Setting the various household clocks ...
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 35 comments
Arizona (Score:3)
We don't need to conserve sunlight here.
Navajo Reservation Arizona does DST (Score:3)
You'd think that the white culture would be the part of Arizona that sets clocks to some time unrelated to the sun half of the year and the Indian culture doesn't, but in reality the Indian reservations follow Federal policies and do DST.
Re:Arizona (Score:5, Interesting)
It took my unit a couple hours to figure out that Iraq doesn't do it any more. They used to do it... You give them their country back and they just run wild.
AZ & HI (Score:2)
Between the 5 years I was in Tucson, and 13 years in HI... I've forgotten the whole spring forward/fall back routine. But, the rest of yous still suck me into your web of time, forcing me to remember whether I need to call you before my lunch hour... or if I can let it slide a bit longer.
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We don't need to conserve sunlight here.
Too right. Just move the Sun back. Easier than dealing with all these clocks.
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Petition your boss for flex-time ;p
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Try working for a brokerage firm based in California from a desk in AZ.. I needed to remember at least 3 times zones(PST,MST,EST) for my day to day work with another 3 for special projects (India, Japan, GMT)
I kept 3 different clocks on my desk until I found the FF addon FoxClocks.
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Mild effort eventually... (Score:2)
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Actually, I never change the clock on my motorcycle. I joke that only when the clock is right is it riding season.
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Your motorcycle has a clock?
Mine doesn't even have a fuel guage.
Mechanical watches = no extra work (Score:3)
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I simply don't bother changing analogue clocks for DST. Just subtract one from the hour. Digital clocks usually take care of themselves, but that actually locks us in to DST somewhat because if we ever abandoned it all those clocks would need setting every year.
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I'm sure it was more useful up north when the internet wasn't open 24 hours a day. DST in a 24 hour society doesn't really do anything useful.
Also, it's a pretty shitty decision to pace it early Sunday morning rather than early Saturday morning when most people still have an extra day to get used to it.
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DST in a 24 hour society doesn't really do anything useful
As long as bankers and their lazy 9-5 hours have the rest of society by the short hairs, it does do something useful. Most people don't have very flexible work schedules and they can't just come in to work earlier to leave early. Therefore, to get around stodgy employers, the clock adjustment trades daylight in the morning (when most people are just getting up to go to work) for daylight after work (when people get home and need to do work/exercise/play with the kids outside).
Personally, I wish we'd just
Everyone posting lives in Arizona (Score:2)
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I had to set two clocks - not zero effort, but pretty minor. There are more clocks in the house but I switch those appliances off when I'm not using them so know to ignore whatever time they say anyway.
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Re:Everyone posting lives in Arizona (Score:4, Informative)
Our Governor decided a couple of years ago that the only thing stopping Indiana from becoming a world financial powerhouse was the fact that we didn't do DST, and got state law changed. Changing the clocks still feels weird to me, but at least there's less explaining to do with my contacts outside of the state.
Took no effort (Score:2)
I just sat here and watched the wife run about changing her collection of clocks. I don't know if that's considered "automatic" or not.
This one is easy (Score:2)
Setting the clocks back an hour is always easy; no matter how many clocks are involved. I get to sleep in a hour. Going the other direction in the Spring is a massive pain even if all of the clocks change automatically. I hate getting up early and I especially hate it when it's because a bunch of bozo politicians want to make it appear that they are doing something to save energy. I may eventually move to Arizona just to escape the daylight savings time insanity.
Hint to DST believers: if you want to get
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I think the idea with the changeover being on sunday is that you don't have to get up early (job/commitments notwithstanding).. Think of the 23 hour day in spring as an opportunity to get up at a "normal" time and go to bed an hour early. The 25 hour day on the other hand is clearly an opportunity to have an extra hour in bed on the morning. meaning both changeovers involve more sleep!
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Personally, I wished the time change had been this morning instead of Sunday morning because my alarm was set for 5:00 this morning and I'd have liked an extra hour of sleep. Why do they give us an extra hour of sleep on a Sunday morning?
