« New royalty rates threaten Internet radio, fledgling U.S. businesses | Main | Will you be photographed naked for your country? Can we Google it later? »

March 5, 2007

Daylight savings time starts Sunday: How to tell your PC and other gizmos

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed the dates of daylight savings time, but some of the electronic devices in our homes don't know this yet.

"Spring ahead" moved from the first Sunday in April to the second sunday in March. That's just ahead, this Sunday, March 11. Time to deal, or be late.

Some computers, all cable boxes and TiVo should update automatically, courtesy of the system providers. If you're running a Mac, Apple's auto update system should handle this; MAC OSX Hints offers a way to check it: Update timezone files for earlier Daylight Savings Time.

For Windows users, there's a patch from Microsoft for your operating system. (A patch is just what it sounds like -- a fix, a little piece of code you download and run that changes the code already in your system that acts on the old dates.)

At Microsoft's Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center,

Do I have to update my computer?

Home users: If you use Windows Vista or have Automatic Updates turned on, you may not be affected by the change in daylight saving time. If you want to confirm, follow the steps in the Daylight Saving Time Update Guide below.

The home users section shows you how to check which version of Windows your PC is running (Start--> Run--> Type (or copy) sysdm.cpl--> OK), then offers you a download. Save this file to your PC and click it to run it. It tells your operating system the new dates of DST.

I just did this.

Handheld devices: Updating Windows Mobile-powered devices for the new Daylight Saving Time notes,

To make sure your appointments on your Windows Mobile devices are accurate, you’ll need to update your device. If you regularly synchronize your device with your PC, you’ll need to update Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Outlook as well.

We have three tools that will help your make these updates:

*2007 Time Zone Update for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems
*Outlook Time Zone Update Tool
*Daylight Saving Time 2007 Update Tool for Windows Mobile

Cell phones: Most cell phones synchronize with the phone's service provider. Do the steps at Microsoft above if your Windows phone synchs a calendar with your PC's calendar.

Digital Video Recorders: TiVo says it sent an automatic update patch last month.

Older Replay TVs, including Panasonic Showstoppers, need to be patched. ReplayTV sent a system message telling users they have to update before March 11 using their remote controls, and directing them to a Web page for instructions: How will extended Daylight Saving Time affect my ReplayTV set top DVR?

The process is at that link. (Basically you trick it into connecting to the ReplayTV Service to receive the DST update.)

Slacker alternatives: You can change the time on your computer before you go to bed Saturday night by right-clicking on time in the lower right corner of your screen and clicking on "Adjust Date/Time." The clock window will pop up (below). Select the number representing hour in the timestamp and make it one hour later (e.g., 1:50:49 --> 2:50:49). Then click Apply, click OK, you're done. The time in the corner should have sprung ahead.

If you'd rather do it Sunday morning, go to the Internet Time tab on that same window, shown below, and click "Update Time now

Three weeks later, your computer will try to change it again, when it thinks daylight savings time begins, but you can click on the Time Zone tab, below, and uncheck the box labeled, "Automatically adjust clock for daylight savings changes"

You will have revisit this again on Nov. 4, falling back an hour then. (DST ends the first Sunday in November, moved from the last Sunday in October), and twice every year thereafter until you buy a new computer, so this isn't easier in the long run.

(And if you're the odd slacker with an Outlook calendar, this tweak won't update your appointments.)

Other devices: Some Timex watches update themselves. Coffeepots with digital clocks aren't connected to the Net. Change the time on that manually when you do your alarm clock, microwave oven, telephone answering machine and classic White Rabbit watch.

Do nothing: You can be wrong for three weeks every spring and fall, or right half the year. My car's clock spends the entire winter being wrong -- it's permanently on daylight savings time, and I mentally correct it every time I look at it. Nothing wrong with doing it this way, either.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 11:55 AM | Permalink