Tag: DST

Microsoft IT webcasts on daylight saving time posted, links to upcoming DST webcasts

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 20/02/2007
1 Comment on Microsoft IT webcasts on daylight saving time posted, links to upcoming DST webcasts

Our public webcast of last Tuesday on how our own IT group is handling the changes related to daylight saving time is now available for public access here.

We’re also offering a series of new webcasts over the next two weeks to help organizations preparing for daylight saving time: this is part of our “step-by-step” program on making the DST transition. Geared toward IT Professionals, we’ll walk through a general overview of DST and the impacts and solutions for Windows, Outlook and Exchange. You’ll find a list of these upcoming webcasts upcoming DST webcasts here, where we also include a few archived, on-demand webcasts.

This session is offered live on multiple dates, each beginning at 12:00 noon Pacific:

Tuesday, February 20: Click here to register

Thursday, February 22: Click here to register

Tuesday, February 27: Click here to register

Thursday, March 1: Click here to register

Tags: Microsoft, Windows Vista, Windows, Vista, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, DST. 446,065; 688,800; 879,856

Tags articles, DST, IT management, webcast

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Your questions: Where did minutes and hours originate?

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 18/02/2007

A question I received this weekend: “Where did minutes and hours originate?”

Look no further than to the page on NIST’s site for general history of clocks, calendars and daylight saving time:

“A sundial described in 1300 BCE reveals that the Egyptians determined a daily cycle to be made up of ten hours of daylight from sunrise to sunset, two hours of twilight and twelve hours of night. Their calendar year was divided into 36 decans, each ten days long, plus five extra days, totaling to a 365 day year. Each decan was equivalent to a third of the zodiacal sign and was represented by a decanal constellation. The night corresponded to about twelve decans, half a day to eighteen decans. Similar to the system used in Oriental clocks, the night was thus divided into twelve hours, with seasonable variations of the hour’s length. Later, Hellenistic astronomers introduced equinoctial hours of equal length.

“The Babylonians (in about 300-100 BCE) performed astronomical calculation in the sexagesimal (base-60) system. This was extremely convenient for simplifying time division, since 60 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10. What we now call a minute derives from the first fractional sexagesimal place; the second fractional place is the origin of the second.”

If you’re interested, I also recommend “The Experience and Perception of Time” from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Tags articles, DST, of interest, Your Questions

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Apple’s webpage for daylight saving time, Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4 updates

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 18/02/2007

I noticed that this week Apple updated their web page on daylight saving time (launched at the end of January 2007).

Apple also released Java updates for Macintosh OS X version 10.3 and version 10.4 that accomodates the latest Daylight Saving Time. Apple’s site notes that these updates include time zone information as of January 8, 2007.

Here are the links:

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/javaformacosx103update5.html (38MB). For detailed information on this update, visit http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n304585

OS X v 10.4: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/javaformacosx104release5.html (83MB). For more details on this Update, visit http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n304586

Tags Apple, customer support, DST

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Joris Evers on CNET News with my quote on daylight saving time

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 17/02/2007

Joris Evers quoted me this week in his CNET article “Wake up to the ‘daylight-saving’ bug” on the changes in 2007 to daylight saving time (DST). I listen to his security webcasts and I enjoy his articles.

“There has been a great deal of speculation of what the impact could be,” said M3 Sweatt, chief of staff of Microsoft’s customer service team. “For most people, the most apparent issue is that meetings and reminders may appear to be off by one hour.”

I’m part of the Windows Core Operating System Division at Microsoft; my trusty cohort in DST at the office is Rich Kaplan, who leads our Customer Support and Services group.

Joris then went on to say that “…Microsoft may be downplaying the risk. Some say those companies that don’t pay full attention to the issue are in for a rude awakening.”

Downplaying? I don’t think so. It’s an impact, and I think I’ve said as much: some companies may still be unaware of the impact and I appreciate the coverage in Joris’ article and others, and hope that it will help illuminate the issue.

With all apologies to Joris, this is not a bug in code as we saw in Y2K: the issue has to do with a government change to the DST entry and exit dates, and applications, services and clocks throughout the US and Canada (and many places around the world) will feel the impact.

Also, Outlook isn’t affected, but we do offer tools to rebase meetings that may be impacted (so no update or patch for Outlook is required). Windows Client and Server OS are, and the updates have been available for some time. For IT Professionals, we recommend that they deploy updates in a particular order as closely as possible, but the real advice is to ensure that IT administrators communicate with their customers (internal end users) on what’s happening. We’re doing this with our own staff at Microsoft, and shared the details in webcasts last week with MSIT.

Tags: Microsoft, Windows Vista, Windows, Vista, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, DST. 434,345; 684,350; 896,087

Tags articles, DST, Windows Server, Windows Vista, Windows XP

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Video clip: Microsoft’s Rich Kaplan on daylight saving time changes

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 14/02/2007
1 Comment on Video clip: Microsoft’s Rich Kaplan on daylight saving time changes

Our own Rich Kaplan on the local ABC news covering the upcoming daylight saving time changes.

“Of course, it’s likely not everyone would take that step, said Rich Kaplan, a Microsoft customer service vice president who oversaw the company’s Y2K efforts and heads daylight-saving preparations. Hence Microsoft’s advice to be cautious about meetings between March 11 and April 1.

“Because if one person applied the update, and one person didn’t,” he said, “you could end up there at the wrong time.”

Click here for a link to the video story on KOMO TV’s web site: http://www.komotv.com/news/tech/5806516.html?video=YHI&t=a

Tags: Microsoft, Windows Vista, Windows, Vista, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, DST. 324,247; 545,544; 877,830

Tags articles, DST, IT management, Microsoft, webcast