Tag: DST

Categories
Uncategorized

Advisory: Russia’s possible return to Winter Time in 2012

Earlier this summer we received news reports that the Russian government was considering a move to Winter Time, changing their prior decree in 2011 to abolish Daylight Saving Time in the federation.  At that time, we weren’t certain the government would make this change.

Recent news confirms there is a move in government to revise the current Federal Law and allow for the transition from summer to winter time…

“Russia’s railways have halted ticket sales for trains leaving after late October amid confusion created by the authorities’ failure to decide in good time whether to put the clocks back this winter.

“… the head of the parliament’s health committee submitted a bill calling for Russia to stay in winter time all year round, paving the way for the switchback.”

If you recall the change in Russia last year (which was intended to be a permanent change) we provided most updates and guidance in our products and services in advance of the change. This year is different: the changes could be enacted into law quickly and impact our ability to provide a comprehensive set of updates and guidance.

We don’t have a complete picture of the proposed changes but should learn more after Parliamentary hearings on the issue later this week. More information will be provided externally at http://www.microsoft.com/time.

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS,DST, Russia

Also available via http://bit.ly/QmQmDV

Bookmark this on Delicious Bookmark and Share

Categories
Uncategorized

Your questions: What’s all this about the Leap Second, and how does it affect the Microsoft Windows OS and other products?

First off, Happy Canada Day. (eh? 😉

Lots of talk today about the ‘Leap second bug’ that caused various site and software crashes (see this post via CNET)…

“The addition of a leap second to the Coordinated Universal Time at midnight Greenwich Mean Time last night appears to have caused site disruptions for a handful of popular Web sites and software platforms.

“The adjustment, which was made by International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, was necessary to keep atomic clocks in line with the Earth’s ever-changing speed of rotation. Dozens of leap seconds have been added since their introduction in 1972.”

Once again, The Extra Second was too much for some sites. Sounds like a new James Patterson crime novel. Or perhaps a new thriller from our own Mark Russinovich… I prefer his writing more these days anyway.

As I noted a couple of years ago, you’ll find more documenting the impact of a leap second in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article 909614, How the Windows Time service treats a leap second (as Michael Kaplan noted in his most excellent post)… 

“In short, W32Time does not account for a leap second being dependent on the NTP server. Most applications and services may be unaffected, but sysadmins and IT professionals should know that the leap second is not addressed until the next time sync following the official addition/ subtraction of the leap second.  Consumers really have nothing to worry about save questioning whether or not the time is accurate as broadcast during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve when the crystal ball drops in Times Square.

“Info on syncing clocks to absolute time, please see KB 816042, How to configure an authoritative time server in Windows Server 2003, and KB 884776, How to configure the Windows Time service against a large time offset.

“General information on the Windows Time Service is also available in the team blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/w32time/default.aspx.  More articles/ information in which you may be interested:

IIRC, the concept of a leap second is actually in question, and an ITU working group is evaluating whether or not the process of adding/subtracting leap seconds should be discontinued.

 

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, leap second, DST.

Bookmark and Share

Also available via http://bit.ly/MMZoIg

Categories
Uncategorized

Advisory: Armenia will not observe daylight saving time in 2012

If you read this blog regularly, you’ll recall that Armenia proposed changes to their stand on daylight saving time…

We now have confirmed reports that similar to the move in Russia, that Armenia, Belarus and Ukraine won’t fall back but also stay permanently on summer time on October 30. (There have been some initial rumours about other countries following Russia’s lead and considering cancelling Daylight saving time too. We will also provide details on these changes as they come up and are ratified and enacted into law.)

Today we confirmed that Armenia has cancelled DST starting in 2012, as noted in this blog post advisory…

In an attempt to improve the country’s economy, the government of Armenia has cancelled Daylight Saving Time. This will result in the country staying on permanent ‘winter time’ and not moving an hour ahead on Sunday, March 25th 2012.

Since the new date published by the government is different from what was defined in the previous years, Windows-based computers will not correctly interpret the time after March 25th 2012.

Microsoft will not be issuing an update for Windows at this time to address this change. The recommendation is to move to an alternate time zone: Russian Standard Time [DisplayName: “(UTC+04:00) Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd” ]

The time zone Caucasus Standard Time [DisplayName: “(UTC+04:00) Yerevan”] will be updated in the next cycle of cumulative time zone update for Windows (next planned is August 2012).

Essentially the recommendation is that customers in Armenia to move to an alternate time zone: one alternate time zone recommendation is “Russian Standard Time” DisplayName: (UTC +4:00) Moscow, St Petersburg, Volgograd) in Windows.

We don’t plan to issue a hotfix or update at this time for Windows, but plan to include and revise the native time zone for Armenia in the next release of Windows cumulative time zone updates, planned for August 2012.

