And now for a public service announcement: Don’t forget to turn your clocks back an hour on Saturday night (unless you live in one of those areas that does not observe Daylight Savings Time).

And now for my semi-annual rant: Why should I have to reset the clock on anything? It seems that I have more and more devices in my home and office that have clocks of some sort. Some of them — like my computers — have finally figured out how to keep track of the correct time on their own. A few — like my clock radio — don’t know what the time is for sure, but still are able to change an hour automatically when Daylight Savings Time begins and ends. But far too many of them don’t have a clue and have to be reset twice a year.

Here is Alfred’s Rule for Clocks: No clock should ever have to be reset if:

1. It is in a device that is connected to the Internet.
2. It is in a device that receives television signals.
3. It receives cell phone signals.
4. It receives GPS signals.
5. It is in a device that is connected directly to any device covered by points 1. through 4.
6. It has a network connection – wired or wireless — to any device covered by points 1. through 5.

While I’m at it, there should be a powerline network device that gets time and date information from one of the above sources, and then makes it available to any device that plugs into the home electrical system.

With so many technology systems depending on accurate time these days, it just makes no sense that we have to run around the house resetting all the clocks, and then trying to figure out how to change the time on our car clocks since we only have to do that twice a year. It’s a colossal waste of time, and these devices all are smart enough to know better. That’s something to keep in mind as you wander around your home with your cell phone (my most accurate portable source of time information) this year as you reset your clocks.

At least we get an extra hour of sleep this time.

Posted by Alfred Poor, October 30, 2009 6:00 AM