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I wish they'd eliminate DST, however I do like the fact that it is still light out at 21:30+ in the middle of the summer.
BTW, my vote was for mild effort, because over the years I've made sure my clock can be set by adjusting forward
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Correct. As you state, I could always go in earlier, but its not like they are going to let us leave earlier.
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We ought to just leave everything at daylight time and be done with it.
Personally, I am a big fan of daylight time due to my work schedule. My shift starts before sunrise all year, DST or not. Daylight time maximizes daylight after work, so I can go do the things I want to (exercise, yardwork, sports, etc.). When we're under standard time, the sun is setting as I get home; I barely have time to go for a short run before it's completely dark. And forget any chance of working on anything outside; you can't see what you're doing.
The problem with the "just get up earlier" suggestion is that most people can't shift their work schedules at a whim. It doesn't do anyone any good to just get up earlier if they still don't get out of work until late afternoon. I'm already going to work as early as I can get away with.
I have this great idea, it will save us energy AND give you more time to enjoy the sunlight after work... It's called "Daylight Saving Saving Time" and all you do is add 1 hour to the normal time, then add 1 more hour if it's between the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November...
waste of time (Score:2)
Besides bothering people to change time on non-internet connected devices, is it fucking worth anything?
In Canada we changed because USA changed, thanks to fscking Harper...
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I wish us down on the south coast were a part of that part of BC that doesn't fuck around with the time...
I still wake up at the same time as I did on Saturday. It takes weeks for my body's clock to change the time, during that time I feel terrible. I wish they'd pick ONE set of time, either daylight or standard, and just NOT change it.
In the papers over the weekend it cautioned both drivers and pedestrians to be extra cautious Monday morning. Sure, when you arbitrarily change people's clocks everyone feels
Why bother (Score:2)
What? (Score:2)
Who uses clocks?! That's so 1990.
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Who uses clocks?! That's so 1990.
Kids these days have no idea how good they have it... back in the old days, them new fangled digital clock thingies had to be installed in every freaking appliance that could be imagined, to show how "high tech" the appliance was. With the inevitable overreaction that every cheap piece of walmart has a clock so it no longer meant "new" "rich" "high tech" or "cool".
My one room kitchen had the following clocks at one time:
Outdoor remote thermometer (covered time with trimmed electricians tape)
Remote reading
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Many of the things you name indeed do not need a clock. But a wall clock needs a clock just to define itself. Its very essence is its clockness.
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"A man with a watch always knows the time. A man with two watches is never sure."
I don't remember where I heard that, but it seems applicable in this case.
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There was a wall clock in my flat when I moved in. The options are to keep feeding it a battery every so often, to repaint the dining room, or to have a circular patch on the wall which is whiter than the rest
Lots of things can hang on a wall. Back in '96 at work I got a promotional IBM mainframe yearly calendar poster; you know; one of those "buy a calendar poster, get a free mainframe and tape robot" deals. I had that hanging up on the wall until '00. Why yes, I was living alone at that time... Worst case scenario is you only have to change a yearly calendar ... yearly, instead of DST adjustment twice a year.
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For example, this years' calendar is a repeat of 2005, and can be used again in 2022, 2033, 2039, etc.
Took mild effort on someone else's part (Score:3)
Fortunately, my teeny-tiny bit of OCD is rubbing off on my partner, which saves some work for me. :-)
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Your guess is incorrect.
Why change? Just wait until Spring! (Score:2)
At least, that's the way I do the clock in the car. The rest of my clocks are either functionally or non-functionally automatic.
I have a watch which should be automatic but, because it has the old transition date programmed in, it isn't. I have an alarm clock which should be automatic because it has WWV receiver. Unfortunately, the only way to get it to consult WWV is to power cycle the device with the backup batteries removed. It is easier to just change the time.
My desktop computer is automatic in Li
... was done last weekend (Score:2)
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Americans are always behind. Look at their pathetic excuses for cars, and their mobile phone system. No wonder it takes them a week just to change a clock.
No signal (Score:2)
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The DCF-77 reception is sometimes crappy in Finland.
