Some electronics didn’t get the news that Daylight Saving Time ends Nov 2 — and automatically “fell back” this Sunday. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed both the starting and ending dates of Daylight Saving, “springing” the first date forward to the second Sunday in March and pushing the closing back until the first Sunday in November. [WZVN]
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If there is one thing AZ has got right that the rest of the country has not, it is DST.
@TechnoDestructo: I was just about to say that! Love living in AZ. Kind of made it weird growing up, though, because I grew up RIGHT on the AZ/Cali border.
@TechnoDestructo: I second that emotion, honey. I love not messing with the clocks!
I think at one time Indiana left DST up to the individual counties, which was way confusing – any Hoosiers out there to comment?
@misslisa: Yeah, up until recently most Indiana did not have to deal with the DST mess. Several counties east of Chicago and others near Louisville were on Central time. Some of the southeastern counties were on Eastern. The rest of the state was with the East Coast in the winter and Chicago in the summer.
@dcm684: that was one of the only things i liked about living in AZ (thankfully, that only lasted about a year).
i’ve been going crazy all morning trying to figure out why my time was off. thanks, consumerist, for the reassurance that i’m not completely bonkers.
@TechnoDestructo: I’m in on that one too. The only bad thing is having to adjust for the fact that any TV (and for me, XM) shows that originate outside the state shift an hour twice a year.
I’m with the guys down below, if DST’s so great, do it all year then. Or stop altogether.
My atomic clock alarm clock did that to me. :- The solution offered by the manufacturer? Change timezones on the clock until Nov. 2nd and then switch timezones back.
@mantene: I bet that’s what happened to a couple in my church this weekend. They totally walked in a whole hour late.
@algal924: I was married on April 5, 1998. That day (which we realized before the wedding, and printed reminders on an insert inside the invitation envelope) was “Spring forward” for DST that year. One of our wedding guests arrived at the ceremony just in time to get on the tram for the post-ceremony tour through the botanical garden where we got married. He, of course, hadn’t realized the clocks changed.
Eh, the fun part was the tram ride, anyway.
If DST is so great, and they keep expanding it, why not just make it year-round and adjust our time zones? Otherwise, just leave it be.
@zigziggityzoo:
read a history book
@Squeezer99: Honestly, I think DST is outdated and more of a pain in our modern society than a help. Come move to AZ, everyone, where we don’t have to worry about this crap!
@little stripes: You just have to worry about urban sprawl, running out of water, and (if you’re in Maricopa County) getting your rights violated by Arpaio’s thugs.
@uncooperative: Don’t forget having your dog get shot at random by his thugs as well.
@uncooperative: Oh, God, Arpaio. If he wins AGAIN, I’m going to have to go to Sun City and start a fight with the old people.
@little stripes: Careful, some of them wield a mean golf cart!
@little stripes: Oh, and skin cancer.
@zigziggityzoo: The reason I keep hearing is that it an energy saving move: [en.wikipedia.org]
It doesn’t really work if you don’t fall back again.
Who would you complain to officially about DST? I hate it and I don’t know anyone who likes it.. Is there a letter we could write?
Why can’t we just have one time all the time? And what makes people think that leaving kids outside in the dark even longer to wait for the school bus in the mornings is a good thing to do?
@Kimaroo: Sure, you can write to your congressman.
[www.webexhibits.org]
@Kimaroo: I like DST, but I think extending into November wasn’t such a great plan. It just adds to the confusion, and the later sunrises are, as you suggest, just as much of an obstacle as the earlier sunsets.
I work in support for major commercial systems, and this is still causing havoc.
A laptop that has been out of use for a couple years had this same problem yesterday (I turned Windows Updates off). What a PITA. Seems totally archaic to me!
My home security control panel updated itself a week early. It also updated itself a week late in the Spring… after I had manually updated it on the correct day. I don’t even know where it’s picking the time up from — I hope they didn’t do something dumb like programming it into the firmware…
[www.time.gov] always displays the correct time for your region in the states. It made me feel a little less crazy when half my electronics leaped back and my laptop went mad and decided it was the evening of December 31st, 2000.
At the non-profit agency I work for (and in charge of the phone system), our Voice Mail system automatically changed Sunday – so it was an hour off when I got to work this morning…… now I just have to wait until the time does change and remember to fix it again.
My cell phone (which was made in ’08), PC, and my boyfriend’s PC all rolled back early. His BlackBerry (made in ’07), our DVR, and my work PC were fine. Argh. Wrinkles in time give me headaches.
The clock at 24Hour Fitness got tricked too! I was so confused first thing in the morning…
My Alarm clock, that I bought two weeks before Bush decided to play Chronos, is one of these appliances. There’s no way to turn the feature off, because why would you want to? It’s not like they’ll ever change something that’s been established for 100 years… right? [FAIL!]
Here’s to hoping they realize the “energy savings” are negligible and repeal the extension so my clock “works” again.
@MercuryPDX: There’s no way to turn the feature off, because why would you want to?
I had one of those non-disablable clocks in DST-eschewing Arizona. Now that I’m in Texas, I’m not sure if it was more annoying then than it is now.
But oh! Life without DST was great. (Except that the TV schedule would shift by an hour when the rest of the country switched.)
So… what time is it?
@milesabove: Does anyone really know what time it is? Does anyone really care?…
@milesabove: It’s time to get ill!
Our timex alarm clock DEFINITELY did that. It was confusing at first, but we’ve got an analog clock next to it (is it weird to have two clocks on the same dresser?)…
Yep, my computers both did it. I thought it was strange cuz I could have sworn it wasn’t til next weekend – and promptly forgot to change my alarm clock.
Lucky me!
I say we keep the “fall back” portion of DST and skip out on the “spring forward”. Who’s with me?
@samurailynn: That is what I would say would be the best idea..
@samurailynn:That’d be nice for about 2 years.
I say we all just pick up Swatch time from a few years ago. That’ll solve everything.
How about we just move it up 30 minutes next time and leave it at that.
My Blackjack did it. I fixed it the next morning, then it did it again this morning. I guess I’ll be battling it for the next week. I normally use it as an alarm. I’m just lucky I woke up on my own this morning.
Yeah, it’s been a crazy day at work here because some of our machines changed and some didn’t, and it’s pretty important that they all match because that’s how we know what to charge people.
Can we just kill Daylight Savings Time once and for all?
It is just one of these political solutions that “fixes” a problem by making things more difficult. It just shifts energy use from one part of the day to another, and in the morning people are more likely to forget to turn lights off as they are running out of the house into the darkness.
Add me to the list of DST haters. Too many embedded devices that can’t be “updated” to handle Congress’ dimwitted ideas on changing time.
I ultimately run most of my clocks & equipment on UTC(GMT). Makes it very easy when working across the country or world.
DVD recorders (same brand, purchased at the same time, different models): one reset, one didn’t
Desktop computers: PIII running Linux reset; PIII running 98SE did not.
Dual-Boot laptop: XPSP2 reset, Linux did not (dual-boots can be tricky: each OS will reset, making for a two-hour change)
If I hadn’t noticed the changes (and checked online for the correct changeover date) I’d've been an hour late for an appointment Sunday too.
I was wondering if that’s why my clock was suddenly off by an hour…at least this time this happened, I didn’t show up an hour late the next day at work…
Ah ha! My BlackJack Cellphone did this to me today. I couldn’t figure out WTF was going on. I almost missed an appointment because my cellphone IS my clock.
Yeah, the stupid electronics around the house are now off, the two atomic clocks, the VCR/DVD player. My cameras however still think that DST is still in effect. Probably till I tell them to turn DST off.