On Saturday 17 September 2005 13:49, Anders Johansson wrote:
On Saturday 17 September 2005 19:42, Mike Grello wrote:
So, my microwave or VCR will somehow notice the change? The *embedded* (remember embedded) processors in my cities traffic control system, etc. will automatically notice the difference? That is why it is like Y2K; computers aren't the only things that use "computers". Some of those "computers", embedded and hardwired, use Linux. The cost to replace those chips were pretty significant in 2000, now just 7 years later we have to do it again, and *for no reason*.
Why? What on earth does your city have in its "traffic control system" that isn't remote controlled? I can't imagine anything useful in a traffic environment that would be totally self sufficient and at the same time reliant on having the correct time
Where I live in South Florida -- not exactly a third world country -- the traffic lights around my place are not on remote control. I'm sure there are probably others, but the only place I am reasonably certain does have this feature is Los Angeles. The traffic lights around here are programmed to change their cyclic patterns based on day of the week and time of day. During rush hour on weekdays the lights on streets in certain directions stay green longer than during non-peak travel hours. On weekends the patterns are different. Starting late at night when traffic is just a dribble until early in the morning the light just flash red or yellow. When there is a big event at the stadium nearby the event security people go to the control boxes at each street intersection around the stadium and manually override the light changes using a button on a cable physically connected to the boxes. Daylight savings time will change at a date different from what the control boxes' programming understands. All these control boxes will not properly estimate peak-traffic times and possibly cause more congestion. All these light controllers have to be reprogrammed to the new schedule. Again, for no reason. Daylight savings time serves no real purpose. If they want to change something about daylight savings time, they should just eliminate it.