Can I tell you that the most idiotic thing that this country ever invented was Daylight Savings Time (DST) (I would have said the English measurement system, but ironically the British beat us to that one). The fact that we feel the need to increase our time by an hour and then decrease it an hour, later in the year it just utterly foolish. Even more dim-witted is the fact that not all areas of the country participate in the beloved event! Yeah yeah it’s nice to have more daylight in the summer and the kiddies can see at the morning bus stop in the winter (not at the times I caught the bus back in the day), but honestly what else is it good for? The only smart thing about DST was that its occurrence was based on a timing algorithm. Now in typical U.S. fashion we are doing away with the only intelligent thing about DST. I am told that starting next year we will be setting our clock back to Standard Time a month later that normal.

If I wasn’t a programmer this wouldn’t bother me all that much, however what people don’t realize is what an inconvenience this is going to be. Any cell phone, VCR, computer or other electronic device that automatically adjusts for DST is going to need a software or firmware upgrade. Sure it’s nice if you use Windows Update, but Windows Update ain’t fixing the firmware in my TV.

About the only thing as dense as DST is the Julian Date system. This is where we keep track of the total number of seconds from the beginning of time, or Jan 1, 1970, to figure out what today’s date is. While most computers use this date method internally, what people don’t realize is that this system breaks down around Jan 19, 2038 thanks to the friendly little 32 bit internal counter. Not that this chaotic mess will matter as the Mayan’s have predicted the end of world to be Dec 23, 2012. You know, if we all just used Universal Standard Time it would make things a lot easier. What do I care if it’s light outside at 200AM. At least when I plan to meet someone at 415PM it will be 415PM everywhere and anywhere.

Is human nature to make things so simple and complicate them so drastically?