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As I tweeted tonight on Twitter and noted earlier this week, daylight saving time ends this weekend in much of North America. 

As we’ve noted online, in the United States the Energy Policy Act of 2005 introduced changes to the start and end dates of DST, which began in 2007.  (Another benefit of the current administration.)  Now, DST in North America is observed across most of the United States as well as Canada from the second Sunday in March through to the first Sunday in November.

In 2008, DST ends later than in years prior to 2007, at 2:00AM local time on Sunday, November 2. This results in a new DST period that is approximately three to four weeks longer than in previous years.  It also means that you’ll get an extra hour of daylight to trick or treat, or for my friends in Canada, Halloween Apples.

For the most part, that means many of you in the States and Canada will get an extra hour of sleep.  Or an extra hour to club and dance, late night sushi at Hidekazu Tojo’s, watch the last weekend of political skits on SNL live, play Halo 3 on Xbox Live or, like many of us old, married guys on Facebook, just sleep. 

Whatever you do, remember that "time is a precious thing. Never waste it."

That is, unless you live in Arizona and Hawaii, or Saskatchewan and parts of northern British Columbia.  A few US territories don’t observe DST either, including American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the delightful US Virgin Islands: these areas stay on standard time throughout the year.

Visit http://www.microsoft.com/time for more details.

If you have a PC, ensure that you have applied the latest updates (more info at the link above).  For Microsoft Smartphone or Pocket PC owners running Windows Mobile 5.0 or earlier versions, you should have already received the required update from your carrier or installed them earlier this Spring from our Windows Mobile site at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/daylightsaving/default.mspx.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST, 4,880,000 (up from 4.3M a month ago); 1,940,000 (up from 900K a year ago, down 200K since last month)

http://tinyurl.com/69y6cr

Hopefully you survived the end of European Summer Time and Moscow Daylight Time on Sunday (as I posted this weekend).

Keep in mind that daylight saving time ends this weekend in much of the United States and Canada.  The difference in the changes between Europe and North America could cause some confusion… so watch your cross-Atlantic and Pacific meeting times this week.

As we’ve noted online, in the United States, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 introduced changes to the start and end dates of DST, which began in 2007. Now, DST in North America is observed across most of the United States as well as Canada from the second Sunday in March through to the first Sunday in November. In 2008, DST ends later than in years prior to 2007, at 2:00AM local time on November 2 in 2008. This results in a new DST period that is approximately three to four weeks longer than in previous years.

Do you have to apply any updates to your computer?

It’s likely that there is nothing more to do: as noted in this article, Microsoft strongly recommends that DST and time zone updates be installed on all affected systems, devices and applications to ensure consistency with current DST rules and time zone settings worldwide. Customers should review the product updates available and posted on this site and at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_prodlist for the latest and updated information of Microsoft products affected by daylight saving time.

Keep in mind that updating clocks around the house and office will be a bit more manual.

Microsoft product updates and release schedule for daylight saving time and time zone changes: Most Windows-based applications (and some services) reference the underlying operating system for daylight saving time and time zone information. However, some applications and services do not. Microsoft Windows has established an annual update schedule for daylight saving time and time zone as outlined here. Many of our product teams also follow a similar annual product update cadence, with provisions for semi-annual cumulative updates as needed. For each update release, the window closes for additional updates a few months (generally four to six) prior to the release date. The regular Windows release provides a regular schedule for other product groups to follow.

Following the Windows regular cadence for publishing newly legislated daylight saving time rules and time zone updates, our “Cumulative DST and Time Zone Updates” are scheduled for release each November – December (to the Download Centre and to Windows Update respectively) for the coming calendar year. When needed, Microsoft product groups may also provide a semi-annual update in the August – September timeframe. The product group will also publish the new or modified time zone information (TZI) keys in an update to Microsoft KB article 914387 for IT professionals and systems administrators who may need that information. We hope that this provides a more predictable way for our customers to anticipate and plan for our scheduled product updates as they are published.

For more information, visit Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center at http://www.microsoft.com/time.

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST, 4,880,000 (up from 4.3M a month ago); 1,940,000 (up from 900K a year ago, down 200K since last month)

http://tinyurl.com/58zh4p