Should we just get rid of Daylight Savings Time?

On my drive to work this morning, I was marvelling at the sun glinting off of the top of one of the many glass buildings that line the road and I realized that the sun was coming up later and later every morning. This morning it was 7:30 before it showed its head. It was then that I realized we were still on Daylight Savings Time.

While a number of people will claim credit for coming up with the idea, I find it interesting that the current version of DST was introduced as a way to save energy by keeping it lighter later. Of course the counter argument was that children will be going to school in the dark, but that did not seem to deter the lawmakers who decided that DST, at least in the US and Canada would run from March to November. Reports analysing the impact seem inconclusive on the savings, which begs the question: If we are going to spend all but four months under DST, why not just make it the de facto standard time? Or go back to the way it was?

Time is a purely man-made concept. Yet we are all slaves to it in some way or another and daylight savings time is one of those concepts that indicates we might actually have gotten it wrong. We have, over time, been increasing the amount of time we spend seasonally adjusted forward an hour to the point that we are spending more time an hour forward than we are spending in our designated time zone. So why not just move forward the hour?

I know it would cause all kinds of havoc, especially with our heavy reliance on computers and those digital time stamps that determine everything from financial transactions to when the building doors open. But what most people do not realize is that computers don't actually use a clock, at least not like we understand it. It is all done by programming magic. So the computer would not care, as long as the underlying code that translates the epoch number to time is working correctly. And we actually know how to do that. Mostly.

So in these waning days of daylight savings time, enjoy the ability to see the sunrise while you are having your morning coffee, and drive safely.

Time to Scrap the "Little Four"

If you are sitting at home reading this, then either, A)You live in Canada (Happy Thanksgiving), B) Work for the US Federal Government as a Federal Employee, B) Work for a bank, C) Might be a school teacher in the US.

Otherwise, I suspect, like me, you are at work. Today, in the US, is Columbus Day a day when we honour...um...Columbus? Or more correctly his arrival in the Americas. Why? I mean, if you want honour Columbus, that's fine but why is it a quasi-holiday?

If you have read my other postings, you know I have serious issues with the so called holidays in the United States, as well as those days that are not officially holidays, yet everything is closed (Easter Sunday). As a former federal contractor, I can tell you about the little four, those holidays that the Federal government is closed on and depending on how the dice are rolled, you probably are expected to "eat" in vacation because your company does not recognize them as actual holidays. The little four are MLK, Presidents, Columbus and Veterans Day. Each, worthy days, yet you are expected to be at work on them in 90% of American businesses. Then there are days like the Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving (a Thursday), when you are expected to be at work even though most companies know you will be taking vacation. Ironically, some nice companies will slide the Veterans Day holiday to the Friday after Thanksgiving, thus saving you the vacation day. Others, less friendly, will hold a lottery for who has to work that day. Nice, eh?

And then there are companies that do not recognize any form of holiday, thus they lump all the days off into your paid time off bank and it is your responsibility to manage the time, and if you find you have to work Christmas Day, oh well. By the way, if you are unfortunate enough to be caught in this scheme, you will find that you do not actually get more vacation, but less.

I think it is time, though, to scrap the little four holidays. Really. While it would be nice to have a day off in October, most companies do not recognize the day, so why bother closing some things and not others. The MLK holiday to me has never made sense. Not the recognition, but why it comes after a string of holidays. In fact, if you include Veterans Day, from the 11th of November through Presidents Day, there is barely three weeks, on average between holidays over the course of three months, yet we go from Presidents Day to Memorial Day, more than three months. And in reality it is closer to six months for most people, from New Years until Memorial Day at the end of May.

These holidays are not improving performance, helping employee morale or even leading to cleaner, whiter teeth. They are an annoyance and a hindrance to getting things done. I say it is time to scrap them. We do not need them and we do not use them. Sorry Feds, time to join the rest of us that have to work today.

The Tea Party Red Herring - The Unemployed

The Tea Party (and others) would like to have you, the voter, believe that the size of the United States Federal Government is too big. I could, and have argued in these pages that in many ways, they are correct. Certainly there is far too much money being spent and wasted on a number of federal projects, both black and white as well. But their focus is also in the physical size of the government, and the number of people it employs. And I have to sit back and wonder if these individuals have even thought through the issue.

The latest job numbers, release last week, indicated that mixed into the 9% unemployment rate, were 90,000 odd federal workers who lost their jobs. Now most of these were temporary workers hired for the census, but still, these blips are just the same as the blips we see in January when all the temporary retail workers hired for the Christmas season are dumped back into the pool of the unemployed. But I also learned this weekend that the number, often cited by the media as the unemployment number is the little number or a convenient statistic, but does not actually represent the unemployment rate, which apparently is closer to 15% than it is to 9%. And that is shocking.

What is more shocking is the Tea Party saying that the government is too big. Which begs the question, what are you going to do with all the people you are planning to fire? How are they supposed to survive, since clearly you have no intention of paying unemployment to them?

And then, there are the soldiers. Remember them? There are thousands of reservists that will be returning to the United States after years abroad and they will have to be integrated into the work force. And there are several that fall under the heading the they have a guaranteed job despite the fact that the company they worked for may not have a position for them. So does that mean the company has to fire someone else? Or bring on someone they cannot afford to pay and have no work for? The only ones who will get rich on this are the lawyers and human relations specialists that will have to sort through all the laws. And yes, I am also overlooking the medical costs that are associated with returning soldiers.

So, if you are a Tea Party candidate, just how do you plan to reduce the size of the Government and yet not add to the ranks of the unemployed. They would like to have us believe that the commercial world will pick up the slack. The truth is that unless there is a profit, and a huge profit, the commercial world will not step up to the plate. And that is why the Government is so big. Legally or not.

Politicians Should Not Live in Glass Houses

People in glass houses should not throw stones. This idiom has been around for a long time. And as we head into what can only be described as the silly season here in the United States, the glass houses are shattering left and right.

Over the weekend, Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for Governor found her glass house coming down around her ears as her illegal housekeeper filed papers seeking unpaid wages and mileage reimbursements. This is very similar to the unpaid taxes on nannies that brought down several presidential appointees in the late 1990s, but in this case, Whitman is running on a platform of holding employers responsible for hiring illegal immigrants.

It is political theatre of course. And something will be put on stage next showing Democratic candidate Jerry Brown in a bad light and the mud slinging will continue. The real problem though, is one of expectations.

The American people, for some bizarre reason, expect the politician running for office to be as pure as falling snow. A virgin, dressed in white with no skeletons in their closets, no change in their views over time and well read on everything from the latest study on medical ethics to the most complex economic theories. And frankly, that is farcical. Such a candidate does not, and cannot exist. Being a politician is all about charisma, deal making and dealing with the devil. In many cases at the same time.

And as long as we expect our politicians to be something more than human, we will continue to be disappointed by them, and their actions.

Facebook Frustrations

Well, I am glad I am not a programmer, because after reading Seth Call's posting on the issues with developing for Facebook, I would certainly look somewhere else for things that needed developing.

Burried down in the comments is this statement: The FB API is documented. Only because there's no JS sample code for you lamers doesn't mean it sucks. Get skill.

What I find funny about it is that one, it is the only comment that says that the API is documented and two, a number of good coders disagree.

So what really is the issue? I would have to agree with Seth. Facebook does not care and as pointed out in another comment, it is nothing but an information harvesting scheme. That seems to hit the nail on the head.