Standard time!

[DALederle]

We moved our clocks back! Hooray!
I hate Daylight savings time. I will readjust to standard time quickly since I never, really, adjusted to daylight savings time last spring. What the heck our we doing, playing with obsolete concept anyway? Ben Franklin's plan to save on candles? HUH???????????????????????????????????????
With modern technology this is totally foolish.
I wish the politcians would realise it. We upset people for days, weeks and even months (in my case) trying to save money. Save on what. Cut off one foot from the bottom of your blanket and sew it on the top. It's the same size blanket either way. People who want to use more daylight would just have to get up earlier. Hey! There's a thought. Someone has to do something, use their own effort for a change, instead letting government do it for them!
So, there, I've said it!
Yeah, standard time.

Dennis A. Lederle

Live Long and Perspire!

[crfriend]

I hate Daylight savings time.

Amen, Dennis!

If there's something that makes me wish for an afterlife it would be the ability to find the damned fool who first came up with "Daylight Saving Time" (no "s' there) and hurt him. Badly. Like making him shift time-zones every two or three days for the rest of his wretched eternity.

Standard Time (aka "Railroad Time") I get, and I'm happy with it, mainly because it simplifies things like scheduling. That said, like the airlines, I went over to using UTC years ago for anything that takes me across a 15 degree longitude boundary. However, this inane bit of twiddling the clocks twice a year beggars the imagination.

If you want me to show up at work an hour early, that's fine -- I get to go home an hour early (unless I'm on call in which case on "on the clock 24x7). I can deal with getting up early. However, dicking with the clocks is just plain stupid (st00pid?). Who do they think they're kidding? I wonder how many timepieces I missed today and which will mislead me tomorrow.

As an aside, and historical inaccuracy that's been foisted upon us for years, and has even been perpetuated in The Simpsons is that it was the work of farmers. Sorry. Not true. Farmers tend, by the very nature of their work to run on local solar time. True enough, they were opposed to Railroad Time (as it was called in the 1880s) as it could cause problems with local schedules, but taken to the extreme stupidity that is Daylight "Saving" Time would likely have seen them taking up their pitchforks in pursuit of much more than agriculture -- like politicians!

Interestingly, this sentiment is nothing new. Here's an historical excerpt that's quoted in some of the modern computer-bits that govern how many of our machines deal with time:

# I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some
# agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving
# daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind.
# I even object to the implication that I am wasting something
# valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer
# of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to
# reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving
# scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager
# to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make
# them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.
#
# -- Robertson Davies, The diary of Samuel Marchbanks,
# Clarke, Irwin (1947), XIX, Sunday

'Nuff said.

[couyalair]

In all the 60+ years I have been changing my timepieces twice a year, I have never, never, understood why people find the one-hour change so objectionable.
No, I don't like seeing the sun go down soon after I have had my lunch in winter, but I would not like to get up in the dark every morning either.
Perhaps it's just the name you object to, for indeed it's hard to see where any "saving" can be generated. Why not just refer to summer time and winter time, as we do this side of the ocean.
There's far less bother in getting used to summer meal times etc, when winter is over, than it does to adjust to local time after a plane journey. But every year, we hear the same complaints.

Martin

[couyalair]

PS : what I did object to, during the time that my life was split between Britain and France, was that the too sides of the Channel could never agree about the best date to change the clocks, which meant that, for a while in spring it was 8 o'clock on both shores, but in autumn, there was a 2-hour difference.
But even then I could not complain, whereas the people trying to run train, ferry and plane timetables must have had terrible headaches!
Martin

[crfriend]

But even then I could not complain, whereas the people trying to run train, ferry and plane timetables must have had terrible headaches!

Most everybody who has operations that span more than two or three standard time zones uses UTC (nee "GMT") for reckoning.

UTC is nice as there is ONE time zone that spans the entire planet and there is not such insanity as "Daylight Saving Time" or "Summer Time". It steps from time to time as the Earth's rotational rate inexroably slows, and 'leap seconds" get inserted from time to time to keep UTC more or less aligned with TAI ("International Atomic Time") to keep astronomers happy (who use UT1 (that's a numeral one, not an alpha "I", that's something completely different) anyway).

[Gregg1100]

I thought it was only us Brits who went through the rigmarole of time changing at autumn and spring. Ah welll, live and learn.
Must have been awkward in WW2, when our clocks went to double Summertime.
Our Tv's, etc, do it themselves, we have atomic clocks all round the house, so only need to adjust watch.

