I didn't realize that. I thought it had a small battery-operated clock
inside that was always running, whether the vcr was on or plugged in or
not, and that it used that clock to reset the time. I think that's what
computers used before being able to synchronize via a network.

Joyce

I'm pretty sure it does - I haven't had to manually update
any computers, cable boxes or VCR's for a good many years, now.

No it doesn't work that way in the US. You can set up the computer to
update it's clock through the internet. You can buy clocks that are
updated through a shortwave radio signal. I have never seen a VCR that
did this but they might exist here I don't know.

  If you have set the video for a week while you are away, yes, it is
rather a big deal.

  I have recently changed to a hard drive thingy which is wunnerful: I
wonder if it updates?

I witnessed an amusing (and slightly embarassing) "miss" this Sunday
morning. The lady who was supposed to read the liturgy at church this
morning forgot to reset her clock, and was an hour late in arriving.

Jeanne Hedge, as directed by Natasha

============
http://www.jhedge.com

I did some research and was surprised to find the idea was proposed by
Benjamin Franklin in the US.  The theory was to give farmers more daylight
to till the fields.  The kids could go to school and then go home and help
in the fields to bring in the harvests.  That is admirable, but simply
doesn't compute in these days when they don't start school later because a
child is helping to milk the cows.

Nor does it compute in these days of automated watering systems for stock
and huge combine units to help till and harvest, even on small farms.  We
aren't talking a horse, buggy and plow anymore, unless, perhaps you're
Amish.  I say pick a time and stick with it.

Jill

True, but if your life is dictated by such things as a job
you are regulated by what the clock says, whatever "real"
time tells you.

Certainly the current argument about its conserving energy
has a certain amount of validity.  Multiply an extra hour of
daylight in the evening by all the millions of people who
turn their lights on an hour later because of it, and the
amount of energy saved is considerable (hence the amount of
fossil fuel used to produce that electricity)!

But no, it's the other way around. Being a night person myself, I
appreciate DST because it's light out an extra hour *later in the day*.
So to the person who said, "If you want an extra hour of light, get
up earlier," no thanks. The winter is the worst. Sometimes I get up
in the afternoon, and a few hours later, it's dark out. So I'm really
happy today that we get an extra hour of light, even if it means that
I'm going to be very late to meet my friend this afternoon because I
lost an hour today. It's a small price to pay, to me.

Joyce

<snip>

And it might even be true, depending on where you live and what your home
or office is like, as I think you mentioned in a bit I snipped.

A number of years back, our provincial government instituted double
daylight savings time one year, for much the same reasons. I think,
aside from the government that passed the law, I was the only person in
the entire province who liked it. The job I had then meant I had to leave
before full light in the morning and get back home at dusk, so I rarely
saw daylight for long periods of time. This was reduced by double daylight
savings, for at least part of the day and part of the year. My co-workers
weren't annoyed enough about the no-daylight thing to agree with me, and
as for the people much further north - well, they were *not* amused at
the getting up in the dark bit so their children could wait for the
school buses in the pre-dawn cold. Naturally, the further north you went,
the more extreme the effect of the change!

The government switched back to 'normal' daylight savings the following
year, and hasn't hinted about any further changes until quite recently,
when someone suggested following the US example, or at least the example
of that part of the US which has recently changed its daylight savings
time. People get so confused, they say, when phoning offices in areas with
different times. Well, of course, but they get confused about that anyway,
with time zones, so daylight savings time is just a little more confusion.

For me, that extra hour of daylight is a *huge* lifestyle boon.  I can
leave work at an acceptable time in the summer and still go mountain
biking, or hiking, or have dinner out on the deck ...

I hate how early it gets dark in the winter.  Hate is not too strong
of a term.  About a week after the days start getting longer again, I
feel myself coming out of a deep, dark funk.

I saw a few weeks ago that Microsoft had released an update for Windows to
take account of Australia changing the switch day. I expect people that have
thier machines set to update automatically wouldn't have notced.

This is the first post I recall seeing from someone in Iceland, do many
people there own cats?

 wrote

  That's one view, not mine.  Admittedly the definition of Europe is a
bit vague, but by the most believable definition that I have seen
Kazakhstan is one of five countries partly in Europe, partly in Asia.

  How does this differ from the more obvious view, namely that it has no
DST?

  As others pointed out the 'need' for DST is arguable anyway: the
question is which countries have DST, not why or whether they need it.