DST 2007 & Microsoft Outlook or Exchange

Jan 31, 2007 | blog

WTF?

How many people have read the KB article (931667) over at Microsoft concerning the “Addressing the daylight saving time changes in 2007 using the Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool“?  Go read it, I’ll wait…

Ok, glad your back – now I know that it was really congress that passed this smelly turd along to everyone – thanks bastards – but it seems to me that Microsoft really dropped the ball on this.  I mean, in the original design phase of Exchange and Outlook, they could have asked the question “what if the DST parameters change” and followed the conversation, just to see what ideas come up.  Maybe there would have been a better design, maybe not.  Maybe the way Exchange stores this information is the same way every calendaring system stores it.  That’s a scary thought – that nobody ever thought of handling this kind of change on the fly!

Not only do you need to patch the systems so that the new range of DST for 2007 is properly set up in the system, but you have to run an update tool to convert all the appointment data in the data stores to the proper time for the meeting.  That means that you have to run the tool on anything that stores its own calendar information.

So a stand-alone user needs to run the tool, and enterprises need to run the tool on their Exchange servers.  This is all well and good, and hopefully will be a one-time deal, but what about all those archived PST files?  What if someone pulls some archived recurring meeting and resends it to people?  If you read the KB, there is a usage scenario that actually points out that it will not contain the correct meeting times.

There are more.  If your mobile device (or other types) are not updated with the proper DST 2007 information, you could create an appointment or meeting (Task?) with a time setting that would not trigger a reminder at the time you expected it to – it would be an hour late.

Maybe I’m making too much out of this, but all I see for our help desk at work is a flood of calls that could have been prevented by MS long ago.  Tell me I’m wrong!

Link to: Addressing the daylight saving time changes in 2007 using the Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool

Exchange SP2 “Push Mail” Solution

Dec 9, 2005 | blog

I’ve been researching Microsoft’s push-mail solution and have came to the conclusion that their solution is quite adequate for the task at hand. The differences when compared to the Blackberry solution are noticeable, but once up and running will be seamless to the user.

Microsoft’s requirement for a HTTP request to remain open for x number of minutes and then re-issue the request if no change is returned obviously mandates an unlimited mobile data package added to a user’s mobile phone plan.

This is a key difference, because the user needs to know what to request from their carrier to support the phone, unless the carrier is providing the email address and provisions the service specifically to support the new push solution.

Even though the system is technically not a “push” solution, the end result is indistinguishable from the Blackberry service, with more device options (more on that later).

Cool stuff.

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