[mdlug] Are you an April fool?

[Robert Meier]

In accordance with the Energy Policy Act of 2005,
the United States will begin Daylight Savings Time 3 weeks early this year.

Starting in 2007, Daylight Savings Time will begin the 2nd Sunday of
March and end the first Sunday of November.

In addition to your watch and alarm clock, you'll need to update your
computer.

If you have a unix box (e.g. Mac, solaris, linux) you may be ready now.
If you haven't changed hardware or otherwise rebooted your unix box
more recently than 2005, you will probably need to update.



You can check by typing into a shell:
    bash> zdump -v /etc/localtime | grep 2007
(Your distro probably has a graphical tool as well, check your documentation.)
(Your distro may require admin privileges to run zdump.)

You are ready, if you see:
    est5edt  Sun Mar 11 06:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 01:59:59 2007 est isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000
    est5edt  Sun Mar 11 07:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 03:00:00 2007 edt isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400
    est5edt  Sun Nov  4 05:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Nov  4 01:59:59 2007 edt isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400
    est5edt  Sun Nov  4 06:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Nov  4 01:00:00 2007 est isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000

You need to update your locale settings, if you see:
    est5edt  Sun Apr  1 06:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Apr  1 01:59:59 2007 est isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000
    est5edt  Sun Apr  1 07:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Apr  1 03:00:00 2007 edt isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400
    est5edt  Sun Oct 28 05:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Oct 28 01:59:59 2007 edt isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400
    est5edt  Sun Oct 28 06:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Oct 28 01:00:00 2007 est isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000


If you need to update:

0. (Ask your sysadmin or put on your sysadmin hat.)

1. Download the current (as of 2007.02.15) timezone information from
     ftp://ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata2007b.tar.gz
   or your favorite source of technical/legal standards.

2. Unpack the data for your locale.
     bash> tar -zxvf tzdata2007b.tar.gz northamerica

3. Install the data for your locale.
     bash> zic northamerica
   (Your distro may require you to explicitly set your timezone again
    in order to update your executable locale settings.)

4. Repeat the above test.
   You should see "Mar 11" and no longer be an April Fool.


For further details, read the README file in the .tar.gz file above.

Enjoy,
-- 
Dr. Robert J. Meier