Extra Daylight Savings May Confuse the Gadgets

CrimeDoggy writes "In the energy bill to be signed by the President today (August 8), changes are to be made that extend daylight savings time. The bill would start daylight time three weeks earlier and end it a week later as an energy-saving measure. Many devices such as VCRs, cell phones, and watches would still operate on the previous schedule, potentially causing problems."

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Artifact?

[markmcb]

What is this "VCR" you speak of?

Re:Time for a change...

[Anonymous Coward]

This would help so much. Just have internal time be in seconds, globally. Then just define days as XXXXXX-XXXXXX.

Look on the bright side

[drwiii]

You'll have another hour to fix it.

Re:Awful idea.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I use my mod points to rank down people who point out dupes."

Good for you. We all appreciate your proactive stance for mediocrity.

Re:I offer you my consulting services.

[rovingeyes]

"Stop the apocalypse! Hire me"

Scare tactics always work in US. Tell them, doom is near and people will do anything, even hire you ;)!

Re:Time for a change...

[SlayerofGods]

And while on the topic... who thought up this crazy 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day.
We need metric time damn it!

Re:Moral travesty

[js3]

It takes a big man to admit daylight savings time is idiotic but I am not a big man.

Homer's Insight

[woodsrunner]

8:59, First time I've ever been early for work. --except for all those daylight savings times, lousy farmers!

Re:Time for a change...

[Otter]

I took a marketing class last fall where the case study book had (along with several other can't-miss late '90s schemes, including Alloy.com and Onsale.com) a case on Swatch Internet Time. It's aged about as well as the rest of the Swatch brand has...

Re:I offer you my consulting services.

[pete6677]

For best results, tell them to do it to protect the children from terrorists.

This is nothing more than a plot...

[NotQuiteReal]

clearly the administration is in the thrall of Big Time!

Re:Time for a change...

[guaigean]

This is probably the most logical solution, but what would happen to all those famous songs like "Working 9 to 5"? Working 14:00 to 22:00 just doesn't have the same ring.

It's simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Daylight Savings Time is a way for those of us too poor to afford an airplane ticket to be able to experience the joys of jet lag.

Typical government, they have Datlight Savings in the half of the year that already has plenty of daylight. I'd really like it to not be dark when I get off work between xmas and new years eve.

But DST in the winter makes too much sense.

The gadgets are all confused...

[OmgTEHMATRICKS]

Except for Inspector Gadget, who is on the case.

Re:Time for a change...

[Anonymous Coward]

Gosh, I'm sure glad it has one as a factor! I hope we never never use a base that doesn't.

Freemasons, Illuminati, and the True Origin of DST

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if anybody who reads Slashdot has ever taken the time to read a real history book and learn the true reasons behind the creation of Daylight Savings Time? The Freemasons and Illuminati are a group determined to get world domination and they are based in Sweden. Back in the early 1500s they managed to dupe many prominent American founding fathers such as Ben Franklin and Kurt Russell into believing this idea about "conserving daylight."

The original plan was that this would give farmers more time to plant their crops. (The justification today is that we will consume less energy, but this was the year 1500 and electricity had not been invented yet.) But even the farmer idea is silly .. moving the clock back one hour is not going to generate any extra daylight! Farmers always get up at the beginning of daylight anyway, which is when the cock crows.

The true story is horrid. It's dark and scary. The idea was to get the American people to slowly and gradually begin to accept the idea that time is not absolute. First, they were able to get people to screw around with their clocks twice a year. Now, they've managed to convince us to change when we do that. Eventually, the Freemasons and Illuminati hope to get us confused to the point where everybody believes that every day is February 2nd -- Groundhog Day.

Since one of the popular activities on Groundhog Day is planting trees, people will stay home from work and plant trees instead of going to the office and being productive. And since they will have tricked us into thinking that every day is Groundhog Day, planting trees is all that we'll be doing, day in and day out! Since people will stop going to work entirely, our economy will soon crumble. Not only that, but with all of those trees planted, sunlight will stop hitting the ground here and will cause all of our crops to die, starving the whole country en masse. Then the New World Order will be upon us and the Hindu god Kali-Mah will take over.

This is their true agenda, world domination and the destruction of America, Daylight Savings Time is their vehicle for this agenda and I encourage you to vote no on this bill and this is a run-on sentence.

Re:Time for a change...

[justfred]

Actually, right-hand-drive originated for just that reason - because if you were approaching someone on a horse, you'd want to pass to the left so that your sword hand would be read.

Napoleon taught his troops to fight with their swords in their left hands, to surprise the British. Which is why the continentals would pass to the right.

Re:Time for a change...

[jZnat]

It's so that it's hidden from the normal users! We don't want anyone to mess with that timezone a la the US Government is doing right now, so we prefix with the dot and chmod it to 0700

Re:Time for a change...

[Anonymous Coward]

I am going to learn to use base 12 as a commonplace counting system just because I'm progressive like that.

Re:Time for a change...

[lgw]

A *real* math geek will tell you that balanced base 3 is the best way to go (i.e., the digits are -1, 0, and 1). The is the densest way to store and calculate numbers. After all, why choose a system that's easy for humans when it's not humans that do most of the calculating any more?

In any cas, the one true system of measure - the Furlong-Fortnight-Firkin system - is easy in both base 10 and base 12, you can't beat it!

Re:Daylight Saving...No "S"

[grunherz]

Hey, we 'Mericans make things possessive that aren't either!

I just went to Target's to git some stuff 'cause Wal-Mart's is too crowded these days.

Don't even git me started on Sears's!