We’ll continue to watch the developments and changes around the world. As noted previously, we do provide some guidance on http://www.microsoft.com/time, that in order to achieve more seamless transitions to new DST and time zones policies, Microsoft requests that governments provide the following:

  • Ample advance notice (1 year or more) of the planned change.
  • Official published confirmation of planned changes to DST or time zones.
  • Concentrated efforts on promoting the change to the affected citizens.

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS,DST, Armenia

Also available via http://bit.ly/GJRtuG

Bookmark this on Delicious Bookmark and Share

Categories
Uncategorized

It’s Time To Spring Forward An Hour in the US and Canada: Daylight Saving Time Arrives Sunday

I was reminded today that daylight saving time (aka DST) is here once again, and that you’ll change your clocks this Sunday, March 11, 2012. Much of the United States and Canada will “Spring Forward” on Sunday at 2:00AM, as noted in more than 36,900 news articles today. (That’s up about 31,000 articles and links over this time last year.)

Oh, sorry… flashback to 2007.

If you’re going to SXSW this week, please keep this change in mind. IIRC, a few devices didn’t update correctly last year.

This year, DST in much of the US and Canada begins on March 11, several weeks earlier than in years prior to 2007. In 2007, most of the US and Canada “sprang forward” a few weeks earlier than in past years in accordance with the US Department of Energy’s Energy Policy Act of 2005 that was passed into law. DST will end later than it did prior to 2007, on the first Sunday of November (that would be Sunday, Nov. 4, in 2012); more details on the new DST start and end times can be found here). This results in a new DST period that is approximately three to four weeks longer than in previous years.

The switch to daylight saving time also means the time zone suffix changes, now using Daylight Time: for example, Pacific Standard Time is now Pacific Daylight Time (aka PDT). The other time zones move to Mountain Daylight Time (MDT), Central Daylight Time (CDT), and Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

Of course, there are a few exceptions to the DST rules. As noted, Hawaii and most parts of of Arizona don’t use DST. Hawaii not on DST I understand – it’s off the grid and who wants to worry about changing their watches on vacation? (Seriously, it does mess with small details like television programming and flight schedules from the mainland.) But Arizona? Something to do with the weather, as Chris Kline covered for the ABC affiliate in his article “Weird? Why Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Saving Time…

“The history of daylight saving is tied to energy conservation. Switching to DST in the summer means more sunlight at night, which in turn means homes don’t have to turn on lights as early. According to the U.S. Government, that leads to energy and fuel savings.”

And Indiana. Ah, yes… Indiana. You’ll find everything you need to know about this in articles like this one for Indiana. Salon notes in their article Please end Daylight Saving Time…

“In fact, farmers generally oppose daylight saving time. In Indiana, where part of the state observes DST and part does not, farmers have opposed a move to DST.”

There are exceptions, such as the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona, which does observe daylight saving time. And according to entries on Wikipedia, there are a few exceptions in Canada not using DST, including a few areas (parts of British Columbia, Nunavut, Ontario and Quebec) and almost all of Saskatchewan.

C’mon, Saskatchewan…

What to do

So what should you do to make sure that your computers are ready for the change? If you use Microsoft Update on your PC at home, chances are you’re already covered. The December Cumulative Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone Update for Windows should already be installed on your PC. If you’re not sure, visit Microsoft Windows Update to check your PC and install important updates. At work, if an IT Pro (aka ‘hero’) manages your network, chances are good that the needed updates have already been installed on your computers and devices automagically.

In support of the changes to DST and time zones around the world, the December 2011 cumulative update is live on Windows Update (deployed December 13, 2011) and available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2633952.

Recently, I received a question similar to one I answered previously on daylight saving time and time zone updates to Windows:

“We updated our systems earlier this year for daylight saving time [the rules for the US and Canada]. Is there anything we need to do? Should we also update our systems with the last DST update?”

Generally, the answer is yes. As I noted earlier here, it depends.

If you manage servers and a host of Microsoft software, visit http://www.microsoft.com/time for more details. And visit the support web sites of any other software companies to see if you need to apply any updates – it’s not just Microsoft software that may require updates. Keep in mind that it’s not just the US and Canada that made changes to DST and time zones: we have an upcoming change in Australia and others noted on the DST and Time Zone Hot Topics page.

And remember: time is a precious thing. Never waste it.

Of interest, these top news articles for daylight saving time…

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time,DST:

References to DST on Bing: 1,650,000; 5,595,000; 494,000.

Share this post: Bookmark and Share

Also available via http://bit.ly/whGace

Categories
Uncategorized

Advisory: Windows Cumulative Update for Samoa, as they skip Friday and change their time zone

As I noted in a prior post, Samoa will move their time zone this week, essentially traveling to the future…

When is December 30th not December 30th?