[Gregg1100]

An addition;
Atomic clocks--supposed to be accurate to ½ second in a million years. OK, who is going to be around to check their claim out. ???

[DALederle]

I did a little research and found out that the Romans actually did use a summer time and winter time. It was very curious set up.
In the summer time they added minutes to each hour, instead of one lump hour the way we do. Their hours ran from 65 minutes to up to 75 minutes. In the winter time they reduce their daylight hours back to closer to 60 minutes and increased their nightly hours to match. That's still more confusing then what we do.
Wow.
I just want them to leave things alone and nature take it's course. Farms I have visited (but never lived on) change their clocks or not as they saw fit. The animals don't know any better. I see that in our pets around the house. Our alpha dog wants out now at 4 to 5 a.m. when all summer it was 5-6 a.m. They don't know we reset our clocks.
Could they be smarter then then owners?

Dennis A. Lederle

Live Long and Perspire!

[GerdG]

We moved our clocks back! Hooray!
I hate Daylight savings time. I will readjust to standard time quickly since I never, really, adjusted to daylight savings time last spring.

I totally disagree with you. I like when summer time starts. I hate when we go back to normal time. I so much more prefer sun light in the afternoon or evening to early morning, when I and most people are still sleeping. The only thing I could wich was that summer time was not just changed by one but two hours.

[PatJ]

I am a creature of habit. I am still waking at the same time - but now the clock reads 4 instead of 5.

Why don't they compromise and move the clock a half an hour and leave it year round?

To me, that would make sense - and of course - the government rarely does anything that makes sense.

[Since1982]

Introduction
When we change our clocks
Incidents and anecdotes
Rationale &
original idea
Opposition & obstacles
First there was Standard time
Early adoption
and U.S. law
Worldwide
daylight saving
Books
Museum store
Credits

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Overview of countries

While the adoption of Daylight Saving Time is almost always rife with controversy, most of the world (except for countries around the Equator) has implemented DST at one point or another. This map depicts countries that currently have DST, that previously had DST, and that never had DST.

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Worldwide daylight saving

Today, approximately 70 countries utilize Daylight Saving Time in at least a portion of the country. Japan, India, and China are the only major industrialized countries that do not observe some form of daylight saving.

Help keep us current

If there's been a change to the observance of Daylight Saving Time or Summer Time where you live, please let us know. With your help, we can ensure that this exhibit is accurate. If one is available, please include a link to the new law, or to news coverage of the new law. Read more about sharing.

Not the tropics
Equatorial and tropical countries (lower latitudes) generally do not observe Daylight Saving Time. Since the daylight hours are similar during every season, there is no advantage to moving clocks forward during the summer. China has had a single time zone since May 1, 1980, observing summer Daylight Saving Time from 1986 through 1991; they do not observe DST now.

List of countries
Most countries that observe Daylight Saving Time are listed in the table below. They all save one hour in the summer and change their clocks some time between midnight and 3:00 a.m.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Continent

Country

Beginning and ending days

Africa

Egypt
Start: Last Friday in April
End: Last Thursday in September

Namibia
Start: First Sunday in September
End: First Sunday in April

Tunisia
In 2009 the government of Tunisia canceled DST and kept the standard time all year round.

Asia

Most states of the former USSR.
Start: Last Sunday in March
End: Last Sunday in October

Bangladesh
Cancelled in 2010.

Iraq
Start: First Friday in April
End: Last Friday in October

Israel (more info)
Start: Last Friday before April 2
End: The Sunday between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur

Jordan
Start: Last Thursday of March
End: Last Friday in September

Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan
Start: Last Sunday in March
End: Last Sunday in October

Mongolia
Start: Fourth Friday in March
End: Last Friday in September

Palestinian regions (more info)
(Estimate)
Start: First Friday on or after 15 April
End: First Friday on or after 15 October

Syria
Start: March 30
End: September 21

Australasia
Australia - South Australia, Victoria,
Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales,
Lord Howe Island - See link

Start: First Sunday in October
End: First Sunday in April

Australia - Tasmania
Start: First Sunday in October
End: Last Sunday in March

Fiji
Stopped in 2000

New Zealand, Chatham - (read law)
Start: Last Sunday in September
End: First Sunday in April

Tonga
Start: First Sunday in November
End: Last Sunday in January

Europe

European Union - (read law)
UK - (read law)
Start: Last Sunday in March at 1 am UTC
End: Last Sunday in October at 1 am UTC

Russia
Permanent, as of February 2011

North America
United States, Canada (excluding Saskatchewan and parts of Quebec, B.C., and Ontario),
Bermuda, St. Johns, Bahamas, Turks and Caicos
Start: Second Sunday in March
End: First Sunday in November

Cuba
Start: Third Sunday in March
End: Last Sunday of October.

