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Posted on 04/07/2005 5:27:32 PM PDT by Ro_Thunder
WASHINGTON — If Congress passes an energy bill, Americans may see more daylight-saving time.
Lawmakers crafting energy legislation approved an amendment Wednesday to extend daylight-saving time by two months, having it start on the first Sunday in March and end on the last Sunday in November.
"Extending daylight-saving time makes sense, especially with skyrocketing energy costs," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who along with Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., co-sponsored the measure.
The amendment was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee that is putting together major parts of energy legislation likely to come up for a vote in the full House in the coming weeks.
"The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use," said Markey, who cited Transportation Department estimates that showed the two-month extension would save the equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil a day.
The country uses about 20 million barrels of oil a day.
Does our Congress really think it matters what the CLOCK says as to how much energy is used by people?
How does it save us oil? We get off work, and have 'extra daylight'? Maybe I'm a simple man, but I just do not understand this. Frankly, I think the whole thing just needs to be abolished, and we never change the clocks back, just leave'em where they are right now!
Nooooo!
You realize how many electronic gadgets rely on the current DST rules? It's bad enough with Arizona and Indiana not playing, but to change the dates!
Sheesh!
Gotta be kidding me, I friggin' hate Daylight Savings Time. I hate losing an hour of sleep until my body clock adjusts to the time change and I don't care if the summer sun goes down at 9:30 vs 8:30. I also hate going to work in the dark all winter. Then, just when it starts to get light during my commute hours, DST puts me right back in the dark again. It sucks. I don't know why everybody in the country has to adjust their schedules to please the farmers. I say Daylight Savings Time sucks.
They oughtta quit playing around with the clocks. Period
Actually, if you consider how much would / will be consumed in enacting this, from the emails, to the printing presses, to the kilowatt hours expended while the bill is debated, to the gas for the staff proponents' cars, then should it be passed, the ad blitz and public awareness campaign...We could probably save just as much energy by not doing anything, AND cut taxes!!!!
Not again! I remember when I was in first grade in 1973, Congress enacted DST all year round or at least extended it. I remember walking to the bustop with a flashlight. A lot of parents did complain that it was too dark but it was fun playing "German Spotlight" so it wasn't all bad. B-)
The last time the United States changed its timezone rules was back in 1987. But the way computer programs typically deal with dates and times is substantially different from 1987. Should Congress actually change the rules, the impact would be much greater today than it was in 1987. Back in 1987, most systems and applications stored timestamps relative to local time, not relative to GMT. The reverse is true today, and the consequences are non-trivial.
1. Java
Java embeds the timezone offset rules in the JDK codebase ("rt.jar.") Consequently, Sun would have to publish a new version of the rt.jar file--which they would probably do only for the latest version of Java.
Java only deals with the current offset rules. It cannot apply different rules for timestamps in different timeperiods (e.g., pre-1967, 1967-1973, 1974, 1975, 1976-1986, 1987-2005, 2006-??) Worse, Java always represents timestamps as a number of milliseconds since 1 January 1970 GMT, and converts to local time only when the timestamp is displayed. Consequently, any future dates represented as Java Date or Calendar instances reflect the GMT time for that LOCAL date (or moment in time) based on the timezone rules that were encoded into the rt.jar file when the Date or Calendar instance was created, not based on any FUTURE timezone rules. This means that any timestamps in the past for March or November would have their local time shifted forward by one hour. The same applies to any dates already created for any future March or November. "12:01 am" would become "1:01 am."
2. UNIX
UNIX deals with time zone rules diachronically (e.g., it uses the rules actually in effect each year, for all world timezones.) And it stores the timezone rules as reference data in a database--which the sysadmin can upate when and as required using the ZIC command-line utility. The source data for such updates are freely available over the internet.
However, since UNIX always stores timestamps relative to GMT, after the new timezone rules are entered into the database, any timestamps for events in any future March or November that were created before the new timezone rules are applied to the timezone database will have their local time shifted forward by one hour. This would include any "CRON"-scheduled tasks.
3. Windows
Windows stores the current timezone rules in the windows registry--previous versions of the rules are neither stored nor used. Microsoft provides no tool for updating timezone rules in the registry other than RegEdit. They periodically publish a "Windows Update" or "Service Pack" to update the timeone ruleset (these rules change every year somewhere in the world.) Timestamps are usually stored relative to GMT, with the notable exception of file timestamps (creation, modification and access timestamps.)
4. Others
Most other systems and applications have the same timezone problems and issues as Java or Windows.
Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat the same mistakes.
Gee, since many have to work two, three, even four jobs, they are on the road 24/7!!!
Ah yes, this old trick. Calculate something using bogus assumptions and really big numbers to "prove" your point. I've seen this sort of thing calculated for having a leaky fawcet. A drop of hot water has X amount of energy. Multiply the drip rate times the amount of energy, apply the latest cost of energy that your hot water heater uses and Viola! you're magically saving thousands and thousands of dollars a year by fixing that leaky fawcet. Yeah, right.
10,000 barrels is 0.0005 or 0.05% of 20 million barrels. And that tiny savings is based on questionable assumption at best. Since I'm paying for the fuel+tax, I say keep the clock the same!
I don't care if we screw it around and the rises at midnight.
I just don't want to to go through this crap twice a year ever again.
When they did this the last time, I had a 7am electronics class in college. The sun didn't come up until the second hour of the class. It wasn't just dark when we showed up, it was flat out black night time.
and the (sun) rises
sigh. . .
AGYG <---in best blonde voice: So, does this means the sun will shine longer during 2005?
"Frankly, I think this is stupid." I agree!
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