New Zealand daylight savings - no patch from Apple

[chatoyer]

Borrowing from another NZ-based forum (http://www.nzmac.com), here in NZ we're kinda wondering whether Apple will issue a patch before our new daylight savings time kicks in on 30 September.

Officially, they say this (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306486) which pretty much says "Sod, off: no patch for you". But, as someone hinted at the nzmac.com forum, this may have side affects.

There is a 3rd party patch (http://www.mactcp.org.nz/nzdt.html) but I've not tried it.

Anyway, if Apple doesn't patch it, I won't be hugely impressed, I have to say, but then again if I were them I probably wouldn't worry about such a small market as NZ when I could better put my programmers to work trying to stop folks in the US from creating their own ringtones for their iPhones. Whoops. Did I type that out loud?

(That's a dig at Apple, not iPhone owners!!)

 

[Nermal]

NZ DST was listed in the seed notes for 10.4.11, but it looks like that's not going to be out in time. On the other hand, it won't be that hard to just manually set the time like we used to do in the old days. Plus, wouldn't it get the correct time when it synchs with the time server (unless the server also doesn't get updated)?

Edit: Now that I can get to Apple's site, I see that their article says just that.

Edit 2: It'll be interesting to see what vBulletin does!

 

[mrkgoo]

NZ DST was listed in the seed notes for 10.4.11, but it looks like that's not going to be out in time. On the other hand, it won't be that hard to just manually set the time like we used to do in the old days. Plus, wouldn't it get the correct time when it synchs with the time server (unless the server also doesn't get updated)?

Edit: Now that I can get to Apple's site, I see that their article says just that.

Edit 2: It'll be interesting to see what vBulletin does!

Annoying, but probably not that big a deal in the end.

Can it really mess things up? I mean, do time stamps on files just read off the internal clock, what ever it's set at? Or do they record some sort of meta data for daylight savings, potentially screwing up a bunch of stuff?

 

[Nermal]

The internal clock is always set to GMT and the OS "translates" the time that you see. By adjusting the clock manually for daylight saving, we're going to make the system GMT incorrect. I have no idea whether this will have any practical implications though.

In OS 8, there was a DST option under Date & Time, which you could turn on or off. This doesn't seem to exist in OS X. Is it hidden somewhere or is it completely gone?

 

[Nermal]

Well, the changeover has come and the system indeed required manual setting. Even if you adjust the time correctly, the automatic synch will now set it incorrectly, so you need to turn that option off.

For the forums, go into Edit Options and select "DST corrections always on" in the Date & Time Options section.

 

[pknz]

About to jump in the future by an hour.

Does annoy me that Date & Time settings in System Preferences hangs when it is set to Set Date and Time automatically, never figured that one out.

Guess I should the clock on the iBook now too.

Thanks Nermal for the forums info.

 

[Nermal]

Does annoy me that Date & Time settings in System Preferences hangs when it is set to Set Date and Time automatically, never figured that one out.

What modem do you have?

 

[chatoyer]

I used the patch I mentioned above and am good to go.

 

[Nermal]

We shouldn't have to modify our systems with third-party updates though. Hopefully 10.4.11 will include support.

Edit: For some reason my clock resets back to the "old time" whenever I reboot, so I just installed the unofficial update. No problems so far

 

[chatoyer]

Couldn't agree more. The fact that we had to rely on a third-party patch to correct a time change for a major computer manufacturer says one of two things: 1) they really don't have their act together, or 2) NZ is such a small market, the opportunity cost of developing a patch (as minimal as it probably is?) would have been to great.

Sad, but perhaps a reality of doing business on a global scale.

The good news? We'll likely be the first in the world to get Leopard! Damn skippy...

 

[Nermal]

Speaking of Leopard, it apparently does support the new DST rules. Assuming the stories about 10.4.11 are true, then we shouldn't have any problems again in 6 months' time.