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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Beginning in 2007, daylight saving time (DST) has been extended in the United States. DST started on March 11, 2007, which was three weeks earlier than usual, and will end on November 4, 2007, which is one week later than usual This results in a new DST period that is four weeks longer than in previous years.
CHANGE IN DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME HAS PEOPLE WONDERING ONCE AGAIN
Y2K + 7?
The Energy Policy
Act of 2005 changed the time change dates for Daylight Saving Time.
Beginning in 2007, DST will begin on the second Sunday of
March and end the first Sunday of November.
The concern among many is that software including Windows and applications that rely on time will be left set at the wrong time. All the attendant wrong time issues that were first discussed with regards to the change in millennia could surface again when the time changes in March.
Microsoft
Windows O/S
As far as updating Windows with the new DST rules, Microsoft® has hot fixes available for the more recent operating systems (XP, 2003 and Vista).
To obtain these fixes see the Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article 928388, 2007 time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems
Earlier versions of Windows can be manually updated using the tzedit.exe utility or other techniques documented in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 914387
February 2007 cumulative
time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems in KB 931836
Before you apply the 2007 cumulative time zone update for Windows operating
systems, be aware of potential issues that may affect Microsoft Office Outlook.
For a general discussion about preparing computers for US changes in DST in 2007 or here
Outlook
Addressing daylight
saving time using the Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool in KB 931667
Exchange
Issues with calendaring in Microsoft Exchange are discussed in the Lotus notes section below.
Beagle Software
ClockWatch is Beagle Software's Clock Synchronization product for Windows. Since it synchronizes clocks from standard time to local time, it must know if the local clock is currently using DST.
ClockWatch uses the DST and time zone value set in Windows. Whatever time zone and DST setting that is set in the Windows Control panel is used in ClockWatch for time and DST.
So as long as Windows is aware of the DST change, our ClockWatch products will be OK. To check whether your Windows version is correct, see the discussion above.
DocuClock®
DocuClock time stamping system uses ClockWatch for time synchronization so the
product is not affected.
IBM
Both Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino® are affected by the change in DST
How Calendar Entries are Affected:
Systems updated to the new Daylight Saving Time rules
Any calendar entry that falls within the extended Daylight Saving Time (DST)
period created before the application of the extended DST rules will appear
incorrectly after the extended DST rules are applied. Entries that fall between
March 11, 2007 and March 31, 2007 and those that fall between October 28, 2007
and November 3, 2007 will appear an hour later than originally scheduled.
Note: The DST change will not affect only Lotus Notes and
Domino®. It is a calendaring issue which will affect many operating systems and
applications, including Microsoft® Exchange and any other time-zone-aware
calendar systems.
For example, if a user in the United States creates a calendar entry (prior to
the application of the extended DST rules) for 10 AM on Monday, March 12, 2007,
the entry will display as described below once the modified DST rules are
applied.
The StartTime field and EndTime fields are used to portray the
start and end time settings in an
open document but not in the view(s). The StartTime and EndTime fields are
designed to retain only a time portion, and as such they are not affected by the
changes to the DST rules. This is working as designed.
Note: There is an exception with meeting entries which have been saved as Draft.
In this case, the StartTime field and or the EndTime field may display at the
expected time or an hour later depending on how the times were originally
selected. If either of the time settings were set using the Time Picker or are
manually entered, then the values for the StartTime and/or EndTime fields will
consist of only a time portion and the value for the field(s) will be static and
unaffected by changes to DST rules. If a setting was left at the default time
when the document was created it will consist of date, time, and time zone; the
entry will be dynamic and will be affected by the change to DST rules. In Draft
entries, even if the StartTime or EndTime field values are static it does not
mean that other fields derived from them will be static. This means it may be
possible that an open C&S document will reflect the expected time, but the same
document observed from the view will reflect times that are off by an hour. The
fact that the StartTime and EndTime fields record only a time portion under the
described scenario is working as designed.
Java
The effect of DST change on Java is significant. Time zone
information is obtained from a set of files stored internally by the Java
Virtual Machine (JVM) and applied to dates as required. Since this information
is statically stored in the Java Runtime Environment, older versions of Java do
not know about the changes and will display the wrong time for the USA
throughout most of March 2007. Forward date information will already be wrong if
it refers to dates in that period.
IMPACTED VERSIONS:
Java 5 update 5 and earlier
Java 1.4.2_10 and earlier
Java 1.3.x
NON IMPACTED VERSIONS:
Java 5 update 6 or later
Java 1.4.2_11 or later
Updated 10/15/2007
