daylighttime

Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which will change the start and end dates of Daylight Savings Time (DST) this year.

The new start date is March 11, 2007 (under the old rules it would have been April 1) and the new end date is November 4, 2007 (under the old rules it would have been October 28).

Now for the problem, most computer systems that include any sort of calendaring were setup to recognize DST under the old rules.

What all this means is that if you are creating appointments for the periods between the old and new DST rules (March 11 - April 1, 2007 and October 28-November 4, 2007), they may or may not automatically adjust the time for daylight savings.

Microsoft and Apple sent out updates earlier this month for their operating systems. A problem might occur if you created an appointment in the periods between the old and new DST start/end dates before your computer was patched or from a computer that is unpatched.

To see if the patch is applied to your Windows XP computer, choose Start, then Control Panel, then Add or Remove Programs, then check the box labeled "Show Updates" and then choose Sort by Date Last Used. Scroll down the list to the bottom and check for this entry " Update for Windows XP KB931836"

DST rule changes for the United States and most of Canada are already available in Mac OS X 10.4.5 or later. Check your operating system (click on the blue apple in the top left corner and select "About this Mac"). If it's earlier than 10.4.5, go to apple.com and download the latest update.

It is advisable that you check all your appointments in the periods of March 11-April 1 and October 28-November 4 for the correct starting and ending hours.

This problem may also impact PDAs (both Palm and PocketPC) and cell phones (that have calendaring functions).

~*~*~excerpted from an email from UNT's College of Education Technical Support Department, February 26, 2007