DST and My Computers

(a) Download the timezone editor for Win98 from here

It is a self-extracting zip-executable. I would just extract the files into the Windows directory and leave them there.

(b) Run tzedit.exe. It should pop-up showing our timezone (GMT - 8) selected. If not, select it. Then press the edit button. Set the start day to be Second Sunday of March at 2am. Set the last day to First Sunday of November at 2am. Press OK, then close the Time Zone editor.

(c) Very important - you are not done yet. Right click the start bar clock and choose adjust (or Date/Time from the control panel). Choose another timezone (say Arizona) and press ok/apply. Then choose back our real time zone (GMT - 8). This causes the info changed by step (b) to be read.

You are d> Sorry if this has been covered already, but I am looking for a way to

I was surprised to find out that I had to manually change my time zone one to the right to get Dimension4 to report the correct local time on a Win98 system. Out of *all* the devices in my house that keep time, only my LaCrosse LED projection clock with a built-in radio to detect time signals correctly reports the local time. My two other automagically setting clocks (one Emerson, another WalMart something or other) didn't make the jump but they have never been able to receive the time signal correctly although the LaCrosse clearly does.

The autosets on my VCR's and DVD recorders didn't change although the cable system seems to know the correct time. Now comes the joy of resetting watches, cameras, voice recorders, PCs, car clocks, house clocks, medical equipment, etc. I've begun a database of devices so I can use it as a checklist and also store some of the more unusual setting methods ("tap 3 times then hold then press mode and set together with reset while adjusting display and whistling Dixie" sort of nonsense) in one place. It's a nuisance, to be sure, but it's probably a good idea to devote the time to resynching clocks, inspecting and replacing batteries, etc.

I read somewhere that over $2 billion has been spent on patching to accommodate the new DST start and end dates. I wonder how much energy it will save?

Should do what you want to do. I've been running it for a least 5 years on Win98 and it's been invisibly efficient. Says it works under XP but I can't vouch for that. Also acts as network time server to synch other clocks (haven't got that to work for me, though, but I expect it's a firewall and protocol issue I am unwillingly to run to ground).

-- Bobby G.

I heard from someone this morning that he heard a report of a "study" where it was determined that savings would not be anywhere near the original estimates. They sited, extra driving during the early evening and more lighting required in the mornings. I know for a fact that this morning, with the clock set at 6:55AM, I needed lights in the house, where last Sunday I did not.

As they point out at the site you've cited, folks may already have tzedit.exe on their machines or CDs. I found two copies already on my machine, one in Program Files, the other in the directory tools\\reskit\\config on the Windows installation CD (in case DL'ing from a site named "softshape" gives anyone the willies or the heebie-jeebies! (-:

Oddly enough, the two files I found have different creation dates (4/3/98 and 5/11/98) and are capitalized differently but Windiff says they're identical.

It's more than that, you've translated reams of MS registry-tweak geekspeak into *usable* English! That article is one of the worst examples of techno-twaddle I've ever seen.

Following your instructions I was able to reselect the DST box and my correct time zone (Eastern, not Atlantic!) and Dimension4 is reporting the correct time. Now I wait until November to see if it all really works!

Thanks!

-- Bobby G.

Our autosets did change. Unfortunately, they all went back 1 week and ahead

2 hours. Figure that one out. Now the autoset can't find a time reference at all. The station that provides the time reference probably killed it because the data was bad.

Jeff

Too bad I didn't just wait for your reply. Instead I found the same solution with about three hours of work. Hopefully it will help someone else.

Maybe no savings, but I am going to enjoy the extra sunshine in the evening, plus my boys will probably sleep later in the morning. That means I get to sleep later.

Where (East, Central, West) in your time zone do you live ?

...Marc Marc_F_Hult

ABSOLUTELY! It will be great to have time after work to do things outdoors in the evening.

(-: That should serve as a reminder this is only part one of a four part play. I suppose the next set of issues will arise when we cross the old DST dateline in April. I'm pretty certain I'll be adjusting some more clocks during phase II as they discard my manual settings and try to autoset again. Phase III will be when autosetters try to return to normal time too early and then Phase IV will occur at the actual end of this year's DST follies, the second week in November. It's like four Y2K problems rolled into just a few short months! Thank you congress. Gee, I wish I had a job where I could campaign for president for two years instead of working and STILL GET PAID!

My intense dislike for DST comes from a job where I had to drive right into the morning sun. Pressing the DST reset button meant I had to put up with the sun blinding me four times a year instead of just twice.

If there's ever a valid cost-benefit analysis of DST, I think it will be clear it's time to abandon this little ritual.

-- Bobby G.

There was a pretty thorough article in today's WaPo that talked about the non-dollar benefits, and there certainly are some.

[ registration equired )-: ]

What I found interesting was who's been fighting hard to end DST: "That leaves the opposition mainly in the hands of airlines, which say they have trouble competing for arrival slots at foreign airports when U.S. time doesn't match up with European time."

The article pretty much concludes what I've concluded: "Adding an hour of sunlight at the end of the day is primarily a "lifestyle benefit," Prerau says, but it's mainly the promise of energy savings that got this bill passed in 2005."

