Notes from the Desk Fix your own clocks, Helpdesk

Author: Tom Brant

Do you ever get the feeling that time is moving really slowly? I do. All the time. That's why I figured that there was nothing out of the ordinary when I finished my midterm essay last Wednesday at 11:45 p.m., according to the clock on my library computer. I figured that I had been typing so furiously in my cubicle on the second floor that I had somehow warped the passage of time into slow motion. Hey, anything's possible.

But then I heard that voice over the loudspeaker that all Midd night owls dread: "The library will be closing in fifteen minutes."

Wait. What? The computer says it's only 11:45! But then I checked the clock on my cell phone and discovered that it was actually 12:45 a.m. That's right: four days after the beginning of daylight savings time, the folks at LIS still hadn't gotten around to changing the computer clocks. Four days. No wonder my classes were empty on Monday and Tuesday. People were probably blissfully typing away, unaware that the clock at the bottom of their screen was about as accurate as Dick Cheney shooting a gun.

What's worse is that the LIS helpdesk sent out an e-mail on March 5 reminding students about the new daylight saving time. The e-mail warns students that if they don't change the clocks on their personal computers, they might miss important appointments. Duh.

Come on, Helpdesk, get your act together. If you can remember to tell us to change our clocks, you can change yours too. And complicated server clock upgrades aren't an excuse, because changing a computer clock by hand isn't that time consuming. We know, because you told us to do it. Middlebury students may be smart, but if we don't know what time it is when we're in the library, we'll never get anywhere.

Tom Brant is a first-year and News Editor from Portland, Ore.