No this is not another Y2K!

The upcoming change in the date for the beginning of Daylight Saving Time in the United States will cause some minor problems for many computers. If you are running Microsoft Windows™, our good friend Bill Gates has built in a little program that automatically changes your computer’s clock at the beginning and end of Daylight Saving time periods. Of course Bill could not know that in 2007 those dates would change expanding Daylight Saving Time by some four weeks. Not to worry. The sky will not fall on March 11th at 2 AM! Do not stock up on toilet paper and milk! Put away the extra flashlight batteries. Take a deep breath.

There are available on the Internet various “patches” to address this problem. A “patch” is a little program that fixes your computer’s operating system when something malfunctions, either because of a mistake in the program, or as in this case, changes in the dates. I wouldn’t bother with a patch. I have an easier way.

For those of you who use Microsoft Windows XP™, there is a simple fix that you can do in 30 seconds. When you have time on Sunday, March 11th just fire up your computer and RIGHT CLICK on the time display at the lower left corner of your screen. When the menu appears, LEFT CLICK on the “Adjust Date and Time” item. Another screen with a calendar and a place to set the “Time of Day” will appear. Go ahead and set the time ahead by 1 hour. At the top of the box you will find a TAB marked “TIME ZONE.” LEFT CLICK on that and you will see map of the world and below the map a little box that is most likely already checked with the words, “Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes.” By LEFT Clicking on that box you will disable Bill’s little handy dandy program so it will not add another hour in three weeks nor will it subtract an hour in November.

For those of you who use Windows 98™, you will find the little daylight saving box as soon as you click on the time in the lower right side of your screen. As for VISTA™, the process in similar to XP™ but you actually can have multiple Daylight Saving settings.

For Mac Users, there are patches available on the Internet and some Macs connected to the Internet will “Call Home” to Apple to get the correct time. Again, I would suggest that you manually go into your clock settings and set the time ahead by one hour. Don’t forget to un-check the box marked “Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes.” No big deal.

You are all set until Sunday November 4th when you will need to set the clock back an hour. See, no need for extra milk, toilet paper or extra blankets and flashlights! Isn’t technology wonderful!

PS. A few weeks ago we discussed DTV. For those who want more info on the Digital TV, the FCC has a neat web site: www.dtv.gov