Hm.. but even if it is good, you run on CET. Do your colleagues sometimes complain that you are an hour late? :-)
The great clock hunt (Score:3)
There are clocks in the weirdest places - too many of them not automatic. For example: why does the oven need a clock - when just a timer would do?
The USA is a week behind most of the world - the change was last week in most countries with DST. Did the candy industry lobby Congress again?
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Re: oven / clock: a timer is not convenient enough when you want to start cooking the roast at 8:00am on Sunday morning. Just put it in the oven the night before and it will be ready for lunchtime.
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At room temperature bacteria will grow.
At 165 degrees Fahrenheit they will die.
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First of all, he said "several or many hours". I don't know how many "many hours" is, but several hours, yes, should be okay.
Secondly, he's talking about a roast, which will thaw fairly evenly and quickly overnight, not a turkey, which will take a day or more to thaw, meaning the outside will have reached room temperature and stay at room temperature for hours while the inside is still frozen solid.
Thirdly, a well-washed roast is much less likely than a turkey to have high levels of contamination of gut/fec
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clocks on ovens are important when you cook more than one thing that you need to time. Then a single timer is not enough. having a clock is enough to cover that need most of the time; having multiple timers might be better though. But it also serve to synchronize with the arrival of our invitees. I would hate having to pull up my phone to know whether it is time to start cooking something.
You totally need one clock on the kitchen and the oven is a reasonnable place. Of course, you also have one on the micro
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In my memory, we have always been a week behind most of the rest of the world in terms of the "Fall back". it also seems to my hazy memory that they went from a 6 month DST to only 4 months, or somesuch, and it seems the rest of the world is also doing that.
I, for one, am not interested in doing DST at all. It does me no good to have extra hours of daylight in the
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why does the oven need a clock - when just a timer would do?
Same reason the microwave needs a clock. It doesn't, but it already has a timer and it might as well keep the current time visible while it would otherwise be sitting around doing nothing useful.
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why does the oven need a clock - when just a timer would do?
Same reason the microwave needs a clock. It doesn't, but it already has a timer and it might as well keep the current time visible while it would otherwise be sitting around doing nothing useful.
Except that turning the LEDs or LCD off entirely would save power. Why this is not an option on microwaves VCRs and cable boxes is a mystery to me.
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My VCR could do that. Saved 7 W, which is significant when it's not in use.
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If you're that concerned about saving power when they're not needed, you could always unplug them.
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Except that turning the LEDs or LCD off entirely would save power. Why this is not an option on microwaves VCRs and cable boxes is a mystery to me.
Turning off the LEDs (or VFD) might save a very small amount of power. Turning off the LCD wouldn't even be measurable -- they're on all the time on watches that run years on a tiny battery, after all.
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I don't think my microwave or stove have that function.
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There are clocks in the weirdest places - too many of them not automatic. For example: why does the oven need a clock - when just a timer would do?
The USA is a week behind most of the world - the change was last week in most countries with DST. Did the candy industry lobby Congress again?
According to wikipedia, the 2005 change in DST -- which took effect in 2007 -- was actually lobbied for by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association and the National Association of Convenience Stores. I thought it was the candy companies, too -- I had 210 trick-or-treaters last week.
It bugs me that my bedroom clock was built just before the legislation passed, and auto-shifts according to the 1987 scheme. It also bugs me that this is hard-coded, since whoever designed the clock must have surely known tha
Little to no effort (Score:2)
What impressed me was my wrist watch (yes I still wear a watch, always have). I got it a couple years ago, a G-Shock (since I was alwa
Summer time started a month ago but (Score:2)
...I took the opportunity to synchronize everything off my GPS. I do it twice a year. I set a good digital watch from the GPS then set my other watches and various other clocks from that source. I think the next generation will expect all clocks to be synchronized from a network time service. Last time in Malaysia, at the local equivalent of the state DMV office, I noticed that a clock on the wall was out by 15 minutes. No daylight saving in the tropics, so the clocks never get reset.
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Last time in Malaysia, at the local equivalent of the state DMV office, I noticed that a clock on the wall was out by 15 minutes. No daylight saving in the tropics, so the clocks never get reset.
