Y2K7

From a local news channel:

Lawmakers passed a bill moving [Daylight Saving Time] from the first Sunday in April to the first Sunday in March*, three weeks earlier than normal. It's an effort to save energy in the evening with extra daylight.

But the plan could come with a price. Some worry that computers set up to recognize the old Daylight Saving Time date won't be in synch [sic] with the change, not to mention the fear that cell phones, surgery times and the like will all be thrown off.

*Or, to be accurate, the second Sunday in March, since the first Sunday was March 4, not March 11. Ah, local news... I love local news.

OH, can I please share my experience with "Y2K7" (which was the name given to it by one of the papers that we get at the library)?

Apparently, they tried to install a Daylight Saving prep patch on the Unix servers that house our circulation database, and it went... badly. The circ system went down right around closing Wednesday night. Library employees were greeted by a fax first thing Thursday morning telling us that we wouldn't have access to our circulation system until noon, and shooting for noon was optimistic.

We got another fax around 4:30 Thursday afternoon telling us, "We're hoping to be back up by the time the branches open tomorrow morning." As one coworker said to me, "We're frakked." (usage of BSG syntax: good. News being conveyed: baaaad.)

Huzzah for our computer room staff, though: the system came back up for use around 8:10 Thursday night, slightly less than 24 hours after we first lost it. However, that's a LONG downtime for a library system as large as ours. And it wasn't just the branches that were affected, but the online catalog and account access... we have a bare-bones back up system that allows us to scan in checkouts, but does little else. No accessing people's records, no placing holds, no looking up CALL NUMBERS, even. Thursday was a very long day. I was so glad that the patrons that I dealt with were all very understanding and patient.

I really have to wonder if 21 shifted hours of daylight are going to be worth the headaches that this is causing for people. I doubt any major catastrophes will be caused by it, but if many other computer systems experience what we did... what a colossal pain.

Today was much better. Our system was back up and running, for one thing. Also, one of our subs asked me if the branch is planning any events that I'll have an excuse to bake bread for. I know I did good work if I'm still getting unsolicited compliments almost 2 months after the party. *grin*

AND I came back from lunch to find a box on my desk. A box containing YARN. I shall show it off tomorrow, as I don't have any kind of lightbox setup here. I have the sun and a window... Nature's lightbox. ;)

*hugs* to everyone :)