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Why congress should never make decisions about technology


jbooma

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They have no clue the impact a little change can do to everything :doh: :doh:

This problem could be very bad.

Daylight-saving glitch threatens mini-Y2K

Software bug could skew everything from Outlook to airline schedules

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17135007/

Daylight saving time arrives a little earlier — March 11 — and stays a little later — Nov. 4 — this year. And it’s bringing a problem along with it that could affect everything from stock trades to airline schedules to your BlackBerry.

Software created before the law mandating the change passed in 2005 is set to automatically advance its timekeeping by one hour on the first Sunday in April, not the second Sunday in March. Congress decided that more early evening daylight would translate into energy savings.

The result is a glitch reminiscent of the Y2K bug, when cataclysmic crashes were feared if computers interpreted the year 2000 as 1900 and couldn’t reconcile time appearing to move backward. If banks and other institutions aren't properly prepared, automatic stock trades reportedly might happen at the wrong hour, buildings that unlock at a certain time could stay shut, and airline flight schedules could be scrambled...

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YES! Another Y2k threat! The last one was awesome, but very disappointing when it finally came and nothing happened. My mother in law was one who stock piled all sorts of canned goods (would only have lasted about 2 days in their house), and on New Year's Eve 1999 as we watched the New Year work around the globe she sighed and said sadly, "You know, I wish the lights would at least flicker." I laughed until I almost peed myself.

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YES! Another Y2k threat! The last one was awesome, but very disappointing when it finally came and nothing happened. My mother in law was one who stock piled all sorts of canned goods (would only have lasted about 2 days in their house), and on New Year's Eve 1999 as we watched the New Year work around the globe she sighed and said sadly, "You know, I wish the lights would at least flicker." I laughed until I almost peed myself.

I remember Y2k that was fun :D

People don't understand the impact on the TIVOs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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YES! Another Y2k threat! The last one was awesome, but very disappointing when it finally came and nothing happened. My mother in law was one who stock piled all sorts of canned goods (would only have lasted about 2 days in their house), and on New Year's Eve 1999 as we watched the New Year work around the globe she sighed and said sadly, "You know, I wish the lights would at least flicker." I laughed until I almost peed myself.

my dad was a Y2K programmer, i doubt he enjoyed 1999. just think of all the hell these programmers have to go through making sure all the systems are prepared for something like this, especially on such short notice.

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I suspect it won't be too bad, but check with your software suppliers to find out their take. :)

Most software takes it's date/time from the OS which if it doesn't update automatically (it should if your patches are up to date) you can adjust yourself. But if you're using apps with Java or various databases that do their own calculation of DST you might be out by one hour :doh:, but you can always adjust the clock manually too.

As a public service, info for Java is at :geek::

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Intl/USDST/

:D

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BTW, I agree though, politicians should stay out of technology decisions. The whole HDTv fiasco is proof alone of that they need to worry about stuff that doesn't affect my TV time.

actually i love it since i was able to get a 40 inch hd samsung lcd for $1400!!!!!!

if anyone is looking for nice tv go no further

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their screwing with HD? i think the time has come for another bloody revolution!

Not anymore, but they were. I believe they were making laws that would force the implementation of HDtv, and typically they screwed the whole thing up. There was a lot of fuss about it a couple years ago; 2004 according to this article.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118035,00.html

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my dad was a Y2K programmer, i doubt he enjoyed 1999. just think of all the hell these programmers have to go through making sure all the systems are prepared for something like this, especially on such short notice.

Y2k was a myth. America spent billions upgrading old Cobol programs and hiring fortune 4 accounting firms to do studies on the impact, and perform prophylactic procedures. Europe did almost nothing. The end result was the same. Somebody got an movie rental bill for 3000 $. That's it.

The Y2k scare and the profits the hacks at the fortune 4 accounting firms made was a large reason the federal government mandated the fortune 4 had to divest themselves of their software consulting firms...

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my school bought a bunch of plasmas for our lunchroom and won't give us HD signal. for awhile we had regular ESPN that was stretched to fit the screen, now its ESPNHD but not in HD quality. we have about 5 channels :doh:

What!? Lemmie get this straight, your school has plasmas in the lunchroom and you get to watch ESPN...at school?

That's it! I blame my parents, they messed around and got pregnant about 15 years to early!!!:mad:

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for(congress = sux; congress < good; x ++)

{new tape(beaurocracy, incompetency, );

tape.setColor(Color.red);

arrayPossibleScrewups[x];

}

:geek:

if( H1B == !(Jobs For C++ programmers)) && ( money for phb's ))

{

delete (middle class );

}

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Y2k was a myth. America spent billions upgrading old Cobol programs and hiring fortune 4 accounting firms to do studies on the impact, and perform prophylactic procedures. Europe did almost nothing. The end result was the same. Somebody got an movie rental bill for 3000 $. That's it.

The Y2k scare and the profits the hacks at the fortune 4 accounting firms made was a large reason the federal government mandated the fortune 4 had to divest themselves of their software consulting firms...

Actually it wasn't all a myth, I know I was involved :)

There were a lot of issues with building security systems especially the governments that we had to worry about. The banks and airlines were the biggest concerns for everyone.

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