Stoopid MS tricks #2
Applications should get their time from the operating system.
There, that wasn't so hard, was it?
Enter the change to Daylight Savings.
If you use Outlook, and set an appointment for 11:00, Outlook will change that. I can only think this is an implementation of "Do What I Mean" technology, which always fails.
11:00 is 11:00. There are no large or small values of 11:00. If I am to meet my boss at 11:00, that is the time I am to meet him. My appointment book should not adjust this. If my system clock is wrong, my reminder popups will pop up at the wrong time; that is my lookout.
When Congress changed the DST date, it caught a lot of software companies. Well, mostly Microsoft. Linux and the BSDs have a simple (extensive, but simple) Time Zone file. Tell the machine where you are, and it will adjust the local time based on that file. Simple. One slashdotter tried to make the case that Windows was easier to use because all he had to do was apply a patch to the OS, a patch to the application, and a patch to the Exchange server and he was done. He lied, as I'll describe below. But he tried to contrast updating the Time Zone file on his linux server. He had to do it in three places, because he was running two servers with chroot jails. That's a feature where you can isolate a service to it's own file system. If the service is hacked, the attacker is potentially limited to that file system and can't make mischief elsewhere. I'm not sure why you'd complain about having the option to use a security feature that ISN'T EVEN AVAILABLE on Windows.
Back to Windows.
There is no DST patch for Windows 2000 - you have to manually edit the registry. There are Windows fanboys who say it's impossible to maintain a system if you have to manually edit a text based config file. Manually editing a convoluted, monolithic database designed by idiots is fine, though.
If you do apply the patch to OS, application, and server, your appointments between 3/11/2007 and 4/1/2007 will get adjusted and will be in an unpredictable state. If you are using Windows XP and Office XP, and do not apply the patches, you will be in a predictably bad state as the appointments get moved an hour ahead. Why? Did 11:00 suddenly become something different? Did we want to meet at UTC -7 rather than 11:00 ? I ENTERED 11:00 AND THAT'S WHAT I MEANT.
Even if it gets things right, it will resend meeting invitations for some goddam reason.
Deeply disturbing and disturbed.
Let's say it again: applications, if you need to know what time it is, ask the OS.
Update: 2007-04-13
Ok there is some point to recording an appointment in UTC +/- offset for a groupware application used by a global organization. This was still a debacle and when MS tech support can't tell you what the state of your appointments is going to be after applying their provided fixes, then the overall point - they suck - stands.
Applications should get their time from the operating system.
There, that wasn't so hard, was it?
Enter the change to Daylight Savings.
If you use Outlook, and set an appointment for 11:00, Outlook will change that. I can only think this is an implementation of "Do What I Mean" technology, which always fails.
11:00 is 11:00. There are no large or small values of 11:00. If I am to meet my boss at 11:00, that is the time I am to meet him. My appointment book should not adjust this. If my system clock is wrong, my reminder popups will pop up at the wrong time; that is my lookout.
When Congress changed the DST date, it caught a lot of software companies. Well, mostly Microsoft. Linux and the BSDs have a simple (extensive, but simple) Time Zone file. Tell the machine where you are, and it will adjust the local time based on that file. Simple. One slashdotter tried to make the case that Windows was easier to use because all he had to do was apply a patch to the OS, a patch to the application, and a patch to the Exchange server and he was done. He lied, as I'll describe below. But he tried to contrast updating the Time Zone file on his linux server. He had to do it in three places, because he was running two servers with chroot jails. That's a feature where you can isolate a service to it's own file system. If the service is hacked, the attacker is potentially limited to that file system and can't make mischief elsewhere. I'm not sure why you'd complain about having the option to use a security feature that ISN'T EVEN AVAILABLE on Windows.
Back to Windows.
There is no DST patch for Windows 2000 - you have to manually edit the registry. There are Windows fanboys who say it's impossible to maintain a system if you have to manually edit a text based config file. Manually editing a convoluted, monolithic database designed by idiots is fine, though.
If you do apply the patch to OS, application, and server, your appointments between 3/11/2007 and 4/1/2007 will get adjusted and will be in an unpredictable state. If you are using Windows XP and Office XP, and do not apply the patches, you will be in a predictably bad state as the appointments get moved an hour ahead. Why? Did 11:00 suddenly become something different? Did we want to meet at UTC -7 rather than 11:00 ? I ENTERED 11:00 AND THAT'S WHAT I MEANT.
Even if it gets things right, it will resend meeting invitations for some goddam reason.
Deeply disturbing and disturbed.
Let's say it again: applications, if you need to know what time it is, ask the OS.
Update: 2007-04-13
Ok there is some point to recording an appointment in UTC +/- offset for a groupware application used by a global organization. This was still a debacle and when MS tech support can't tell you what the state of your appointments is going to be after applying their provided fixes, then the overall point - they suck - stands.
posted by JimmytheGeek at 12:39 PM
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