I'm surprised noone gets annoyed with the clock and changes it. I change the office analogue clock every month as it loses about five minutes.
The analogue clock in my bedroom uses "flat" batteries from all other appliances, so I reset that about every 4-8 months when I replace the battery.
I use the time from my smartphone, which seems to get it from the GSM network -- it updates automatically if I cross a timezone boundary. I assume the time comes from the basestation, and I assume something like NTP keep
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I'm surprised noone gets annoyed with the clock and changes it.
Why should they? They get to leave 15 minutes earlier.
It sais 'took' (Score:3)
The poll sais 'took' but a better wording would be 'will take', as i still have not done it.
Last year i did it in time. The year before i let some clocks just run on summertime for half a year, saving me the effort of adjusting, and on the fly introducing a little mental challenge every time i wanted to observe it.
Next year i plan to adjust the clocks pro-active. When wintertime arrives i'll adjust them for summertime, and vice versa. That'll save me a lot of time.
DST sucks! (Score:2)
Not a golfer.
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Mod this up.
Better to have the kids playing outside after school when its still light. In the morning, they're just walking to school and easier to anticipate. Farmers can go f*k themselves and their cows. Get up and milk them when they need milking, whatever time that is. Or are you afraid that the cow union will file a grievance over the odd shift work?
Missing options: I haven't got around to it yet. (Score:2)
Missing option... (Score:2)
I lost power for eight days* (you insensitive clod). So all my clocks were blinking midnight anyway! Since I had to set all of them from scratch, does that count as no effort for DST, or lots of effort?
* freak snowstorm in northeast caused millions to lose power (many in my town are still dark)
Cowboy neal's option! (Score:2)
Since nothing more would apply. My kitchen has 5 clocks, just one of them isn't blinking (it's mechanical, wouldn't blink anyway), and it is still showing the non-DST time. My computers changed automaticaly, and the ones at the living room aren't set at all (at least those don't blink). My alarm clock was changed, and my wife's one wasn't set since DST ended last year, so it was already correct.
So, all done or ignored, I had to change one clock. But I didn't really adjust to DST, so I can't tell how much ef
No effort -- live in Saskatchewan, we don't change (Score:2)
The advantage of living in a province where we don't adhere to DST.
Took mild effort... (Score:2)
My cell phone updates automatically, if it has a signal. However, being in an area with spotty cell reception, I kept my phone in airplane mode overnight so I'd know which it was on in the morning (I didn't want to wake up and see "no signal" and wonder whether it was still on daylight time or not).
When I woke up I just switched the transmitter back on and rolled back over. It found enough of a cell signal to update the time sometime between reading 8:20 and 7:30.
My wife did most of them. (Score:2)
I got up in the morning and my wife did most of them already... I had to do my side of the bedroom clock and my Cars.
Missing Option: Power outage (Score:2)
Caught in a time loop (Score:2)
Missing Option (Score:2)
Oh! That's why I'm the only one at the office this early!
Children (Score:2)
My clocks took a mild effort, but that is not the real challenge. The real challenge is to get five young boys to figure out that they can sleep in an extra hour now. So far? No such luck. All five were up and running at 5 AM this morning.
Its Closing Time ... (Score:2)
What do you mean 'fall back'? More like 'fall down'.
Stupid idea (Score:2)
Well, automatic but annoying. (Score:2)
1. Most DTV Pal DVR owners and I, in http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=21179521 [avsforum.com] , have timers/schedules get shifted around. It happens every time when time changes are near (even weeks before that day).
2. Adjusting to the earlier sunlight. I prefer later sunlight in the evening! I hate it when it is dark at 5 PM PST! Can't we just stick with daylight time forever and never change times again? :(
3. Adjusting old times that don't do time changes or have outdated time change codes (e.g., VCRs). U
When will the USA (Score:2)
get around to changing its clocks at the same time as everyone else again?
