Your views on Daylight Savings Time

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#2206736 28-Mar-2019 23:30

dfnt:
Remember when they changed the date(s) for DST and having to patch all desktops/servers.. then having to check because no one trusted the Microsoft patch.

Get rid of it.

I remember that Apple didn't even get a patch out in time. It was a shambles.

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#2206790 29-Mar-2019 07:34

Behodar:
dfnt:

Remember when they changed the date(s) for DST and having to patch all desktops/servers.. then having to check because no one trusted the Microsoft patch.

Get rid of it.

I remember that Apple didn't even get a patch out in time. It was a shambles.

Yep remember this all.. Sad thing is we'll have the same patching requirement if DST is removed.

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#2206801 29-Mar-2019 07:57

ZollyMonsta:

Yep remember this all.. Sad thing is we'll have the same patching requirement if DST is removed.

Yes, but only once, and then we can forget about it once and for all. Gives me flutters just imagining the freedom.

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#2206847 29-Mar-2019 09:25

Europe was smart enough to have daylight saving occur at the same instance, instead of how the US has it rolling through the night as each state observing it hits 2am. I think Australia is like AU in that aspect. At least we don't have to deal with that in NZ.

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trig42

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#2206851 29-Mar-2019 09:33

I could go with DST remaining all year round, but that will not happen, as it will affect schools (not getting light till well after 8am in winter means kids going to school and starting school in the dark).

They could go to GMT+12.5, that may be a good compromise.

They will just stick with the status quo though, IMO it works pretty well, and it really isn't that hard to change a couple of clocks a couple of times a year (though, my wife's car never gets changed, it is just an hour out for 6 months).

Senecio

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#2206862 29-Mar-2019 09:51

Leave as it is. It really isn't that difficult to adjust twice a year so we can:

A) Use the most of the long evenings in Summer

B) Not have to commute in the dark in Winter

I grew up in Brisbane and I still remember the one year we trialed DST. I think I was 13 or 14 at the time. It went to a referendum after the trial and was voted down. Brisbane is in a difficult place. Not really far enough South of the Tropic of Capricorn to take advantage of DST but really should remain on the same time as Sydney and Melbourne for commercial reasons. The sensible solution is to carve out South East Queensland and leave the rest of the state on normal time.

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#2206863 29-Mar-2019 09:51

SaltyNZ: Yes, but only once, and then we can forget about it once and for all. Gives me flutters just imagining the freedom.

Until another govt in a few years brings it back in again!

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#2206926 29-Mar-2019 11:29

Senecio:

I grew up in Brisbane and I still remember the one year we trialed DST. I think I was 13 or 14 at the time. It went to a referendum after the trial and was voted down. Brisbane is in a difficult place. Not really far enough South of the Tropic of Capricorn to take advantage of DST but really should remain on the same time as Sydney and Melbourne for commercial reasons. The sensible solution is to carve out South East Queensland and leave the rest of the state on normal time.

Commercial reasons can go jump. There are so many disadvantages to DST and absolutely no advantages, and frankly Brisbane hardly needs the sun setting at 9pm. The only people that seem to like it are Sydneysiders and Melbournites moving here and then whining that we don't have it.

quickymart:

Another personal gripe (and my personal one only) is my body clock just gets used to the new timezone...then it goes and change and takes me ages to adjust again.

Funny you mention that. Studies have shown that for approximately a week after both the DST shifts, suicides and traffic accidents both increase statistically significantly. It also increases energy usage (despite the claim that it reduces it, it does the opposite).

PhantomNVD

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#2206976 29-Mar-2019 13:05

Well, apparently most of “you” who were here in 2008 approved of it 😂

https://www.govt.nz/browse/recreation-and-the-environment/daylight-saving/public-attitudes-to-daylight-saving/

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#2206993 29-Mar-2019 13:23

I expect that we're going to continue to argue over two incompatible positions. Personally, I prefer DST so I'm happy with the current arrangement.

Any idea to promote individual or regional choice is likely to fail because it would be so inefficient. Employment arrangements and nationwide service would all be compromised by a variety of timezone rules we just don't need.

I also expect that the suggestion to compromise half way between the two positions would also fail. I can't see us moving to GMT/UTC +12.5 because +12 is so simple. But maybe others would be happy with the more complicated non-integer arithmetic.

On the positive side, NZ doesn't suffer from the worst extremes of other latitudes. With DST, we can - unlike Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, etc. - capitalise on the benefits of being a small/compact country midway between the equator and the South Pole. As mentioned already, there is no benefit at the equator. Towards the poles there is also much less benefit because the seasonal variation is far greater so the optimal zone has such a short life and DST is a waste of time when days have no night and nights have no day. So I'd expect NZ to see some of the greatest benefits from DST.

Perhaps we should keep it to commemorate that it was first proposed in NZ in 1895 by George Hudson. It's hard to say if I would think this if I didn't like DST.

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#2207036 29-Mar-2019 13:39

I don't really care one way or the other about DST itself. I care about all the computers that get tripped up by it. Whenever you calculate a time period you have to check whether the period crosses a DST threshold and adjust it accordingly. There are so many automatic things that depend on correct time period calculations, and any one of them can have a bug. In my line of work I need to calculate time periods in NZ time, but the system runs in UTC. So I have to start with the UTC time, convert it to NZ time, adjust it for DST, add my increment, allow for 'last day of month' rule, adjust that for DST, and then convert it back to UTC again.

That's all wrapped up in a single function that just adds a multiple of months to the current date starting at midnight UTC (because I use it to calculate the next recurrence date for your prepay packs, which are monthly recurring) but if we ever wanted to have some other period for a recurring pack, I'd have to remember to do all that again.

And don't get me started on leap seconds.

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allan

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#2207098 29-Mar-2019 14:21

PhantomNVD: Well, apparently most of “you” who were here in 2008 approved of it 😂

https://www.govt.nz/browse/recreation-and-the-environment/daylight-saving/public-attitudes-to-daylight-saving/

We did...

Hammerer:

I also expect that the suggestion to compromise half way between the two positions would also fail. I can't see us moving to GMT/UTC +12.5 because +12 is so simple. But maybe others would be happy with the more complicated non-integer arithmetic.

See my earlier comment where we were originally 11.5.

Frankly I don't know how the Chatham Islands cope with being 45 minutes ahead of us. Seems such an odd increment. Why not make it a full hour? Although I suspect they don't really think that much about the rest of NZ anyway 😀 I recall watching some sort of documentary where a Chatham's local talked about "going over to New Zealand".

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#2207738 30-Mar-2019 16:10

I hate sun burnt milk!!!

geoffwnz

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#2208675 1-Apr-2019 14:20

Try explaining the change between NZST and NZDT to a cat. :-p

And even at age 44 and a bit, I can still never remember which way it goes at each change. I just rely on technology (Smartphone or PC) to figure it out for me, then I set all the manual adjustment needed devices accordingly.

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#2208702 1-Apr-2019 15:15

geoffwnz:

And even at age 44 and a bit, I can still never remember which way it goes at each change. I just rely on technology (Smartphone or PC) to figure it out for me, then I set all the manual adjustment needed devices accordingly.

I just remember "Spring forward, fall back".

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