Re:Daylight Saving...No "S"

[corsec67]

So, you mean "daylight aving"?

Re:Time for a change...

[CrazyTalk]

Yes, but I'm Jewish ;-)

Re:Time for a change...

[moonbender]

I once figured that we should just use Absolute Universe Time. Universe time starts at Zero (no unit)--the time when the universe started to exist--and the current moment AUT always is 100% (or just One). All other dates are given as a percentage relative to this. Dates in the past are between 0 and 1, moments in the future are larger than 1.
Of course, this introduces a number of minor inconveniences. First off, since the universe started to exist, as far as we can tell, some 16 billion years ago but our typical time needs are in the manner of hours and days, this leads to extremely minor fractions: "I'll meet you at 100.00000000009%" or "I was born at 99.99999999999983%." Second, the refence to a given moment in time changes, ie 50% AUT isn't the same in 5 minutes or 5 seconds, since the total time between 0% and 100% AUT always increases. So you'd have to take that into consideration when using AUT.

Re:Time for a change...

[Schnee]

I heard that the Babylonian king went to his most trusted advisors and asked what base should they keep time in. All six of the advisors simultaneously held up both hands, finger spread....

Re:Time for a change...

[leoxx]

My car gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!

Re:does canada have to follow this?

[djdole]

No, they don't. They'll do whatever England does, since they're still the Queen's bitch.

/me puts on his hockey stick proof, anti maple leaf asbestos pants.

Re:Time for a change...

[Fnord666]

I wonder why Bill Gates had them change this?

Re:Time for a change...

[lucabrasi999]

You don't need 12 digits to count base-twelve.

I found this new book on Amazon: "Men are base-21 and women are base-20"

Re:PI is exactly 3!

[no_pets]

My calculator is solar powered. Thus, changing Pi to 3 would indeed save daylight as well.

Re:Time for a change...

[mario_grgic]

Actually, base e (where e=lim (1+1/n)^n as n->+infinity) is the best base to use.

Re:Time for a change...

[JustOK]

I tried to show my teacher how to do that up to 288. She said it was 2 gross.

Re:Awful idea.

[AJWM]

Coming into effect in 2007 ... but in under a year?

Is it 2006 where you are? Can you send me some stock quotes?

Re:Why is it so easy?

[RexRhino]

Actually, the U.S. adopted the metric system in 1866. (and in 1975... and in 1988...).

Re:How will if affect my watch ??!

[Nermal6693]

I wish my watch (also a Casio) would automatically adjust itself. Computers can do it (even when not online), so a watch should be able to as well. Plus the "adjust" button on my watch is a nightmare to press, really need 2 hands to do it (before you tell me to just take my watch off, it's too much trouble, the band's broken so my watch is zip-tied on).

Re:I also..

[dorsey]

My friends, common sense and traditional time-tested dexterity prove that left-handedness is simply wrong. Writing with your right hand is natural law--WRITE MEANS RIGHT! Righteous people know the difference between right and left!

According to the Encylopedia Britannica (1944), "The percentage of left-handedness . . . is much higher among inmates of institutions for the feeble minded and the psychopathic." Yet these "biological errors" are campaigning for special recognition as a legitimate minority to force you to accept their immoral behavior. Worse yet, the schools are encouraging deviant-handed diversity and facilitating the use of sinful southpaw scissors!

The Bible says, "A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left" (Ecclesiastes 10:2), and "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the EVERLASTING FIRE" (Matthew 25:41).

"Theories relative to handedness vary in their treatment of it as an acquired or a native trait," says the Britannica. Many experts believe that left-handedness is learned and can be corrected. With repentance and reparative therapies, sinners caught in the lecherous leftist lifestyle can be converted and cured. Yes, right righteousness and healthy handedness is possible! Many ex-southpaws have become normal, happy right-writers. Some have even held hands, gotten married, and had children!

But the militant leftist lobby says they were "born that way." They cite evidence that it's genetic, morally neutral, and normal! Well, that doesn't mean we have to teach children that it's OK to respect people who are different! Any nonjudgmental mention of left-handedness is "promotion" of wrong behavior, encouraging vulnerable young children to experiment with alternative handedness!

Since right-thinking people believe that wrong-handedness is immoral, we will force the schools to teach only OUR beliefs to YOUR children!

AGREE WITH US OR BURN IN HELL!

-M. Dennis Moore [seanbaby.com]

Re:Please just drop it.

[Your Pal Dave]

You would have to bike to work at 9:30 and leave by 3:30

Works for me! Let's throw in a nice long three-martini lunch for good measure.

Re:Freemasons, Illuminati, and the True Origin of

[Just Some Guy]

Now if we [1] could just convince the ground where I live not to be frozen on Groundhog Day [2], our plan would be complete.

[1] I'm a Master Mason.
[2] My wife's and firstborn's birthday.

Re:Time for a change...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow thats a sucky mileage.

http://utmin.charlesparekh.com/ [charlesparekh.com]
"A hogshead is equal to 63 gallons. We also know that the Parliamentary Statute of 1592 defined a mile to be 320 rods"

So 0.13 of a mile using 63 gallons to do so.

A more normal number would be 400,000 Rods to the Hogshead

Re:Time for a change...

[StikyPad]

Perhaps, but all of their base are belong to me.

Re:Time for a change...

[HD Webdev]

You work from 12:00-20:00, he works from 15:00-23:00. You keep that in your contact information from him. He publishes it in his .VCF.

I, for one, welcome our new computer tell-you-when-to-call-people-instead-of-using-our- brains overlords.