how could more daylight be bad?

[chelidon]

This is going to screw up every single computer system, from airline scheduling to electrical generating systems to PDAs, that automatically compensate for daylight savings time based on the day of the year. Some will be successfully patched in time, others we'll just find out about when they fail. That's not necessarily a show-stopper -- there may be reasons good enough to go through this (energy conservation, for instance), but I can find no evidence they've actually thoroughly considered the hardships or the technical issues. And "kids get more daylight on Halloween" is *not* a reason to pass a law like this. Sheesh.

Lawmakers move to extend daylight-saving time (subhed: Measure part of energy bill)

Friday, July 22, 2005; Posted: 9:08 a.m. EDT (13:08 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An agreement was reached Thursday to extend daylight-saving time in an effort to conserve energy, but not to the extent the House approved in April.

House and Senate negotiators on an energy bill agreed to begin daylight-saving time three weeks earlier, on the second Sunday in March, and extend it by one week to the first Sunday in November. The House bill would have added a month in the spring and another in the fall.
[snip]

Comments

[idragosani.livejournal.com]

Bah Humbug. Halloween is far more fun in the dark!

How does this conserve energy? The number of daytime hours is still the same.

[phryday.livejournal.com]

well, that extra hour during halloween will sure help our obesity and diabetes problem. *smirk*

[willowtree.livejournal.com]

We don't have daylight savings time here in Arizona, the local joke is that we already have enought daylight and don't really want to save any of it. Maybe everyone else will just move to Arizona time. :)

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Shifts daylight from times when more people sleep to times when more people are awake, decreasing the need for lights, etc.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Agreed about fun in the dark!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Ah, right, I remember that now from when I lived there. We didn't have daylight savings time in Hawaii, either. It's far enough south that the change in length of the day isn't all that big a deal.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

heh. no doubt.

[christeos-pir.livejournal.com]

Y2k Lite™, oh boy!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Heh. Ah-yup. Except that it won't have all the hype, lead-up time and money poured into it tat Y2K did. Not that everything will suddenly stop working by any means, but I can bet you dimes to donuts that the first and probably second time the old and new dates roll around, a bunch of unconnected systems will experience snafus of one kind or another.