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UC DAVIS: Information and Educational Technology February 26, 2007 DEANS, DIRECTORS, DEPARTMENT CHAIRS, AND ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS RE: NEW DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME (DST) IMPACTS ON COMPUTING SYSTEMS On March 11th, a provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that amends the Uniform Time Act of 1966 goes into effect, three weeks earlier than in previous years. This provision extends Daylight Saving Time (DST) by approximately four weeks. Beginning this year, clocks in most areas of the United States (including California) will be set ahead one hour on the second Sunday in March (March 11, 2007) and will be set back one hour on the first Sunday in November (November 4, 2007). The extension of DST will impact the way electronic devices, including computers and applications, report the correct time. Servers, personal computers, mobile devices, email clients, calendaring programs, office telephones and pagers implement daylight saving time in different ways. They may require patches or updates to ensure that the correct current time is displayed during the expanded portion of DST, and to ensure that date calculations that cross the new DST boundaries are accurate. To help the campus community prepare for this change, IET has been working on a remediation plan since the end of January, when major vendors started releasing patches and updates. We are applying software updates to ensure centrally-managed, time-sensitive services and servers -- such as email and calendaring, as well as the campus telecommunications switch -- can handle the new DST rules. In addition, we are checking with cellular manufacturers and other vendors regarding the availability of patches. Unfortunately, in tests that IET and other campus units have conducted, some of those patches and updates have not performed as advertised. Vendors are working to remedy these deficiencies. We have recorded the results of our investigations on the UC Davis Daylight Saving Time Web site at http://vpiet.ucdavis.edu/dst/, and we will continue to post updates from vendors as they become available. On the site, you will find a table that identifies the patches and updates that are available for various operating systems (Windows XP with Service Pack 2, Mac OS X), platforms, applications, mobile devices, etc. These updates will adjust the dates on which the new daylight saving time starts and ends. For some older operating systems, a utility will need to be run to reset the DST start and end dates. Over the next few weeks, we will add updates about operating systems, campus systems and commonly-used devices as they become available. In the meantime, we advise members of the campus community to exercise caution and to work with their departmental technology support staff before applying the DST patches. If you have questions, or need additional help, please contact the IT Express Computing Help Desk at 530-754-4357(HELP), or by email at ithelp@ucdavis.edu. Peter M. Siegel Vice Provost--Information and Educational Technology and Chief Information Officer 07-024
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