Greenland
Same as EU

Guatemala
no longer observes DST

Honduras
Start: May 7
End: August

Mexico (except Sonora)
Start: First Sunday in April
End: Last Sunday in October

Nicaragua
no longer observes DST

South America

Argentina.
Started Sun Dec 30, 2007
Ending 16 March 2008.
Practiced in 2009.
Not currently observed.

Brazil
Equatorial Brazil does not observe DST.
Start: Third Sunday in October
End: Third Sunday in February

Chile - (read law)
Start:October 11
End: March 29

Falklands
Start: First Sunday on or after 8 September
End: First Sunday on or after 6 April

Paraguay
Start: Third Sunday in October
End: Second Sunday in March

Uruguay
Start: First Sunday in October
End: Second Sunday in March

Zanzibar is not mentioned.

[crfriend]

Blast it, I found another timepiece that I forgot to reset last Saturday evening -- my electric pocketwatch (the mechanicals wind down and need to be reset before wearing them). Thank goodness I spotted it before I tried to actually rely on it.

The clocks in my car finally got done on Tuesday morning; I have no idea what the one in Sapphire's car says; and I still have two VCRs (one of them Betamax, natch) that blink either 12:00 or 00:00 full time because I got sick of twiddling them at least twice a year and after every 2-second power cut. I wonder how many more are lurking in the shadows.

All the computers made the change as required, mainly because I put about eight hours of work into the process in the runup to the latest change to the "DST season" in 2007 (the work being done in 2006 as part of an attempt to avoid a full-blown "project" at work with mandatory status-reporting meetings (beatings?) twice a day for six months). Retrofitting late 1980s and early 1990s era operating systems was real work.

I repeat my assertion: If the Powers That Be want us to get up an hour earlier JUST SAY SO -- don't fiddle with the clocks!

[TomH]

Carl,

A power strip with a on/off switch will stop that annoying blinking from your VCR's. Even the Beta one..... Most likely, you'll also save enough on your power bill to pay for the power strip, too. Those secret power users do add up. It doesn't really make any sense to keep a VCR warm and ready. Just an added feature that's not needed.

Tom

[kingfish]

That power strip may also prolong the life of the machine too.

Solid state components, like vacuum tubes, can have a service life. The current densities in the microscopic traces on the ICs can get pretty doggone hefty. It can get into in the hundreds of amps per square centimeter. (a 10 micron track 1 micron thick is about a ten millionth of a square centimeter. In that cross section milliamps add up quick). Current densities that big, over a number of years, will actually fatigue the semiconductor material and cause failure.

I remember my materials science professor (around 1990) stating that your garden variety bipolar TTL circuits were projected only to sustain an average 5 years worth of "on" time.

[crfriend]

I remember my materials science professor (around 1990) stating that your garden variety bipolar TTL circuits were projected only to sustain an average 5 years worth of "on" time.

That's an interesting remark because at the time your professor was making it the DG Nova 840 (ex of my old high-school) in my collection already had about 18 years on the clock (24x7 power-on if not continually in execution) and still runs to this day. Keeping it powered up cut down on the number of expansion and contraction cycles that beat the heck out of intricate things with numerous connectors.

That's not to say that I shouldn't disconnect the various minor current-sinks in the house, because I probably should. However as far as longevity goes, it's probable that the rubber belts, idlers, and rollers in the VCRs will fail long before the semiconductors do. (My U-Matic VCR has this problem, much to my disgust.)

By the by, does anybody know where I can find the schematics to a Pioneer LaserDisc player and a Mitsubishi projection TV? "Project Season" is upon us and I have a dead one of each that needs resurrecting. (Note to the wise: Do not get me going about the "advantages" of digital TV. Digital audio was OK because compression was not in use. Digital video, on the other hand, has compression in play -- and lossy compression at that -- as well as all the fun and games of rescaling to fit the VERY digital world of pixels and flat-panels. It may be "Never Twice the Same Colour", but PLEASE bring back plain old NTSC!)