Take a look at this little morsel, reprinted from Passably News:

A fifteen-year old boy in America was incarcerated for twelve days, wrongly accused of making a hoax bomb threat - because his school had forgotten that the clocks had gone forward.

Cody Webb was arrested last month, after Hempfield Area High School received a bomb threat on their student hotline – which provides a range of information to students about the school - at 3.17am on March 11th. They believed they'd found the culprit when they traced the phone number they thought was responsible to Webb.

Unfortunately, the school forgot that the clocks had switched to Daylight Saving Time that morning. The time stamps left on the hotline were adjusted by an hour after Day Light Savings causing Webb's call to logged as the same time the bomb threat was placed. Webb, who's never even had a detention in his life, had actually made his call an hour before the bomb threat was placed.

Despite the fact that the recording of the call featured a voice that sounded nothing like Webb's, the police arrested Webb and he spent 12 days in a juvenile detention facility before the school eventually realised their mistake.

Webb gave an insight into the school's impressive investigative techniques, saying that he was ushered in to see the principal, Kathy Charlton. She asked him what his phone number was, and , according to Webb, when he replied 'she started waving her hands in the air and saying “we got him, we got him.”'

'They just started flipping out, saying I made a bomb threat to the school,' he told local television station KDKA. After he protested his innocence, Webb says that the principal said: 'Well, why should we believe you? You're a criminal. Criminals lie all the time.'

All charges against Webb have now been dropped.

The most amazing part of the story is the quote from the principle.  Incredible.  I hope his family nails her to the cross as an example. 

It's nice to know that people agree with you once in a while...

ArsTechnica and Reuters are reporting that the Daylight Saving Time (DST) legislation that I discussed previously has had no measurable effect...

A brief quotation:

Reuters spoke with Jason Cuevas, spokesman for Southern Co. power, who said it plainly: "We haven't seen any measurable impact." New Jersey's Public Service Enterprise Group said the same thing: "no impact" on their business.

So while the US government pats itself on the back for at least looking busy, know that the main goal—energy conservation—has not been met. We can still argue over other supposed benefits, like the supposed reduction in crime (which returns in November?) and the fact that many people seem to simply like the change. As far as the purpose of the move is concerned, that appears to be a total flop.

It's nice to know that all the work was worth it.  Personally, I put about 20 hours into the conversion.  Remember, Microsoft didn't offer a patch for Windows 2000 (and earlier).

Millions of computer systems and electronic devices needed to be patched or upgraded.  That created lots of work.  In many cases, devices were left unpatched; which broke their original functions.  For example, many devices intended to automatically switch for old DST now switch at the "wrong" date, and are inaccurate.

What a waste.  It's a shame nobody told Congress that the DST switch would be a bad idea. In fairness to the reasonable legislators whom were present, I'm going to list those who objected, spoke, or voted against it.

• "Our dependence on foreign oil will not be reduced as a result of this legislation. As a result, we have not reduced the prospect of going to war once again in the Persian Gulf in the next decade."
• "This legislation does virtually nothing to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

Hillary Clinton (D-New York)

• "I oppose the bill for two reasons. First, it contains a number of highly objectionable provisions. Second, it simply ignores several of our most pressing energy challenges, such as our dependence on foreign oil."
  

Senator Voting Against (the good guys).  Sadly, it's a short list.  Notice how it's the northeast corner of the country (mostly)?

Thankfully, both Senators from Delaware voted against.  Good job guys.

• Biden (D-DE)
• Boxer (D-CA)
• Carper (D-DE)
• Chafee (R-RI)
• Clinton (D-NY)
• Corzine (D-NJ)
• Dodd (D-CT)
• Feingold (D-WI)
• Feinstein (D-CA)
• Gregg (R-NH)
• Jeffords (I-VT)
• Kennedy (D-MA)
• Kerry (D-MA)
• Kyl (R-AZ)
• Lautenberg (D-NJ)
• Leahy (D-VT)
• Martinez (R-FL)
• McCain (R-AZ)
• Murray (D-WA)
• Nelson (D-FL)
• Reed (D-RI)
• Reid (D-NV)
• Sarbanes (D-MD)
• Schumer (D-NY)
• Sununu (R-NH)
• Wyden (D-OR)
  

The Representatives list is far too long to include, but Delaware's Mike Castle voted against.  Good job, Mike.

As most of you already know, Daylight Saving Time (DST) switches today.  The Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandated a change to our existing DST system.  Although we still move the clocks forward and backward; the date of the move has changed.  This is somewhat problematic.

Our world continually becomes more automated.  With great technology comes great efficiency.  However, with great technology also comes great dependence. Most computers and electronic devices automatically adjust for DST these days.  The change in the DST schedule has "broken" lots of devices and computers that are unaware of the shift.  This is a problem.

One cannot have expected the Congress to have thought through the consequences of their "feel good" legislation, when they don't even read it.  Don't forget, the act also includes the right to roll back these revisions; should their poorly-reasoned whims change in the future.

Microsoft has been kind enough to offer patches for all of their newer operating systems.  They offer new DST support for Windows XP, Server 2003, and Vista (Longhorn).  Notably missing from this list are Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, and Windows 2000.  I can understand not offering support for very old operating systems; but excluding Windows 2000 is unacceptable.  It's only running millions of business computers throughout the world.  Despite what Microsoft PR would like you to believe, Windows 2000 isn't gone just yet.  Generally, business PC's aren't upgraded.  They usually run their original operating system until they are retired.

I still have Windows 2000 boxes running; and they will remain 2000 until they fail or are retired.

Here's the good news... The timezone definitions are in the registry.  Careful registry revisions will allow you to update an older computer to the new DST schedule.