daylight saving

[ChrisGreaves]

If I had been particularly smart last year, I would have noted the date on which the DVD recorder decides that Daylight Saving should be affected.
At least, I think that's what has happened.
My 7pm-1am recording of last night turned out to be an 8pm-2am recording (or vice-versa).
I suspect that many different chipped hardware have a hard-wired date on which THEY think the internal clock should be reset.

[HansV]

This chipped mug didn't have any problems adjusting.

chipped.jpg

[BobH]

I heard on the news yesterday (Monday 1 Nov) that the chip on iPhones in the UK failed to reset the time and caused confusion when alarm times were off by an hour. Didn't make sense to me for 2 reasons: 1) if the hour failed to "fall back", the the alarms would have been early and no harm caused; 2) why does the iPhone not set it's time based on signal from the cell towers instead of from the chip?

[stuck]

My video 'helpfully' adjusted the hour automatically. Unfortunately it worked this magic by adding 23 hrs rather than subtracting one. End result, the displayed time was correct but the date was a day ahead. Fine unless you want to record something when it chokes because the time and date you are setting is in the past.

Technology eh?

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

2) why does the iPhone not set it's time based on signal from the cell towers instead of from the chip?

I suspect that we are living in a watershed of daylight-saving technology.
30 years ago the time-switch weekend dates (2 a year) would have been hard-wired into the PC BIOS chip or into the software.
10 years ago the dates can be held on a remote server, and the software merely POLLS the server to know when to switch.
Today (in theory) cell phones ask the communications tower for the correct time every second or so.

In my case, the (cheap) DVD player built in Asia and destined for the US market probably takes the cheap-development route and hardwires it into the chassis hardware.

FWIW I don't subscribe to cable, so a cable-enquiry would fail.

Overall I think that the technology is doing too much to protect us. Either we should switch to permanent daylight-saving, or just all of us get up an hour earlier. It's not as if we get an extra hour of daylight, is it?