Categories
Uncategorized

Your questions: Is DST changing in Victoria, Australia?

A question from the Technical Deep-Dive LiveMeeting today on DST and Time Zones today…

“I believe Victoria, Australia will be extending daylight savings by a week (ending April 6, 2008 instead of end of March ’08) is this covered [in the latest Windows OS update, KB 933360]?”

No, not currently as this has not yet been passed into law. It was reported today that the daylight saving legislation will be introduced this week in Australia and propose that daylight saving be in sync across NSW, the ACT, Victoria and South Australia. More as it develops.

For our webcast, thanks today to Alon, Sophia, Beth, Joel, David, Bob, Gil, Jim and Steve, as well as our LM hostess, Tania.

As mentioned previously, later this year we expect to release the 2008 Cumulative Time Zone Update for Windows that will set the known, correct dates for 2008 (it should include changes for Brazil and any other country that changes the observance of DST entry/exit dates in 2008). Our goal is to move to a regular cadence, releasing cumulative time zone updates for Windows. We are checking on the ability to include Venezuela as well in this update.

For those in government considering changing the observance of DST or Summer Time in your country: figure on at least a year (perhaps even two) to ensure that not only vendors but those IT professionals impacted by the changes have enough time to make the appropriate decisions.

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, DST, Time Zones, Australia. 649,768; 896,032; 1,750,000+

Categories
Uncategorized

Technical “Deep-Dive” LiveMeeting today on DST and Time Zones

In about an hour’s time, we’ll host a Technical “Deep-Dive” Webcast…

Monday, September 24, 2007 at 2:00pm Pacific

This LiveMeeting Webcast will be hosted by members of our Microsoft DST Team (Joel, Steve, me and a cast of many on the Question Manager), to provide a technical overview of resources available to help prepare Microsoft products for the change to Daylight Saving Time and time zones around the world. It will cover the core scenarios where the Outlook and Exchange update tools should be used, in addition to helpful links to patches and other information relative to other Microsoft products affected by the DST changes.

Click here just before 2PM PAC today: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/lmevents/join?id=msft092407sa&role=attend&pw=ATN783

 

Available now: Webcast Live Meeting on-demand from September 14, 2007…

An overview of DST, Microsoft resources, impacted products, updates and tools. Click this link to view this web cast now.  Click here to watch this recorded LiveMeeting.

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, DST, Time Zones, Venezuela. 629,596; 907,942; 1,750,000+

Categories
Uncategorized

Venezuela will move clocks in December, 2007… and you can test the change today in Windows

Navarrese Héctor, Minister of Science and Technology in Venezuela, announced that the “change to Venezuelan daylight saving time requires coordinations with diverse institutions and is what we are doing.” (See this link on Windows Live Translator for an article.)

Translation: institutions such as banks need a little more time to make the change. The minister said that Venezuelans will move the clock back a half an hour from 12:00 on the night of the day it goes into effect, which they now project will be December 31, 2007.

As noted, Microsoft is supporting this change today with a hotfix for Windows in KB 938977. This update for the Windows operating system is available to allow customers and partners to test and implement the new time zone for Caracas, Venezuela, prior to the official move to the new time zone in the region. This update makes a change to your Windows operating system by installing a new time zone for Caracas, Venezuela. The name of the new time zone is Venezuela Standard Time, and the display name for this time zone is (GMT -04:30) Caracas.

Microsoft recommends that customers downloading this update should maintain their current time zone settings and confirm the start date of the time zone change in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela before using the new time zone. End users may install this update and the resulting new time zone may remain on the time zone with a display name of (GMT-04:00) La Paz, also known as SA Western Standard Time, until manually making a transition to Venezuela Standard Time.

Installing and using this new time zone prior to the official time zone change will impact the date and time on your computer (see below).

For more information about how to manually change your time zone, please see the following:

The KB is now live and you can request the hotfix by going to http://support.microsoft.com/gp/CUHotFix_LandingPage_Request.

