KEY POINTS:
While many New Zealanders are looking forward to the new daylight saving hours next weekend, its posing a headache for some in the IT industry.
The Government decided in April to extend daylight saving by three weeks, increasing it to a 27-week period.
Clocks go forward a week earlier, on Sunday, September 30, and go back on Sunday, April 6, instead of the usual third Sunday in March.
However, as ordinary New Zealanders celebrate the move to bring a few extra hours of sunshine into their lives, the IT community is busy preparing for time-related problems, Massey University IT specialist, Associate Professor Dennis Viehland said.
Some computers, mobile phones and business software would not automatically make the time change and problems were likely to ensue.
The problem related to date tables programmed into software that tell devices when to move clocks forward or back.
"While we all will be manually adjusting our wristwatches, wall clocks and home appliances according to the new rules, the computers have to be told there is a change by a software patch from the computer software manufacturers," he said.
While this was unlikely to cause many problems for individual computer users, it would cause more severe difficulties for businesses.
"Time-sensitive applications in the banking, travel and trading industries, for example, could be disruptive to business processes."
Some alarmists in the United States have called the problem a mini-Y2K bug, Prof Viehland said.
However, he said the problems could be relatively easily fixed.
Prof Viehland said businesses should be pro-active in dealing with the IT issues surrounding daylight saving change and have IT staff on duty on the last Sunday of September to ensure clocks rolled over as required.
- NZPA
