“Thousands of Microsoft customers are running into problems understanding and applying the myriad Microsoft Daylight Saving Time (DST) patches required in order to keep their Windows, Exchange Server and other systems up-to-date when DST takes effect on March 11,” Mary Jo Foley blogs for ZDNet.
Foley reports, “Microsoft’s online DST chat room — which Microsoft is currently keeping open from 6 a.m. PST to 9 p.m. PST to handle customers’ questions — is full of customers who can’t get their DST patches to work. Microsoft support phone lines are jammed with users with DST problems.”
“‘The workstation patches are easy, the stand alone Outlook tool is no big deal. If you’re running Exchange and you try to run the Exchange update tool 930879, good luck. It’s a crap shot,’ said Microsoft customer Paul Marsh,” Foley reports.
Foley reports, “Users with Windows 2000, Exchange 2000 and Exchange 5.5 — products that are no longer in mainstream support and thus are no longer covered under standard Microsoft support agreements are realizing that they need to pay Microsoft $4,000 in order to obtain DST patches for these products.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “JadisOne” for the heads up.]
Thousands of Microsoft customers running into problems is clockwork.
If they haven’t already, Windows-only suffers should be coming to a sad realization. Cancel or Allow?
MacDailyNews Note: On February 15, Apple released free Daylight Saving Time Updates for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.3 Panther which addressed recent changes in the way Daylight Saving Time will be observed in the U.S. and Canada beginning in March 2007 and includes the latest time zone information for the rest of the world.
Apple’s Daylight Saving Time Updates are available via Software Update and also as standalone installers:
• Daylight Saving Time Update (Tiger): http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/daylightsavingtimeupdatetiger.html
• Daylight Saving Time Update (Panther): http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/daylightsavingtimeupdatepanther.html
Daylight Saving Time Fix 1.0 for earlier versions of Mac OS X: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos/32030
Related article:
Apple releases Daylight Saving Time Updates (10.4 Tiger and 10.3 Panther) – February 15, 2007
I LUUUUVE it. What a bunch of suckers.
It is about time the Real World understand that Windows is not cut for it. The biggest scam and joke on IT scenario.
Welcome to the social-ly impaired IT experience.
Our system was down this morning….XP Pro
Amazing…., and sad
$4000 for the correct time. Geez.
Funny.
If I’m not mistaken, Apple patched that a week or so ago (without me having to shell out thousands of dollars for a patch).
“Users with Windows 2000, Exchange 2000 and Exchange 5.5 — products that are no longer in mainstream support and thus are no longer covered under standard Microsoft support agreements are realizing that they need to pay Microsoft $4,000 in order to obtain DST patches for these products.”
‘Macintosh – We might not get everything right, but at least we knew the century was going to end.’
-DNA
MW: ‘end’ (really)
I forgot to mention our system was down after the time patch was applied
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Great take, MDN !!!
-Installing M$ patch to fix DST issues: Free*
-Hiring IT professional to install M$ patch to fix DST issues: $150/hour
-*Realizing that M$’s patch is not Free to patch your version of M$’s product: $4,000.00
-Final, and unsettling, realization that you should have swithced to Mac: Priceless
But, Apple didn’t release it for 10.2, 10.1, 9.x, or earlier.
<a >Brian Allen</a>
Point being, Apple only released the patch for 10.3 and 10.4. Not 8, 9, 10.0, 10.1, or 10.2. Now I understand that those OSes are no longer being supported, but how much effort does it take to write a 500k DST table? Oh wait the 10.4 DST table was 9mb.
When are we going to eliminate this Daylight Savings fiction and go to year-round Summer time.
Time to get a Mac. No-brainer.
Exactly, Brian Allen.
We shouldn’t start gloating until Sunday at 3:00 AM.
Any patch does not really matter all you need to do is have your system clock mac or pc look at a online clock server and when you turn on your machine it will match up the time correctly for your time zone. End of Story
When an M$ user asks what time it is, we should respond, “Time to get a Mac!”
Squak
erm… unless I’m mistaken, timeservers specify one single time that the client system adjusts to local time based on the client’s selected time zone.
Therefore on Sunday morning, my unpatched system will obtain the time from the server, and adjust it to EST, rather than EDT, and I’ll be an hour behind.
Squak wrote: “Any patch does not really matter all you need to do is have your system clock mac or pc look at a online clock server and when you turn on your machine it will match up the time correctly for your time zone. End of Story”
Yes, but Windows does not come with the built in ability to sync to a time server. I know 2000 does not and I don’t think XP can either. There are third party add ons that will though, but those only set the time to the GMT. When daylight saving occurs, the time is shifted relative to GMT, so the network time (NTP) won’t solve anything. It will set the time and still lookup what time the computer should be in the current time zone. So, all these Windows users who don’t have the fix will have to manually change the time zone.
As for anyone running OS X prior to 10.3.9, you can get an DST update here:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos/32030
Dear Windows users…
STICK ‘EM UP!
Love,
Microsoft
I just downloaded the DST patch from Apple and installed it. I had to follow the link provided by MDN because Software Update sure as hell didn’t present it for download.
I don’t understand how I could have missed that particular update or that SU didn’t flag it automatically for me, unless of course it’s because I live in Arizona and we don’t follow DST.
In any case, it’s installed and it didn’t mess with my customized date and time settings in the Menu bar.
I should add this serendipitous moment to my list of To Do’s so that I can say I accomplished something today and reward myself with a little GRAW 2!
The DST fixes were actually a part of 10.4.3 (or a point release somewhere around 1.5 years ago). The latest patch is supplemental, and addresses DST fixes for some other territories, etc that have recently adopted the change. As far as N. America goes, the last patch is not necessary, assuming you are beyond 10.4.3.
Additionally, here is a link to a fix for systems prior to 10.3:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24267
Why save daylight in the morning only to use more energy at night? Is there less demand on the power grid at night than in the a.m.? I don’t understand the rational for this sudden change at all.
Someone said DST was created to get us to think and act less like independent individuals and more used to being controlled by our government. I used to think that was crazy talk, but now I’m not so sure. What is the point?
The phrase is
CRAP SHOOT
not crap SHOT….unless of course it’s some kind of oblique reference to actually USING Windows and feeling as if you’ve been shot in
the bowels…in which case CRAP SHOT makes a certain kind of sense.
People tend to go by the clock, rather than by the sun.
If clock says it’s midnight, you’re off to bed to be ready for tomorrow’s job.
If it’s DST, you just spent an hour less power on lights.
In theory.
This ignores those further north who end up getting up in the dark and use an hour more power keeping the lights on…
“If you’re running Exchange and you try to run the Exchange update tool 930879, good luck. It’s crap”
Fixed.
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@thetic Ruin
No, no, no. Daylight Savings was instituted, I believe, in the 1930’s as an aid for children who took the bus to school. It provided that earlier hour of daylight in the morning so that children wouldn’t get hit by trucks and cars in the dark of the morning. We go back to Standard Time in the Spring in order to put that extra hour of daylight at the end so farmers can work later into the night. I know, it’s essentially hogwash. But hey, that’s buraucracy using your money at work! Enjoy!
Corrections: Law enacted in 1918. Idea by Ben Franklin. Repealed by FDR during WWII. Reenacted in the ’60s.