so i applied the dst change to my system and used the outlook update utility to move my appointments.
it caught a handful of appointments but missed a ton, actually most of them. it screwed up stuff from years ago, begging the question did anyone think about the fact *past* events probably shouldn't be changed?
outlook does do a nice job importing astronomical events like the moon phases, or conference calls (things that happen across the planet at the same time) and presenting them in the local time zone. great.
but change your DST setting on your computer and all your birthday's within that range get shifted an hour -so they start at 11PM the previous day and span two days in your calendar?
not good!
simple solution. outlook should have a setting to flag items that span time zones (astronomical events, conference calls) -- but not for birthdays and most other items.
for example, my weekly rehearsal, wednesday nights at 7pm, is just that. DST or not. exactly what i put it in the calendar. the band adjusts whether or not dst is in effect, it doesn't matter -and outlook would be better off to do the same by default. not any more, not any less.
this highlights some of the complexity of scheduling, measuring time, and calendaring. ever since i switched to using outlook it's been pretty good, i like the features, multiple calendars, coloring items, et al. but this one is a doozy!
i tried fiddling with the update, manually correcting the entries it missed. too many.
for the time being i just uninstalled the dst change and reverted my data back. i'm currently reviewing possible ways of getting around this. i might just wait to see if congress overturns the change, since the idea was to see if the country save any energy (bush had to act like he was doing something huh?!), and the experiment was a bust from news reports already.
so maybe they'll change it back and i won't hafta do a damn thing.
otherwise, i'm thinking i'll try the conversion program but put the calendar into HST (hawaiian standard time), either leave it there, then apply the dst change and convert things it back to local time. maybe a two-step change will catch everything? dunno.
still, seems odd to be "updating" appointments from years ago (i keep things in my calendar for reference later, am i the only one?) jeez.
oh --i'd just assume we put the continental u.s. in two time zones, with no shifting around! check this out : www.standardtime.com
brilliant.