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Time change fixes applied to servers by George Spain Information Services More daylight for you means more nighttime hours for Information Services (IS), but no real nightmares for anyone.   Daylight Saving Time (DST) begins March 11—three weeks earlier than last year—and computer systems have to be patched to accurately reflect the change.   The Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandates that DST begins on the second Sunday in March and ends the first Sunday in November. The change is an experiment to see if the greater number of daylight hours actually saves energy.   Major software companies such as Microsoft and Apple reacted to the change by issuing patches to their operating systems.   For LYNX users (computers managed centrally through the IS) the process will be transparent. During the past few months, IS has been uploading these patches to the more than 260 Windows servers (10 of which are LYNX) it manages throughout MUSC.   Kurt Nendorf, director of Infrastructure Systems, expects all patches to be completed by March 1.   For those machines that are not part of the Managed Desktop system, departmental information technology coordinators (ITCs) will facilitate patch installation by pointing their users to one of two automated update sites.   Apple Macintosh users are not centrally managed and should get the DST patch from the Software Update site built into the Mac's OS X operating system.   The patches are fairly simple lines of code, especially when compared to the Year 2000 bug patches that caused so much commotion, labor and fear. Nobody expects anything like that with the DST patches.   The Windows operating system patches just reset the time zone information on the servers' system clocks. The Apple patch does the same thing to the Network Time Protocol (NTP) that controls Macintosh date/time function.   Phone and voice services such as Audix and PBX are also affected and will be patched by University Communications.   For Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs, like BlackBerry and Treo), you'll have to follow the instructions in your owner's manual.   The U.S. Department of Energy will keep records and report the results to Congress, which has final word on time changes. So it could change back in a few years.   For information on Microsoft Windows—http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst; general information on DST issues— http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3660346; or from Apple— http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305056. The following link regards finding and changing misdated groupwise calendar appointments— http://www.musc.edu/infoservices/gw_dst.html     Friday, March 2, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.