Ball State University students should keep an eye on their computers this weekend, because technicians and analysts say a mini-Y2K is approaching.
Because of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, daylight-saving time will begin Saturday, about a month earlier than previous years. Experts fear the earlier start date for daylight-saving time will cause clocks, phones, computers and other electronics to be an hour behind as well as cause companies to have problems reminiscent of Y2K.
Congressional representative Fred Upton, R-Mich., added the daylight-saving time section of the act because the additional four weeks of daylight would increase energy saving, his Communication Director Sean Bonyun said.
"The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a nonprofit group, estimates that the cumulative benefit of the four-week extension through 2020 will be a saving of approximately $4.4 billion and 10.8 million metric tons less carbon released into the atmosphere," Bonyun said.-á
Other than energy savings, studies by a leading auto safety group have shown that the increased light also decreases roadway accidents, he said.
"Kids will also have an extra hour of daylight on Halloween, the most dangerous night of the year for children, thus decreasing the likelihood of accidents as they go door-to-door in our neighborhoods," Bonyun said.-á
The reason why the change in DST is happening now instead of when the bill was signed into law in 2005, he said, was to ensure that various industries such as software, technology, airlines and banks had a sufficient amount of time to prepare for the change.-á
A nine-person Ball State group called The Enterprise Systems and Information Security Services led by Loren Malm, assistant director of security, policy, systems and assessment, has expertise in time zone and time change information.
Sarah Lachat, group member and coordinator of technical documentation for Ball State's University Computing Services, said the group works to ensure systems and software are appropriately updated to deal with these changes.-á
The group said computers attempt to automatically adjust for daylight-saving time, but because the time change will start earlier and end later than in previous years, devices need to be adjusted to reflect the new starting and ending dates.-á
To fix the problem, computer software must be updated to show the change, group members said. Some electronic devices such as VCRs and digital clocks, however, are not made to have the updates and must be manually adjusted, they said.-á
"Students should make sure their computers are up-to-date with all vendor-supplied updates," Malm said. "Even after completing the necessary updates, students should reconfirm appointment times and important calendar items occurring between March 11 to April 1 and Oct. 28 to Nov. 4."-á
Adam Hofer, a senior English education major, said he had not thought about problems that could occur and was not too worried about a mini-Y2K scenario.-á
"I use my computer for appointments, but if I notice something is off I'll change it," Hofer said. "With the change being over Spring Break, students have a whole week to adjust to any issues unlike last year when it changed over the weekend, and there was only a couple days to get used to the change."-á
Britney Spears, a sophomore elementary education major, said she did not like daylight-saving time in the first place because she did not see how it benefited anything. She does not think the earlier start date will cause any problems with her computer, however, because she has never had any problems before, she said.
"I'll probably still get the updates just to prevent any possible problems," Spears said. "I mostly think that because the change is over Spring Break, students might not remember to adjust their clocks and will forget when to set times to come back to school."-á
Lachat and her group said just because students might update all of their calendars and clocks, there is no guarantee other people will so verifying important appointments during these days can help prevent missing meetings.-á
"Failing to update devices which automatically adjust for DST based on internal or 'hard-coded' rules will have an incorrect time for the three weeks in March and one week in November," Malm said.
The most important thing The Enterprise Systems and Information Security Services suggested students remember was to check and recheck their appointments, and if there are any problems, let University Computing Services know.-á
Get updatesWindows users visit windowsupdate.microsoft.com
Macintosh users visit docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305056-áFor information about the daylight-saving time change and where to go for critical updates, visit bsu.edu/ucs/dst-á
Students can contact the University Computing Services' Helpdesk at 285-1517 or by e-mail at helpdesk@bsu.edu
LegislationThe Energy Policy Act of 2005 amends the Uniform Time Act of 1966 to extend standard daylight time from March to November. It requires the reports to Congress on the effect of this extension on energy consumption in the United States.-á
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