I forgot (Score:2)
All automatic...but one. (Score:2)
I only have one clock, and it's brutal. (Score:3)
DETHKLOK RULES! wooooo \m/
None (Score:2)
Electric clocks, wristwatches, radio clocks, PCs (Score:2)
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Same here. Only three things in our house are not automatically updated. GF's watch, the stove clock, and a mantelpiece clock that is set to GMT.
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Re:All automatic (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, but all the people who post on /. who aren't in the US are so full of themselves they think all the polls should be about them.
Not all of the US follows the US Federal dates for daylight savings time. Some states don't do it at all.
Also Canada isn't part of the US, as many people will go to pains to tell you. And most of that country did change their clocks this weekend.
Why can't we use this to start a good conversation about how seriously hard it is to program any application that has to deal with time and date? Aren't we nerds?
nice response (Score:2)
nice response - as a European I agree we should use the poll as an excuse to talk about the programming aspects and some solutions... but then I guess slashdot is mostly a talking shop with the occasional useful link rather than a serious programmming resource!
Re:All automatic (Score:4, Interesting)
Why can't we use this to start a good conversation about how seriously hard it is to program any application that has to deal with time and date? Aren't we nerds?
Fun and games with that last week. Discovered that the controller PC for one of our shiny new hardware thingies was several hours slow... and that apparently that's the time that the database server decides to put in the database, rather than using its own. Great news when you have several hardware thingies and were hoping to go into the DB and do "WHERE jobtime > {TIME_OF_LAST_JOB_I_IMPORTED}". Can't change which machine's time it uses (not our code), so it looks like NTP, string, and duct tape is in our futures.
Need I mention that this machine was on a US timezone and the rest on a European one, all with DST enabled, so they went back a week apart? :)
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Yeah, but all the people who post on /. who aren't in the US are so full of themselves they think all the polls should be about them.
So true. But, hey, we are only trying to blend in. Seriously, it looks pretty much the same from the other side. And you started it :-P
Why can't we use this to start a good conversation about how seriously hard it is to program any application that has to deal with time and date? Aren't we nerds?
So true, too. At least in Java, it seems overly complicated. I have to deal with dates rarely, perhaps once a year. And everytime I do it I wonder why all the convenient methods of the Date class are deprecated. So (if you want to avoid deprecated methods) you have to convert it to a Calendar and back with a number of steps in between. What could have been a one-liner ends u
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I live in Canada and I changed my clocks several weeks ago.
The new rules were a mistake.
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All my clocks where already set why would I need to reset them? ...
Oh, wait everyone who reads /. lives in the US. Seriously can we have some none US centric polls as I'm pretty sure that at least 50% of /.ers live outside the US.
Dammit, I came here for the semi-annual rants against Daylight Savings Time, not for the anti-America rant. If I wanted that, I'd have read a poll that mentioned non-SI units of measure.
Re:Clocks (Score:4, Funny)
1 TV - should be automatic, but have the clock on manual because auto mode sets it to Newfoundland time intermittently
Not a problem! You get the news 30 minutes ahead of everyone else.
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1 TV - should be automatic, but have the clock on manual because auto mode sets it to Newfoundland time intermittently
If it happens when the sun goes over the yardarm in Newfoundland, it isn't a malfunction of the clock so much as a feature allowing you to drink earlier in the day. Implemented properly it should revert back to local time at noon.
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3 computer - automatic
1 alarm clock - automatic
1 radio - automatic
1 tv - automatic
Ovens and shit that doesn't need to have a clock, but have one anyway - Are still blinking 00:00 like they always have
1 phone - automatic but with confirmation
1 wrist-watch - manual
I do not consider phones and wrist watches household appliances, so I votes 'all automatic'.
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So what is the SI unit for annoyance?
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Changing the clocks is about the kludgiest fix imaginable.
It's that, or insist that all businesses have/use a completely separate set of business hours for each part of the year... Clearly the sign printers and sun dial makers don't have a very good lobby as the option to go with the adjustable clock method won out.
It could also be seen as an experiment in how effective group behavior is at setting the norm, and how the tendency to procrastinate is FAR stronger than the tendency to be proactive.
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I will often not vote in polls that do not apply to me.
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