With prep, early time change no sweat for kiosks

The next great computer and operating system crisis may be here March 11, thanks to changes in Daylight Saving Time.

Daylight Saving Time this year comes several weeks earlier, because of an act passed by Congress in 2005. The expectation of the change is to save consumers money on electric bills.

But what wasn't considered by Congress is the impact the change could have on businesses and the technology they employ.

The fear is reminiscent of Y2K, says Robert Ventresca, Netkey'svice presdient of marketing, when governments and businesses throughout the world worried that computers would not recognize the new year, defaulting instinctively to 1900.

"There's certainly a potential that it can affect kiosks," Ventresca said.

Netkey, which primarily uses Microsoft, Sun and Java, worked with its customers and to ensure each had the appropriate patches and up-to-date software configurations.

"Hopefully, any responsible business would be proactive," Ventresca said.

Problems could range from the kiosk's or ATM's time being an hour off, to transactions not posting, to a complete malfunction, he said.

"The operating system needs to be synched with the appropriate time," Ventresca said. "The question to ask is, ‘What effect (the earlier time) will have on the application?'"

But Jeffrey Hammond, a senior analyst for Forrester Research, said he expects problems to be minimal.

"I'll call it an annoyance as opposed to a destructive event," he said.