Categories
Uncategorized

What I’ve read: Summer reading for the first week of Fall

Fall is upon us, but I’m still hopeful for more summer weather. Here are a few articles from the reading file for the commute this week (thru August 23rd).

As noted these are all (for the most part) available for download, making it easy to save for reading on mobile devices.  I personally like the Sound Transit busses with wireless access.

Have a good week ahead.

 

SiliconValley.com – ‘Reverse brain drain’ threatens U.S. competitiveness, study says – Associated Press, 08/22/2007, SAN FRANCISCO – The percentage of patents filed by foreigners living in the U.S. has tripled in the past decade – yet the tight cap on permanent visas may force entrepreneurs back home to create rival companies in China…

Vindu’s View: Let’s talk about Silicon Valley’s challenges (SiliconValley.com) – By Vindu Goel, Mercury News, 08/22/2007. In Silicon Valley, we don’t need to play Second Life to get away from the reality. We already live in an alternate universe. People here do more than collect a paycheck – they obsessively invent new technologies …

Passing the Torch – Columns by PC Magazine – PC Magazine editor Jim Louderback leaves and says that he is frustrated with Windows Vista…. saved by 45 other people

ACSI: Flat Customer Satisfaction Suggests Continued Weak Consumer Spending –The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) registers a marginal increase as customer satisfaction slows, according to a report released today from the University of Michigan’s National Quality Research Center.

Delving into the Mystery of Customer Satisfaction: A Toyota for the Retail Market? – Knowledge@Wharton – Aug 10, 2005, read more than 61,000 times. “…in retailing, there is no clear company to follow. There is no Toyota in retailing.” Researchers have begun two closely related projects to find out what drives success in the disparate world of retailing … saved by 1 other person

Beware of Dissatisfied Consumers: They Like to Blab (Knowledge@Wharton) – March 8, 2006. Wharton marketing professor Stephen J. Hoch, who suffered through this scenario first hand during a recent shopping trip, says customers are bound to talk about these kinds of experiences… saved by 1 other person

The Art and Science of Measuring CEO Performance (Knowledge@Wharton) – Aug 22, 2007. The long-term performance of a company’s stock may be the ultimate test of a CEO’s talents. But that’s not the only measurement used by boards of directors to gauge how well the boss is doing.

How to Fix Wal-Mart? Ask Its Managers (BusinessWeek) – by Pallavi Gogoi, August 21, 2007. Store managers from across the country—who know Wal-Mart’s customers best—have a few ideas to get the retailer back on track… saved by 5 other people

Wi-Fi on your Pocket PC (Jason Langridge’s WebLog – MR Mobile) – Pocket WiFi Radar will connect to open hotspots and automatically get your email or start any program you want. All of that in a cool animated radar screen. You may walk around and it will keep scanning untill it finds a free internet connection for you… saved by 1 other person

Make Vista Work for the Whole Family (extreme tech) – How To: Got a computer that’s shared by the whole family? Or a computer in an office that has to support more than one user? Here’s how to set up Windows Vista so that everybody’s happy.

Coupon Search Results for ‘Flat Panel TV Wall Mount’

Wired for customer satisfaction (Sioux City Journal) – Performing service after normal business hours is commonplace for Massey and Advanced Computer’s team of technicians. By Dave Dreeszen Journal business editor

The Allure Of New IT — Emerging Technology — InformationWeek – TransUnion Interactive’s willingness to try new technologies has paid off in many ways. By Scott Metzger, TransUnion Interactive’s CTO InformationWeek August 18, 2007 12:02 AM (From the August 20, 2007 issue)

VMware, XenSource, and The Future Of Virtualization — Virtualization — InformationWeek – Big moves by the two companies change the landscape for one of software’s hottest markets. By Charles Babcock InformationWeek August 18, 2007 12:02 AM (From the August 20, 2007 issue)

Facebook Could Challenge Google And Become The Remote Control For The Web – Mobile Blog – InformationWeek – Posted by Stephen Wellman, Aug 17, 2007 07:12 PM. Last month, I argued that Facebook posed a challenge to professional networking site LinkedIn. While I stand by that assessment, I think that in that post I didn’t go far enough.

