News & Observer | newsobserver.com | Clocks fall back a week too early

Published: Oct 30, 2007 12:00 AM
Modified: Oct 30, 2007 01:48 AM

Clocks fall back a week too early

Some computers fooled by new date

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It's late October. Do you really know what time it is?

A lot of automatically updating clocks and computers don't.

If you logged onto your home computer Sunday, chances are it asked you whether you wanted to update its clock to fall back an hour.

Did you forget the switch from daylight-saving time back to Standard Time?

No.

The computers and clocks are confused because of their brainy technology that tells them when daylight-saving time ends.

Popular computer software also makes the time switch by itself.

Also, many clocks are now equipped with Smartset or Autoset technology that changes the time automatically on the last Sunday in October.

Problem is, the Energy Policy Act passed in 2005 pushed the "fall back" date to the first Sunday in November, starting this year.

Apparently, nobody told the Autoset microchip, which was designed before the date change. It's an annoyance, clockmakers admit, but it can be fixed by disabling the automatic daylight-saving time feature.

So, you still have time.

Clocks are to be turned back an hour this Sunday.

And, in case you want to be prepared, the law also advanced "spring forward" from the first weekend of April to the second Sunday of March.

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