Sunday, April 01, 2007

No Fooling: Check your clocks!

Our technology may just have played an April Fool's Day joke on us! As I sat here at my computer at 2:00 in the morning on April 1, I suddenly was presented with the message "Windows has automatically adjusted your clock for Daylight Saving Time." Remember how we switched to Daylight Saving Time three weeks early...three weeks ago? Well, now all of our pre-2005 technology has just switched us AGAIN!

Check your computer, your VCR, anything that might oh-so-helpfully have automatically made the change to DST! And expect a good deal of chaos for the next day or two as all sorts of little adjustments are overlooked!

4 comments:

whimsical brainpan said...

Yeah, my VCR changed last night. I was up late and was a bit startled when I got into bed and my alarm clock said it was an hour earlier than I thought.

Ashley said...

I noticed it on my computer when I checked my e-mail this morning.
BTW: Sorry I signed off last night. I was super tired from my busy day.

Anonymous said...

Harold, that atomic (am I saying it right?) clock in Rickys bedroom has been off since the daylight savings time thingy.
Can you think of any reason for that?

D.B. Echo said...

Betsy, that's the dirty little secret of "atomic" clocks: they're supposed to maintain their accuracy by synchronizing with the radio broadcasts from the "official" atomic clock in Colorado every night. But, as we often find during time changes, they sometimes have difficulty getting the signal through walls and ceilings - and so their accuracy is no better than a standard digital clock!

The solution is to place the clock near a window (preferably one that faces west, towards Colorado) overnight. It should pick up the signal and readjust itself at some point in the night.

Word verification word: icqmydlp "I seek you, my digital linear playback"? (or "digital logic programmer"?