Re: dst and IsDaylightSavings

Ah - I see the problem. Coming from a country with 1 time zone makes you
a little blind to these types of issues, however I guess I do have
software running across 4 different time zones now which is why it all
runs based on UTC - have had the time zone and daylight savings issues
before.

If it's any help, I'll offer my TimeZone classes [1] - basically, it's a
something I wrote a few years back to read all the time zones from the
registry, and there's a couple of functions in there (not the least of
which is an IsDaylightSavingsTime which takes a datetime and returns a
bool). You can select any timezone from the collection it builds as
well.

Dino

[1] http://www.xceptionsoftware.com/timezone.zip

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of building .NET applications targeted for the Web
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stacey Levine
Sent: Wednesday, 14 February 2007 08:24
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [DOTNET-WEB] dst and IsDaylightSavings

Here is an article from the overly concerned people.

Daylight Saving Time: When clocks spring forward this year, will IT fall
down?
Todd R. Weiss
 February 01, 2007 (Computerworld) With echoes of the Y2k scare of seven
years ago, IT administrators in the U.S. face changes to Daylight Saving
Time (DST) this year, prompting concerns about a potential IT crisis
that must be recognized and resolved quickly. 

Signed into law in August 2005, the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005
moved the start of DST from the the first Sunday in April to the second
Sunday in March and delayed the return of standard time in the autumn by
a week, to the first Sunday in November. The idea: Shifting the time
change by a few weeks can save on energy use. 

For IT, that means every software and hardware system relying on time
stamps should now be checked, evaluated and tested -- and, if need be,
patched with software updates or modified to work properly. But with a
wide range of security issues, compliance requirements, spam-fighting
efforts and other concerns already on their to-do lists, many IT
administrators are only now evaluating what the DST change will mean and
how they need to respond. 

Gartner Inc. issued a statement today urging companies to take the issue
seriously, saying "disruptions at an IT infrastructure and application
level are likely" and "will have significant implications for
organizations around the world." The Stamford, Conn.-based research firm
said interruptions could affect calendaring applications, billing
software and security programs as well as travel and trading schedules. 

"This is a minor problem compared to the big code changes required in
the recent past for issues like Y2k or the euro conversion," said Will
Cappelli, an analyst at Gartner. "However, significant business damage
and liabilities, as well as nuisance, could occur from applications
performing their processing at the incorrect time if organizations do
nothing." 

In the meantime, the clock is ticking. 

Complicating the effort is the fact that not all vendors have said
whether and how their software and hardware might be affected. That's
been one of the challenges for Rudy Ebisch, the assistant director of
the infrastructure group at a large global manufacturer of home and
office products, who asked that his company not be named. 

With nine major software platforms to deal with, Ebisch and his staff
have been working for about a month to determine what they need to do to
prepare for DST. During their investigation, they found that more than
100 older, unsupported applications are based on the Java Runtime
Environment (JRE), which has to be patched to properly reflect the time
changes. 

"There are a thousand things that are going to fall through the cracks,"
Ebisch said. "Everything is running JRE. It's pervasive. Who is going to
look at all of that and figure out what needs to be patched?" There was
stuff we knew we had to check [for JRE use], but now there's a hundred
other things we have to check." 

Although some vendors have posted information online about the issue,
many have been mum, so Ebisch said he's reaching out to them. "I have
150 vendors. They're not going to contact me, so I'll have to contact
them," he said. "We've got to come up with a comprehensive list." 

While the time shift shouldn't be a major issue at his company, Ebisch
said it could be critical for many other businesses, including banks,
investment companies, hospitals, airlines, communications systems and
utilities that have time-sensitive systems. His solution -- and his
recommendation to other companies -- is to designate an IT staffer to
evaluate JRE use in all applications, determine what versions are in
place and decide who will oversee the various problems likely to arise. 

"That's what I'm trying to do," he said. "Every day, someone brings up a
new area we did not think about that has to be checked, and hopefully
there is a patch." 

U.S. companies in areas affected by the time change will also have to
modify systems to deal with companies in U.S. territories that won't
change to DST, including Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the
U.S. Virgin Islands and much of Arizona. The change could also mean
complications for multinational businesses because different timeframes
for DST are used worldwide. 

Although the new DST schedule begins this year, the law includes
provisions that could allow it to be rolled back to the old schedule,
meaning that whatever changes are made this year must be reversible. 

Another IT administrator, Rob Schwartz, manager of technical support at
Reading, Pa.-based Boscov's Department Store LLC, said that he began DST
remediation work about four weeks ago with about six staff members
looking at the issue from every angle. With an assortment of IBM AIX,
Microsoft Windows and Linux servers, and virtual servers in use,
Schwartz estimated that at least 600 hours will be dedicated to
completing the DST work at Boscov's. 

