jim Stafford
Business Writer

The early arrival of daylight-saving time March 11 likely will bring two experiences: an extra hour of daylight to enjoy each day and a feeling of paranoia over its possible effects on computer-controlled devices.

Don't worry, it's not Y2K all over again, said Brad Thomas, vice president of technology at Perimeter Technology Center.

"It's not a Y2K type of catastrophe, but I foresee that it is going to cause some inconvenience in the world and potentially cause some issues,” Thomas said Monday.

You might remember the Y2K scare when the calendar was about to flip over to the year 2000 and the world was in a panic over the effect a new century would have on unprepared computer systems.

Software patches were applied to Windows-based computers in the months leading up to Jan. 1, 2000, and the world as we know it survived.

Perimeter recently issued a two-page summary of technical information for its clients addressing steps that should be taken to keep computers from getting out of step with time March 11.

Traditionally, daylight-saving began at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April, but Congress passed an energy bill in 2005 that moved the start up three weeks into March on the front end of DST and delayed the end of daylight-saving time in the fall by one week into November.

Most computer systems and devices that rely on computers are set up to automatically spring forward and fall back with the long-established daylight-savings times. So, some potential glitches could develop, although the time change won't cause electric power grids to shut down or nuclear missiles to launch accidentally, Thomas said.

"The average PC user is not going to see anything that is going to be real critical,” Thomas said. "The biggest problem that people are going to see is more along the lines of transaction-based stuff.

"Say you have an application that does e-commerce or banking applications; the date of those transactions can be critical to the overall accounting of the system.”

Fortunately, Microsoft has been issuing patches to correct the problem on most systems and current software. However, for older software such as Exchange 2000, Microsoft is charging $4,000 to obtain the patch, Thomas said.

For that price, it might be more cost effective for corporate users to upgrade their software, he suggested.

While there is potential for unexpected problems, Thomas expects critical components such as medical equipment will be updated prior to the time change.

"The hidden things are the ones that I always worry about, even with Y2K,” Thomas said. "The small, stupid things, something you wouldn't think of like traffic lighting systems that run off of a clock.”

For cell phone users and communications devices such as the popular BlackBerry and Palm Treo, the potential for problems exists, although patches are also available for them.

As for cell phone subscribers using phones for traditional voice calling, there is little to be concerned about, said Michael Edwards, Tulsa-based director of sales for the southwest market for U.S. Cellular.

Turning the phone off and then back on early March 11 should keep them up-to-date with daylight-saving time, he said.

"We recommend that you turn them off because the phone has to actually register on the system,” Edwards said. "If you make a phone call, it will go ahead and set your time, but better to be safe than sorry and power recycle it.”

The early leap forward likely will catch many Americans unaware just because people are accustomed to changing clocks on the first Sunday in April, Thomas said.

"This is something that a lot of people just don't know about, and it will percolate over the next couple of weeks,” he said. "It's surprising to me that it's taken this long to become public where people are really concerned about it.”

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