Seven years ago, our entire society was thrown into a blind panic because everyone feared that systems and programs written with just two-digits for the year would cause massive worldwide computer crashes at midnight on January 1st, 2000.

It never happened.

Upgrades were indeed important and necessary, but by the time December of 1999 rolled around, most problems were long since solved and we were mired in a culture of unnecessary fear. People with tech skills were beating ourselves over the head every time were subjected to the buzzword "Y2K". Entire business sprang up devoted to making sure organizations' systems were "Y2K Compliant". Fear and buzz made us prepared, so nothing happened.

Say, did you know that daylight savings time starts in March this year?

That's right, thanks to the wisdom of U.S. president George W. Bush, daylight savings time starts this coming Sunday. The idea is to help keep the majority of people's waking hours (evening, in particular) in sunlight, which requires less artificial light, which saves energy. Not bad for a Republican, it's almost environmentalist.

Unfortunately, your computer may not know that DST has changed. Personal computers and many computerized systems adjust their clocks automatically, taking into consideration the time zone they're in and the DST rules for that particular zone. But the rules have changed, and we need to tell that to computer systems. This time, people are rightly concerned about this much lower profile digital-time change. I've had to scrutinize our workstations, servers, and managed internet devices at work to make sure they'll be ready for the changeover.

If you have Automatic Updates turned on on your computer, chances are you're already fine and dandy. If not, you'll want to have a look at the following:

Microsoft: Update for Windows XP (KB931836) - DST update for Windows XP

DST Update for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

DST Update for Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther)

Linux Users: Hack your system. If lacking in command-prompt skills, panic.

For most of us, this is not a major issue. But it will be interesting to see exactly how many bugs will arise in our highly-digital lifestyle from this under-observed bug.