Netflix Tries To Revive Customer Service – Digital Life Blog (InformationWeek) – posted by Barbara Krasnoff, Aug 20, 2007 10:08 AM. My mother likes to chat with customer service reps over the phone — that is, when she can actually work her way past the menus to a sentient human being.

Microsoft to Build the Next Version of Windows XP Embedded – With the help of its automated user feedback program? (Softpedia) – As the next version of Windows XP Embedded is in the works, Microsoft is considering relying heavily on user feedback for shaping the final product. End users would actually get the chance to improve the upcoming release of Windows XP Embedded …

Coding Horror: Thirteen Blog Clichés – I started out in early 2004 as a blog skeptic. But over the last four years, I’ve become a born-again believer. In that time, I’ve written almost a thousand blog entries, and I’ve read thousands upon thousands of blog entries… saved by 306 other people … on aug 20

Amazon leaks specs, delivery, and price for Canon’s EOS 40D – Engadget – “Hot damn kiddies. Amazon just posted the specs and delivery for Canon’s EOS 40D. Of course, it’s not official ’til it’s official but Amazon lists a September 20th availability for the true 30D successor. The specs? They’re all there: new 10.1 megapixel…”… saved by 13 other people … on aug 20

How would you change Windows Vista? – Engadget – So, what does Microsoft need to do to make Vista (and its price points) more palatable (short of re-releasing it based on the WinFS file system)? Loosen up the DRM restrictions? Toss the controversial WGA? Put all possible features in a single SKU… saved by 11 other people … on aug 20

Walt Mossberg tackles Apple’s iWork ’08 – Engadget – The Moss-man has gotten into a down-and-dirty review of Apple’s latest version of its Office-battling software suite iWork ’08 (which includes Pages, Keynote, and the new spreadsheet program Numbers) and delivers a one-two punch to the new package. … saved by 1 other person … on aug 20

Write Articles, Not Blog Postings (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox) – To demonstrate world-class expertise, avoid quickly written, shallow postings. Instead, invest your time in thorough, value-added content that attracts paying customers. Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, July 9, 2007… saved by 722 other people … on aug 20

Gerald Kanapathy’s Blog: Successful Blogging – Gerald Kanapathy’s Blog | August 8, 2007 10:15 PM | Comments (1) So I said a lot, but maybe it’s time for me to be specific. What does blogging actually do for your organization? … saved by 6 other people … on aug 20

MJ HEALTH & FITNESS: Get the Winner’s Edge – Olympic style all-sport workout – Looking for that added burst on the court or slopes? Steal this all-sport workout from the top U.S. hopefuls in Turin.

The Investment Guide – Forbes.com – Forbes.com staff, 05.19.05, 6:00 PM ET. So you’re 50 and you keep reading how far behind you are in accumulating enough assets for retirement. In this spring’s Investment Guide, we show you how you can best plan to store up gold for the golden years…

Picassos And Peace of Mind (Forbes.com) – By Carrie Coolidge, 06.06.05. Own a masterpiece? It may be the insurance that’s priceless.

Sensible Investing 2007 – HIP Scorecard – Human Impact + Profit – Social Investor (Fast Company) – A new way of looking at the human side of investing with the HIP (that’s Human Impact + Profit) Scorecard. For this analysis, Fast Company teamed up with two San Francisco-based firms, HIP Investor and SVT Group, to evaluate and rate publicly listed companies…

Tags: misc, articles, what I read.

Categories
Uncategorized

A few Microsoft DST and Time Zone Blog Posts

A few posts on DST and time zones on a few MS blogs…

When in doubt, check out http://www.microsoft.com/dst2007