The Indiana Business Journal has a story on the problems Indiana businesses are having with switching their computers so they all are prepared for Indiana observing Daylight Saving Time.
Appointment calendars in some of these popular applications are programmed to automatically reschedule appointments set prior to April 2 for an hour later after the time changes. So for example, a 9 a.m. appointment you schedule this month for April 18 will show up on the Outlook calendar as 10 a.m. when the big day rolls around.
Business deals dashed. Careers ruined. Expect a run on job applications at Wal-Mart.
“There’s going to be a lot of companies hurting on April 2,” said Marc Cornejo, the top tech at Indianapolis logistics firm Langham. “… It took five years to fix Y2K and for a lot of companies this is almost as bad.”
And unlike the furor over possible computer glitches at the turn of the century, relatively few companies are aware of the computer issues that will surface only a few weeks from now.
It’s not as if this was unforseen, however. As one universally beloved blogger said on April 12, 2005:
[A] Star Editorial approving DST says that DST is an “important push†for Indiana’s economy. (Though I haven’t yet heard an explanation of why these big businesses can keep track of time in Japan –which doesn’t follow DST– but not Indiana. Also I haven’t heard why out of state businesses simply can’t relocate here because of the burden of changing their business systems whereas thousands of Hoosier businesses can change their business systems in 2 months, no problem. As I’ve said before, it’s primarily a sign of disrespect from those in other states — they simply don’t care enough to remember Indiana’s time and a sign of low self-esteem on the part of proponents in that they see Hoosier uniqueness as badges of inferiority rather than simply as differences or sources of pride.)
Or on April 17, 2005:
Proponents have loudly proclaimed the economic and business advantages of being on DST. But, despite the proclamations, there doesn’t seem to be a lot data supporting this proposition. For the most part from what I’ve heard, it seems like business leaders get teased by their colleagues in other states, and that has as much to do with it as the cost of revamping business systems. (After all, if this passes, thousands of Indiana businesses will have to revamp their systems, and the legislature doesn’t seem to be giving that expense, which they would be mandating, a second thought.)
But as confusing as April 2 will be in a computerized society, there is no choice this time.It’s the law.It will be done either smoothly or roughshod. But in the future it make put the brakes on any more time change initiatives,either by county ,or going back to perpetual EST.
What I was trying to point out was that one of the pretenses upon which Daylight Saving Time was sold had to do with economic development. Foreign businesses, the argument went, had trouble doing business here because it was too expensive for them to adapt their systems to our time zone(s).
And yet, the DST proponents thought not a thing about the expense and difficulties they would be putting thousands of Indiana businesses through by requiring them to adapt their business systems to Daylight Saving Time.
Yes,,but next time around time issue will be be paired with the expense of changing computers,etc..DST cant help but smooth business dealings.It’s more important than if an area in CTZ or ETZ.( I have no documentation however,and I know how well people document in this blog). Time confusion should never be an issue in any way and time was very confusing to out-of-staters. . If someone knows Indiana is on ET then that means automatically it’s SAME time or one hour different,etc.No one expects to consider anything else..Time ZONE placement may still be an issue with business,but ‘what time it is’ should never be .
Time issues in Indiana make the national news as tongue-in-cheek americana vignettes,and people just shake their heads and smile.
It’s not a matter of showing respect to Hoosiers by knowing what time it is.People just couldnt figure why the rules were different,and there’s always someone doing a deal for the first time in Indiana,and doesnt have a clue.
Time Zone is primarily for the benefit of people who live in that time zone and for that reason yearly EST served residents well,and it was a sensible compromise.But it’s gone now., I hope Hoosiers will adjust to the new time zones with DST.
But one thing is sure, next time around, time zone legislation would not be an unfunded mandate.I think all those against the present outcome fell alseep at the switch by not making expense of implimentation an issue from start.
I’ve been working on this issue since we have had a final answer from the DoT about what zone we would be in. There are two issues that most everyone has to deal with.
