August 8, 2005
Longer daylight saving could trigger tech trouble
When daylight-saving time starts earlier than usual in the United States come 2007, your VCR or DVD recorder could start recording shows an hour late, reports the The Associated Press.
Cell phone companies could give you an extra hour of free weekend calls, and people who depend on online calendars may find themselves late for appointments.
An energy bill President Bush is to sign Monday would start daylight time three weeks earlier and end it a week later as an energy-saving measure.
And that has technologists worried about software and gadgets that now compensate for daylight time based on a schedule unchanged since 1987.
The upcoming transition evokes memories of Y2K, the Year 2000 rollover that forced programmers to adjust software and other systems that, relying on two digits for the year, never took the 21st century into account.
"It wouldn't be a society-wide catastrophe, but there would be a problem if nothing's done about it or we try to move too quickly,' said Dave Thewlis, executive director of a group that promotes standards for calendar software."
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