Sunday, March 9, 2008

Daylight Savings...

The only place where 3 AM follows 1:59 AM is Daylight Savings (DS) - a concept followed by US, parts of Europe and Australia. The logic behind DST is that people use natural light to a greater extent and hence power consumption is reduced.

But this concept never impressed me till date not just because it is so unnatural but also because of the fact that thousands of person hours are being wasted across the globe to maintain software and correct any defects due to this sudden 'drift' in time. IT companies don't mind getting paid for monitoring their client's software and the impacts if any due to DST changes, but why should such a huge amount of time and money be wasted on a crap concept?!

I accept that humans can control their lifestyle and their social practices but meddling with nature and conventions is not even close to impressive. If you prefer using a lot of natural light, wake up an hour early and come to office by 7 instead of 8. Why does it need moving the hour hand back and forth in a year? Beyond all this, there are so many other unjust ways in which power is wasted and I don't comprehend what sense it makes to compromise the lifestyle to save energy on one side and waste it at the other.

Let's hope that saner ideas are brought forth in the future and that humans realize that nature is too complex and delicate to meddle with...

2 comments:

ஸ்ரீனிவாசன் said...

True to certain extent da...people in offshore is also getting affected a lot !!!!!

this is just another example for "businessmen ethics is money", if they can get u to office 1 hr early and increase productivity, then u r leaving time will be extended by ur manager !!!!

My company follows even a cheaper idea, effective whole year. They made a rule that last bus for farthest stop will be 8:00 AM, so by all chance everyone will be in office by 9:00 AM Max...and u'll leave around 8 or 9 pm....SMART!!!!!

Agni said...

Yeah I know! :)All Services company sail in the same boat!

But over here, people leave at 5 sharp whether it is DST or EST and I can appreciate them in that sense!