When it’s 2011 in Samoa.

[rimshot]

As you may have read, Samoa has decided to move ahead in time and join neighbors and trading partners on the western side of the International Date line (like Australia and New Zealand). In doing so, Samoa will move from December 29th directly to December 31st this year. As Alan Boyle wrote this week in his post on MSN… 

“Just this once, Samoa is making Dec. 30 disappear.

“It’s the key step in the Pacific island nation’s plan to move from the eastern to the western side of the International Date Line and mesh its work week with two of its primary trading partners, New Zealand and Australia. The New Zealand territory of Tokelau is making the switch as well.

“In doing business with New Zealand and Australia, we’re losing out on two working days a week,” Stuff.co.nz quoted Samoan Prime Minister Tuila’epa Sailele as saying. “While it’s Friday here, it’s Saturday in New Zealand, and when we’re at church Sunday, they’re already conducting business in Sydney and Brisbane.”

“Samoa will go directly from 11:59 p.m. Thursday, through midnight to 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

“It hasn’t been controversial,” the editor of the Samoa Observer, Mata’afa Lesa, told me today. (Yes, definitely still today.) “People are realizing when they sleep tomorrow night, they’ll wake up on Saturday.”

Not contraversial? I’m not so sure, but that’s not a matter for this post. Just ask people who will miss a birthday (perhaps they won’t age a year?) or a special anniversary.

Technical Changes

The change will be a move from from UTC -11:00 to UTC+13:00, and a change in the display name for UTC +13:00 time zone (Nuku’alofa, Samoa). So, on the next clock tick after Dec 29, 2011 at 23:59:59, Samoa’s UTC offset becomes UTC +13:00. And the next clock tick will be is Dec 31, 2011 00:00:000. Cartographers will have some challenges dealing with all the updates to maps, moving the International Date Line to 171 degrees longitude west of Greenwich.

Associated challenges

There are also other technical challenges as I called out last year… as this change again occurs at midnite, but this time with good reason…

Here’s my regular advice for governments: in support of these types of changes, we provide guidance and Microsoft’s Policy in Response to DST/TZ Requests. It’s important for countries and territories to work towards seamless transitions to new DST and time zones policies, providing ample advance notice (of a year or more) with published confirmation of planned changes.

In addition – and this is important – we suggest that entities considering moves to DST implement changes at the next clock tick after 01:59:59 rather than at 00:00:00. Making the change at midnight can impact daily scheduled system events that sometimes occur at 12:00 midnite, such as back ups, data pulls or other automated tasks.

But I imagine that in Samoa’s case with this change, it would have been a greater challenge to have December 30th last only a few hours. Noting the article cites “there were 767 births and 43 marriages registered” on December 30th, I sympathize for the loss of a special day.

What’s Microsoft doing about this change?

Microsoft is aware of the upcoming change in time zone and shift in date for Samoa, and we’re looking at ways to minimize the impact this change has on our customers and partners. As with other changes to daylight saving time and time zones (like the recent change in Russia, noted here), this requires an update to the OS.

So users should look at the December 2011 cumulative time zone update for Windows operating systems avilable at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2633952.

In addition to the change to the UTC offset for Samoa standard time from (UTC-11) to (UTC+13) — which will change the time zone’s display name to “(UTC+13:00) Samoa” — we also made additional changes since the last semi-annual Windows cumulative time zone update (back in August):

  • Kaliningrad Standard Time:
    As previously announced in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 2625508, Belarus has decided to discontinue daylight saving time from 2011 and stay on permanent “summer time.” That article suggested that users move to a “workaround time” of Kaliningrad standard time. This windows update makes the move permanent by including Minsk in the display name for Kaliningrad standard time. The new display name for Kaliningrad standard time is “(UTC+03:00) Kaliningrad, Minsk.”
  • E.Europe Standard Time:
    The display name for this time zone has been updated to “(UTC+2:00) Nicosia.”
  • Bahia Standard Time [Display Name “(UTC-3:00) Salvador”]:
    A new windows time zone has been created for the Brazilian state of Bahia.
  • Fiji Standard Time [Display Name “(UTC+12:00) Fiji”]:
    Sets the 2012 DST start date to occur on the fourth Sunday of January.

Most applications and services reference the underlying Windows OS for their TZ and DST rules, with some exceptions. This change in Samoa has the potential for worldwide impacts on time references for multinational customers. Updates will be important not only for users in Samoa but for connected systems around the world, particularly Samoa’s closest partners in the region. Additional information is also available on our official Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Centre at http://www.microsoft.com/time.

So happy new year! Take comfort that at least Samoa decided not to skip that holiday. 😉

 

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST, Samoa

Also available via http://bit.ly/uTbcqT and https://t.co/5Nr3hWJR

Bookmark this on Delicious Bookmark and Share