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tallPete

99 posts

Master Geek


#16247 1-Oct-2007 13:45
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My compliments to Microsoft on the way that they have handled the Daylight Savings changeover in New Zealand.

It is bloody important that they took a small market seriously enough to roll out important changes to their customer base in a timely fashion, and whats more, automatically.

Whilst I am a bit of a technology geek, and I earn a good living from being one, these days I just want computers to work at the OS and vendor application level. There is more than enough work to do at our customer application level. Microsoft have succeeded in this in this instance.

I don't live in NZ any more, but I can see that my families computers back home have rolled over and my work desktop PC here reflects the NZ changeover even though I am not in NZ. I have no doubt that the SQL and Server instances have also been patched to roll over. I bought a Windows Mobile phone the other day (with some hesitation) but I see that after applying a patch it recognises NZ made appointments correctly in my timezone.

I challenge other vendors (Nokias, Apples, Oracles) to do the same. It isn't good enough to simply post a webpage hidden in your support section that says a patch won't be released in time, and as a workaround turn your clock forwards. This creates havoc in applications. In todays international business environment, that isn't bloody good enough. Well done Microsoft.

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chakkaradeep
799 posts

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#88911 1-Oct-2007 13:59
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Microsoft does need to appreciated for this Cool




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Chaks

Desktop : Intel Quad Core Q9400 2.66GHz - 8GB RAM - 500 GB + 500 GB HDD - NVidia GeForce 9800GT - LG246WH Flatron Display - Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with Hyper-V
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barf
643 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #88921 1-Oct-2007 15:20

yes good work Microsoft :-)

for the record:
Linux has had the tzdata update available since before August :-)
Apple has had the tzdata update for that long too :-)

but some people seem to think it's the OS vendor's responsibility to fix this.. the NZ government should be paying MS, Apple, Redhat and etc to push updates out if you ask me.

the only problems with this whole DST change are admins which are too lazy to apply the patches for their OS.. good work all pro-active admins.




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freitasm
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#88925 1-Oct-2007 15:49
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Why Apple didn't list this in their KB, instead providing instructions on how to change the clock? They shouldn't need to provide a patch - only correct instructions. But not even this!




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JonC
425 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #88928 1-Oct-2007 16:18
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Well, maybe you don't have any recurring Outlook appointments?  MS didn't do the fix correctly and now all recurring appointments in Outlook are off by an hour and must be reset manually.


Everything else seemed to be quite nice, though.



barf
643 posts

Ultimate Geek


#88929 1-Oct-2007 16:20

LOL@Apple

it only takes 2 minutes to apply the update (using 'zic') to Apple or Linux systems. Apparently Apple don't even know how to do it themselves.




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  #88932 1-Oct-2007 16:37
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JonC: Well, maybe you don't have any recurring Outlook appointments?  MS didn't do the fix correctly and now all recurring appointments in Outlook are off by an hour and must be reset manually.


Everything else seemed to be quite nice, though.




Did you run the "rebase" utility after applying the patches? Specifically designed to fix this issue.
http://www.microsoft.com/nz/msdn/timezone/calendar.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931667/

JonC
425 posts

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  #88934 1-Oct-2007 16:46
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allan,

Nope, this is just on my home PC using automatic updates.  I just reset the one or two that I have manually.  Could be an issue for some people who are unaware of the problem - as most people are, I believe.

In a sys-admined environment, I'd expect that the bug is not too much of an issue, but for the average user out there relying on automatic updates, it's not great - especially because it's not something you'd immediately notice.









 
 
 

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tallPete

99 posts

Master Geek


  #88935 1-Oct-2007 16:48
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WRT unofficial patches, applying a non vendor supplied patch would void your warranty in commercial situations. No sysadmin should have to make a decision that involves applying a non vendor supplied patch. Its very unprofessional to do so. Sysadmins lose their job for doing such things. Whats more, when a vendor does supply a patch later, you risk breaking your system by applying the official patch.

Secondly, Mums and Dads who own Apples are not going to know diddly about timezone config files - nor should they have to. Microsoft took the right approach by applying an officially approved patch automatically to well configured systems.

JonC
425 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #88936 1-Oct-2007 16:52
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tallPete:

Secondly, Mums and Dads who own Apples are not going to know diddly about timezone config files - nor should they have to. Microsoft took the right approach by automatically applying an officially approved patch automatically to well configured systems.


Um, "Mum and Dads" like me applied MS automatic updates, but Outlook recurring appointments are still busted.

Having said that, Apple seems to have dropped the ball completely.



JonC
425 posts

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  #88937 1-Oct-2007 17:00
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The big issue for me is that a lot of OSes have put the NZDT changes into the "optional" basket (like Debian).  This means that for sysadmins in the US who are unaware of NZDT changes, they are likely not to make the change.  This affects NZ users of web-sites where the time-zone is stored, most notably forums - a lot of forums save the users' timezone and automatically change forum post times on daylight savings changes.

Unlike Geekzone, where I have to change the timezone manually for daylight savings, regardless.  No offence, Mauricio. Smile





chakkaradeep
799 posts

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  #88940 1-Oct-2007 17:21
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JonC: Well, maybe you don't have any recurring Outlook appointments? MS didn't do the fix correctly and now all recurring appointments in Outlook are off by an hour and must be reset manually.


hmm...for me recurring appointments seems to be ok in my Outlook and I did get reminded at the proper time today from which I can confirm this Cool

Its Outlook 2007 and Vista Ultimate




Regards,
Chaks

Desktop : Intel Quad Core Q9400 2.66GHz - 8GB RAM - 500 GB + 500 GB HDD - NVidia GeForce 9800GT - LG246WH Flatron Display - Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with Hyper-V
Virtual Machine : Powered by Hyper-V and VMWare Workstation
Laptop: HP dv7-3004TX Entertainment Notebook PC | HP Touchsmart tx2 1119au - Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Mac: iMac 21.5" Snow Leopard
Mobile : iPhone 3GS

slotherby
85 posts

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  #88941 1-Oct-2007 17:23
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Not so fast.  Tried to install the DST patch for WSS 3.0 on Sat. Still trying to undo the mess. Looks like I have lost access to all my sites and will probably have to rebuild them all.  Internet search shows that this is not an isolated event. Argh!

JonC
425 posts

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  #88942 1-Oct-2007 17:23
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I found that my first appointment after the change was fine, but future appointments were an hour slow.  I'm on XP / Outlook 2003.



freitasm
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#88948 1-Oct-2007 17:30
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JonC: I found that my first appointment after the change was fine, but future appointments were an hour slow.  I'm on XP / Outlook 2003.


Have you ran the utility Allan pointed out before in this thread? My recurring appointments are all good...





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JonC
425 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #88956 1-Oct-2007 18:58
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Mauricio,

No - I only had one or two, so I corrected them manually.  I wasn't aware there was a utility that I could run to correct it.

My point wasn't so much that it's a big problem for me, but more that most people are unaware of the problem and even less aware that there is a utility that they have to run.  Surely the MS automatic update could have run this utility for me???



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