First, you have to change the zone on every PC. This is a very simple thing to do, but doing it 200-20,000 times becomes a bigger deal. Most end users do have permissions to change the time zone, so the administrators need to do it. For any else in IT dealing with this issue, the follow command ran from the command line on any Windows PC will change from the “Indiana” time zone to Eastern:
control.exe TIMEDATE.CPL,,/Z (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time
Add that to the startup scripts on every PC and you’re done on next reboot. Change it to GMT-06:00 and the name to Central if your in one of the “correct” counties. :)
The second issue is one everyone has to deal with. All scheduling programs (Exchange, Notes, Outlook, etc…) save the TZ info when you create a meeting. Well, any meetings made while your PC was in the “Indiana” time zone will NOT be adjusted for DST, since Indiana does not follow DST. This is BY DESIGN, and it is not really a bug. It was in there so if someone in Indiana scheduled a meeting with someone in March for a meeting in May with someone that uses DST they would still see the same time. Since everyone is moving, their old meetings will be wrong. The worst part is that it will be 1 hour LATE. So, if you have an important call in April that you scheduled before you changed your PC’s time zone, you’ll get your notice that it is time to start the call 1 hour after you should have.
People moving to Central won’t have this exact problem, but they can’t run that script I have above until April 2nd. People moving to Eastern can, and should, run it as soon as posssiable.
Also, Microsoft has addressed the issue in a web page:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/915577/en-us
In the end, they say it isn’t their problem. Also, the “Indiana” TZ will still be in Windows for another 2 years according to Microsoft. This is due to the fact that changing the TZ listings just isn’t high on their fix list. We’ll be dealing with end users choosing “Indiana” and wondering why it didn’t change with DST for some time to come.
However, I’ll deal with this now and hopfully one more time (when DST is removed globally). I doubt there will be more missed meetings this year than there was last year, and I know there will be far fewer in 2007 than there was in 2005. Again, it isn’t disrespect from others, it just is unfamilar. How many of you can still remember how to do some useless task you learned in school that you don’t do anymore? Same goes with out of state people. They don’t have to deal with the time change changing when dealing with most anyone else. They just don’t think of it. When they do, their usual response is “Well that’s silly”. I don’t mind people thinking I’m silly when I know I’m right, but I HATE setting meetings 2-3 times because no one else understands.
Oh, and to address your comments, DST itself is VERY easy on computers. They change the time on their own at exactly the right time. When people come into the office on April 3rd, their computer will likely be the only clock with the correct time. That goes double during this fall change after everyone has their PC zone moved.
The real issue is moving time zones. (see above)
It sounds like there is no more category called ‘Indiana time’ which was used for yearlong Indiana EST , so it’s a matter of choosing ET or CT and then your computer will automatically adjust to DST. Is that right? The problem is there are so many computers to change from Idiana time to ET ,and fewer to change from Indiana time to CT. Very good explanation.Just remember that ‘Indiana time’ doesnt exisit anymore.
Yes, that is correct. People already in CT or ET have not had to touch their computers for decades when going from or to DST.
Part of the problem is that the category “Indiana Time” (Eastern Time without DST) will still be in Windows. It just won’t represent a real place anymore!
Of course next year it isn’t 2 April, it will be the second sunday in March meaning everyone (except Arizona, Hawaii, eastern Saskachewan (yes most of Canada is falling in behind the change in DST dates)) will be messing around with their computers again.
Nope. NIST puts a DST bit in the timecode that is sent. Servers, self-setting clocks, and other devices will see this bit and know it is now DST. If you have XP and are not on a large network, go to your time settings. You should see “Internet Time” as one of the tabs. That time comes from either NIST or the Navy.
Also, I have already seen Microsoft put out an update for a change for Austraila’s DST dates, so I’m sure they’ll do the same for us. Automatic updates will fix it without much help.
It must be like when you’re driving across country and your cell phone automatically changes TIME ZONE when you cross into a new one. That’s always so impressive.