I’ve been having an argument with my computer about what time it is. The cable box says it is 12:26am but my computer insists it is only 11:26pm.
The time plugin I have with Firefox says it is 00:26 with UTC being 04:26.
I have two time sync programs (why do I have two? I dunno) and I ran them both. Depending on what time server I connect with, the time can be an hour off.
In both programs, it asks about Daylight Savings Time. To be sure I understood what DST was, I went to Wikipedia, the ghod of information. The article for Daylight Savings Time is interesting. That’s where I found this paragraph (the bold type is my doing):
Start and end dates and times vary with location and year. Since 1996 the European Union has observed DST from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October, with clocks shifted at 01:00 UTC. Starting in 2007, most of the United States and Canada observe DST from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, shifting clocks typically at 02:00 local time. The 2007 U.S. change was part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005; previously, from 1987 through 2006, the start and end dates were the first Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October, and Congress retains the right to go back to the previous dates once an energy-consumption study is done.
Aha! I found it. My computer doesn’t know this and, it seems, neither do some of the time servers. I am sure it would be a bitch of a big deal to adjust them.
Personally, I think the time switch is a waste of time, pun intended. It is a lot of work and bother for just half a year. As a kid, I hated it. It had just gotten to be fun to see some daylight while waiting for the school bus and then they go and move the clocks. I wonder if the time change is responsible for a lot of the sleep disorders that are popping up? Our circadian rhythms were set within our genetic makeup based on the light and dark.
A thought to ponder at any time of day.