The campus community should be aware of how Daylight Saving Time (DST) will affect their computers.
Here's a quick look at the situation.
What is happening?
In 2005, the United States Congress passed an energy bill that included extending Daylight Saving Time (DST) by about a month. Starting in March 2007, DST will begin on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November.
When?
DST starts on March 11, 2007, at 2 a.m. and ends on Nov. 4, 2007 at 2 a.m.
How will this impact me?
This change affects many software products, including several from Microsoft.
Some computer operating systems (OSS) and applications are already updated to reflect this change. Others may require that patches be downloaded in order for them to operate properly after the change. For example, if you are running Mac OS 10.4.6 and above, the patch should already be installed. For versions earlier than OS 10.4.6, you must manually change the time once DST goes into effect.
Currently, UCSF's email servers and client workstations are set to begin DST on April 1, 2007. As a result, many users have reported that appointments on their Outlook calendars during the middle of March do not reflect accurate meeting times, such as a meeting showing up on the calendar an hour later than scheduled.
How will this be corrected?
Within the next two weeks, Microsoft is expected to release two software patches: one for the Exchange mail server and one for the Outlook client. These patches will be automatically distributed without any intervention on your part, and will fix calendaring issues associated with the changes in DST.
All users of products affected by the time change should give extra attention to appointments scheduled during the extended DST period. Users should view any appointments that fall into these date ranges as suspect until they communicate with all meeting invitees to make sure that the item shows up correctly on everyone's calendar, both internally and externally.
To minimize confusion during the affected date ranges:
Include the time of the meeting in the e-mail request so that invitees can double-check the correct meeting time (such as, "Project brainstorming - 11:00 a.m. Pacific [Standard or Daylight] Time").
Accept prompts to update time zone information, when requested.
Related Links:
Energy Policy Act of 2005
Microsoft's response to DST
