Son of Y2K

As long time readers (both of you) know I'm an advocate for having late sunsets all year long. Who cares if the sun doesn't rise until 10:00 am in the winter; sunsets should never be any earlier than 8:30 pm!

Well, in what may be the fist positive step the Bush administration has ever taken, the President will sign into law today an otherwise hugley flawed energy bill that will keeps us on Daylight Saving Time longer. However, it does have some ramifications.

NEW YORK (AP) -- When daylight-saving time starts earlier than usual in the United States come 2007, VCR or DVD recorders could start recording shows an
hour late.

Cell phone companies could give customers an extra hour of free weekend calls, and people who depend on online calendars may find themselves late for appointments.

An energy bill President George W. Bush was to sign Monday would start daylight time three weeks earlier and end it a week later as an energy-saving measure.

And that has technologists worried about software and gadgets that now compensate for daylight time based on a schedule unchanged since 1987.

"It is unfortunately going to add a little bit of complexity to consumers," said Reid Sullivan, vice president of the entertainment group at Panasonic Consumer Electronics Co. "In some cases, depending on the product, they may have to manually increase or decrease the time."

The upcoming transition evokes memories of Y2K, the Year 2000 rollover that forced programmers to adjust software and other systems that, relying on two digits for the year, never took the 21st century into account.

Look, no one has been able to set the time on a VCR since they first appeared in stores 25 years ago so why would this be a problem? Everything else can but fixed with a quick download. Just shut up and enjoy the evening light.