Hour by hour, minute by minute, U.S. clocks are ticking towards a March 11 deadline that demands I.T. professionals apply special patches to avoid a headache that some have likened to the Y2K scare. In a government attempt to conserve more energy, Daylight Saving Time will go into effect three weeks ahead of the typical springtime change, starting March 11, 2007. As the deadline fast approaches, there is concern that the change may confuse computer programs set to automatically handle DST hours, and every computer system is subject to its impacts.

On the mild side, minor aggravations such as scheduling and calendar errors could occur. On the dramatic side, there is a risk that organizations that don't patch their networks properly could see mission-critical applications fail. >>