Children appear to be safer when there's more daylight in the mornings when they are on their way to school. But by and large, I think the benefits are really psychological, not financial. Building HVAC systems and home thermostats change their clocks, too, so it's not like the heaters or the light fixtures of the world are being fooled by the switch. (-: DST is as much of a way of trying to adjust our artificially contrived human 8 hour workday ruled by the clock with the natural processes of the universe. What we *really* need to do is to change the tilt in the Earth's axis!

It's our 23° 27? tilt from perpendicular that brings about the long day in summer, short day in winter business. There's something that could keep Congress busy - hearings on re-tilting the earth! (-:

-- Bobby G.

[snip]

Anther benefit is increased public awareness as witnessed by the uptick in snarky comments in this newsgroup. ("The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet." )

That I've been invited to give my first lecture/talk on the topic of global climate change in more than a decade to a professional group is another factoidito that accords with my personal impression that the topic is finally getting some public attention. IMO, if DST is partly a component of the required public education strategy, so be it.

The first issue of _Nature_ (vol 445 issue 7128 Feb 8 2007) after the Intergovernmantal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report was released had this to say:

"The IPCC report has served a useful purpose in removing the last ground from the skeptics' feet, leaving them marooned and ridiculous. "

Twenty years of arguing about the whether left no room for serious public discussion of potential solutions.

An actual global fix will require real _sacrifice_, which is a principal reason why the current administration wanted/s to kick the can down the road.

Remember the intellectually dishonest and environmentally illiterate Reagan/Watt/Gorsuch on acid rain ?

Which was preceded by the political lesson of Carter's 'Sacrifice' debacle in (eg) his 1980 State of the Union:

" Meeting this challenge will take national will, diplomatic and political wisdom, economic sacrifice ..."

'Course Carter was referring _honestly_ to what it might take to solve problems in the Middle East. (Plus ça change ...)

... Marc (Who happens to think that better and smarter homes are an important part of the solution mix.)

Marc_F_Hult

That sounds like someone from the airline industry is handing out a load of bull. Airplane arrivals and departures are scheduled by "zulu" time (aka UTC or Greenwich Mean Time), regardless of DST.

I was wrong. There are more than four phases. My Samsung DVDR changed itself BACK from the time I had manually set yesterday. I didn't realize that manual set allows you to change the time yourself but using it doesn't mean that you've deselected 'automatic set', which was still engaged. I guess the next time it synched up, it reverted. Looking around further it seems there IS no way to set 'automatic set' off, except perhaps to set the autosynch channel to one that has no clock signal. I'm going to try channel

125. Who knew that chasing the DST rule change was going to be so much un? )-: I'm going to need all that extra daylight to keep all these clocks in line!

-- Bobby G.

That's a psychological benefit, and a nice one, but the converse is that a lot of people get up and go to work in total darkness. I found that pretty depressing during the years I did it. "OH" Dark Thirty was the Army's phrase for it. Here's another interesting item I found that adds another dimension to the problem:

"One other interesting point of opposition to the extension of DST comes from fire chiefs. The (Chicago) Herald News points out: For years, the International Association of Fire Chiefs has framed a widespread public information campaign around daylight-saving time, reminding people to change the batteries in their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors when they change their clocks. The last weekend in November is too late for the reminder, fire officials say."

-- Bobby G.

The return to standard time is the FIRST weekend in November, not the last.

I think that article was written a while back and was referring to a previous plan to extend DST for much longer than the 4 weeks that was finally agreed upon. I tried to check further but both links have gone stale. In some parts of the country, lots of heating systems will have already been turned on by Nov. 7th. We had at least one serious near-blizzard in DC around that date. Either way, the "too late for smoke detector battery change" issue is one I never would have thought of had I not come across it. It's possible the fire chief's concerns had an effect on shortening the proposed DST change from the last week to the first week in November.

The reason for the difference is found here:

" . . . the House had originally approved a motion that would have extended DST even further from the first Sunday in March to the last Sunday in November, but Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Pete Domenici (R-NM) agreed to scale back the proposal in conference committee due to complaints from farmers and the airline industry."

Let's hear it for New Mexico!

The Poynter article did lead to another interesting site:

They explained why DST changes affect airlines so profoundly, which was another aspect of DST I had not considered. Here's a excerpt:

"We recognize that, superficially, it is difficult to understand why airlines would be opposed to this provision. Understanding the problem requires a few minutes of analysis and a brief bit of background in the admittedly complex and arcane world of airline scheduling. That process must take into account issues, including not only time zones but also local airport restrictions and curfews, facility availability, government passenger processing capabilities, connecting flight timing and literally hundreds of related issues to enable a worldwide industry to function on a finely tuned schedule. . . . European Union law and IATA Scheduling Guidelines state that airlines can only maintain their established schedules (or historic rights) by operating their flights at the same time each day over a period of five consecutive weeks"

-- Bobby G.

I get up in the dark all winter anyway. I can get up, and get to work equally well in the dark as in the light. I cannot do things outside after work in the dark as well as in the light.

Lets see, a battery that will easily last for a couple years is a problem if it gets used for 248 days instead of 220? Gimme a break. If the battery could not be relied on to last for the 248 days, the 28 days less won't make a significant difference in reliability. Basically as stupid of logic as the farmer that was complaining that he had an hour less to do his work.

Equally stupid would be using a story that is on TV coming up in the news tonight. It appears that there was some kind of disaster where people would have been killed except that they had left the building in the hour before whatever happened. (IE, without daylight savings time, they would have died).