"It could easily take more than that," he said. "It's not trivial,
there's no question about that, so we have to look at every system." 

Schwartz said that the IT department had apparently not "been keeping up
with patches as we should have," which means more work for him and his
staff now. "I don't think it was really on the radar until a month ago,
when someone happened to see it. We really got caught. We should have
been more proactive." 

Cappelli, who recently co-wrote a research report on the issue with two
other Gartner analysts, said the DST changes will be a "small-to-medium
problem" for most companies. "It is nowhere near as huge as Y2k
potentially could have been," because no one really knew exactly how IT
systems would react when the calendars switched to Jan. 1, 2000, he
said. "With Y2k, it's potential apocalyptic character was that it was
insidious, that we didn't know what bizarre conventions could have been
inside applications." 

The DST issue is different because system shutdowns and other
complications are not as likely as they were during the Y2k crisis,
Cappelli said. "The severity is not as profound," he said, adding that
that might explain corporate sluggishness to address this year's DST
change. "Many IT professionals thought they were burned by Y2k because
the world didn't blow up, and it caused them to downplay the fact that
some [DST] work needed to get done." 

As a result, many Gartner clients are just now evaluating their IT
systems. "We really watched it as a slow trickle starting in late
August, starting with many financial services firms," Cappelli said.
There was a noticeable jump in concern in December, and now the efforts
across the industry appear to be in full-blown mode, he added. 

"About 70% of the Global 2000 have some kind of activities in place, and
that will increase in the next month," he said. "In December, it was
about 40%. We probably caught ourselves just in time." 

One problem that has cropped up often for many clients, he said, is that
they are still running older operating systems such as Windows NT 4.0,
which is not supported by patches from Microsoft Corp. "There's a lot
more NT out there than clients thought they had," Cappelli said. "That
is a headache certainly." Those users will either have to "hand-hold"
their systems through the DST shift or move the operating systems to
newer versions. That kind of move brings its own set of risks and
challenges. 

"Now is not the time to press for a major operating system upgrade," he
said.

The DST implementation recommendations from Gartner include the
following: 

After applying patches or manual fixes, conduct tests to verify that the
proper times and dates are produced. 
Review all applications and their interactions with other applications
for DST change compliance. 
Check with external service providers to ensure that they are modifying
their own systems to comply with the changes so your systems are not
negatively affected. 
Have IT personnel scheduled to be available during the DST change on
March 11 so they can repair any problems that arise, and give them
well-defined escalation procedures to deal with any circumstances. 
IT departments should schedule twice-yearly reviews prior to DST shifts
to confirm that systems are working smoothly and to correct any problems
that occur.
Another analyst, David Ferris at San Francisco-based Ferris Research,
said the DST preparation "shouldn't be a panic response" from IT
departments. But the change still needs to be given proper attention
with a full regimen of evaluations, patches and testing before the
deadline arrives. "I don't think it's a massive thing. It's not going to
be like the Y2k scare."

Thanks.
 
Stacey

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of building .NET applications targeted for the Web
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dean Cleaver
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 2:21 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [DOTNET-WEB] dst and IsDaylightSavings

And I guess it depends whether someone's machine is patched as to
whether it's correct then given all this is stored in the registry?

Can't this be determined by selecting the second day of DST in a
calendar control at the start of an app, and checking? Then you could
determine that it's wrong, and advise the user to patch their machine?

Not sure what the paranoia is really though - what are the potential
problems?

Dino

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of building .NET applications targeted for the Web
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stacey Levine
Sent: Wednesday, 14 February 2007 08:19
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [DOTNET-WEB] dst and IsDaylightSavings

DST starts earlier this year.

Thanks.
 
Stacey

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of building .NET applications targeted for the Web
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dean Cleaver
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 1:58 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [DOTNET-WEB] dst and IsDaylightSavings

Mark,

Can I ask what the paranoia is with DST?

Dino 

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of building .NET applications targeted for the Web
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mark Aurit
Sent: Wednesday, 14 February 2007 07:29
To: [email protected]
Subject: [DOTNET-WEB] dst and IsDaylightSavings

I suppose the corporation I work for is not unlike everyone elses -
there is some major paranoia going on with dst.
Im working on an app that uses some calendar controls, just brought one
up in vs.net 2.5 - and noticed an "IsDaylightSavings" property.  Please
tell me this wont be an issue - both at the ide and framework level.  Im
hoping neither use internal algorithms, instead depending on the OS.
That makes it someone else's problem (whether one exists or not).
Thanks, Mark
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