Daylight Savings Time Bug - Steps You Must Take

February 15, 2007

To: UCOP Community
From: Michael Shannon, Manager, IR&C Communication Services

Legislation passed by Congress in 2005 lengthens daylight saving time by four weeks starting in 2007. This is causing problems for electronic devices that rely on or use time zone settings. The problem is on a smaller scale but similar to Y2K. Consumer products may not automatically adjust to the early start of daylight saving time.

One result of the change at UCOP, as we announced in January (http://www.ucop.edu/irc/announce/daylightsavingserror.html), is that our e-mail server is currently not reflecting the time change accurately. Thus, calendar appointments during the periods March 11 - April 1 and October 28 - November 4 of this year are appearing one hour earlier than they should.

Microsoft has just issued patches to try to fix this problem for devices that use its software. IR&C; will install the e-mail server patch this weekend. However, we can't predict with certainty how the patch will affect your calendars. Unfortunately, we expect problems. Thus, it is important that you read the steps below and follow those that apply to you.

All Users

• By Friday at 6:00 p.m., print your calendar for March 11 - April 1 and October 28 - November 4. This gives you a record of your calendar appointments before the patch.
• Check your calendar Tuesday morning, compare it to the print out, and manually correct your appointment dates and times if necessary.
• Expect to see updated calendar invitations for the corrected appointments. You will need to accept these invitations for your calendar to reflect the changes.

Treo, Blackberry, Windows-based Smart Phone Users

• These devices (except for IR&C; managed Blackberrys) must be updated but are not included in the automatic patch process.
• Contact your departmental PC coordinator to make the patch arrangements.

Macintosh Entourage Users

• Macintosh Office 2004/Entourage requires an update but is not included in the automatic patch process.
• Contact your departmental PC coordinator to make the patch arrangements.

We are sorry for this inconvenience. Please understand that all organizations that use systems with time zone settings are experiencing this problem. More information about how this affects Microsoft products is available directly from Microsoft at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst.

If you have any questions, please contact the IR&C; Technology Service Desk at 987-0457 or techdesk@ucop.edu.