Text 16978, 176 rader
Skriven 2007-03-10 12:01:06 av Robert Comer (1:379/45)
  Kommentar till text 16864 av Rich Gauszka (1:379/45)
Ärende: Re: Microsoft Customers Irate over Daylight-Saving Time Woes
====================================================================
From: "Robert Comer" <bobcomer@mindspring.com>

That too.  idiots doing busywork to make it appear like they're working, when
in fact, they're only causing more work.

--
Bob Comer


"Rich Gauszka" <gauszka@dontspamhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:45f2caac@w3.nls.net...
> The customers should be irate with the critters in Congress for changing
> the DST as there was no absolutely no need to do it
>
>
> "mike" <mike@barkto.com> wrote in message
> news:ush5v2thgl0arjjfabinrg0ufq5mts5bij@4ax.com...
>>
>> http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2102366,00.asp
>>
>> ===
>> The extension of daylight-saving time by a month in the United States is
>> causing enormous grief for some IT administrators running Microsoft
>> software, as many of the software programs running on their users'
>> systems need to be individually patched to reflect the change.
>>
>> This year, DST (daylight-saving time) starts on Sunday, March 11-three
>> weeks earlier than usual-and ends a week later than usual on Nov. 4.
>>
>> Microsoft has been warning customers that unless certain updates are
>> applied to their computers, the time zone settings for their system
>> clock may be incorrect during this four-week period.
>>
>> "In particular, you must make sure that both your Windows operating
>> system and your calendar programs are updated," the company said on its
>> support site.
>>
>> In an acknowledgement of the seriousness of the DST change and the
>> problems being experienced by its customers, at 5 a.m. PT on March 8
>> Microsoft opened its DST Support Central Site, a series of sites in
>> Redmond, North Carolina, Las Colinas and in India, where 24-hour support
>> is provided for customers who run into escalations.
>>
>> "I have been here [in Redmond] all day long, and I have seen very few
>> escalations come through from our field. But it is early, so we may see
>> more tomorrow and the next day. But today we have not been flooded with
>> requests for information and guidance or help," M3 Sweatt, the chief of
>> staff for the Windows Core Operating System Development Group, told
>> eWEEK.
>>
>> But, that being said, Microsoft was already working closely with its
>> enterprise customers to ensure they had what they needed.
>>
>> "Some of them are happy, some of them are not. But we are working with
>> them as best we can to make sure we are addressing their issues," he
>> said.
>>
>> As such, the Redmond software maker has also posted a list of the most
>> commonly asked questions it is receiving about DST, which customers can
>> easily search to find the answers to their questions, he said.
>>
>> While Windows Vista, Exchange 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
>> do not require any updates, a host of other products do, including
>> Exchange Server, Outlook, SQL Server Notification Services, Office Live
>> Meeting, Microsoft Entourage, Dynamics CRM, Windows SharePoint Services,
>> Windows Mobile and Windows CE.
>>
>>
>> But some customers are experiencing problems with implementing the
>> patches and getting them to work, and are expressing their frustration
>> and anger in comments on online chat sites.
>>
>> Microsoft's online DST chat room, which the company is currently
>> staffing with technical experts 15 hours a day from 6 a.m. PST to 9 p.m.
>> PST to facilitate the discussion and resolution of issues around DST, is
>> inundated with customers experiencing a myriad of issues with the
>> patches.
>>
>> "This is INSANE. I buy a standard product for 2500 bucks and then I get
>> a note telling me to update it for a problem known for a couple years.
>> And the patch screws up my system. How long will my appointments be
>> shifted? For three weeks now and two weeks at the end of "old" dst?," a
>> post from customer on the Microsoft DST chat said.
>>
>> Is the daylight-saving time change bigger than Y2K? Click here to read
>> more.
>>
>> Another customer experienced similar frustration. "When I try to bring
>> up a calendar date or appointment, the form required to view it is not
>> available. What do I do? Are you getting this error: The form you
>> selected could not be displayed. The form required to view this message
>> cannot be displayed. Contact your administrator?"
>>
>> Microsoft's Sweatt acknowledged that DST updating had been a challenge
>> for customers with a myriad of solutions in their IT shop, whether those
>> be from Microsoft, Sun, IBM or Oracle, and who were now looking to their
>> suppliers for solutions.
>>
>> "One of the things we have been working on closely is to provide them
>> with the solutions they need. If there is an escalation or a customer
>> does not have an answer, they can get through to us, and we are making
>> sure they understand the path to get their answer," he said.
>>
>> But, that being said, Sweatt did admit that there were some areas where
>> Microsoft had been late to provide the solutions that customers needed,
>> specifically some customer updates such as for CRM 3.0.
>>
>> "In those difficult situations we have tried to make sure that we have a
>> dialogue with customers so they understand what the options are. But we
>> haven't run into an issue that I'm aware of where we had
>> incompatibilities with products," he said.
>>
>> "The challenges we have had have largely been with people's
>> understanding of what they should do when. Many customers also found out
>> later that they had other products installed that they may not have been
>> aware of, and this then meant that they had not followed Microsoft's
>> guidance correctly, or were not aware that we had refined our guidance,"
>> Sweatt said.
>>
>> In addition, some customers are having problems accessing the chat room,
>> receiving an error message that states: "There was a problem loading the
>> chat application. Please try again later or use the Contact Us link at
>> the bottom of the page."
>>
>>
>> Making matters worse is the fact that some customers say that
>> Microsoft's phone support is also overwhelmed with callers trying to
>> resolve their DST patch issues, with many users put on hold for hours
>> before actually talking to someone, if they get through at all.
>>
>> But Sweatt disputed this, saying that its logs show that most support
>> calls are initially answered in less than 30 minutes, with more time
>> needed to resolve very technical and complex questions.
>>
>> Those customers with very complex issues were also not being kept
>> waiting on the phone, but were called back when the answer was
>> available, he said.
>>
>> For those customers still running products like Windows 2000, Exchange
>> 2000 or the earlier Exchange 5.5, are no longer in Microsoft mainstream
>> support and are thus not covered under standard support agreements, the
>> situation is even more dire, as it will cost them $4,000 for all the DST
>> updates.
>>
>> While Microsoft's online DST support site notes that DST updates for
>> products in mainstream support are provided at no charge, "those
>> products in extended support require an Extended Hotfix Support
>> Agreement ($4,000 charge for all DST updates). Products out of support
>> are not available without a Custom Support Agreement."
>>
>> Sweatt said that Microsoft was advising customers to first install the
>> operating system patch (931836) on their servers, then on their clients,
>> then rebase their calendar appointments using TZMove (931667) / TZMove
>> update 933146 / Exchange tool 930879) and then to install the Exchange
>> DST patch for CDO (926666).
>>
>> "For those customers who have just recently realized that DST changes
>> this weekend, we are trying to provide them with multiple access
>> points-from online chats to webcasts and phone support-to help answer
>> their questions as quickly as possible," he said.
>> ===
>>
>>
>> I still cannot understand why MS Outlook needs to be patched?  Or other
>> MS applications.  Shouldn't MS Outlook (and other applications) be able
>> to obtain daylight savings info from the underlying OS?  It's not like
>> MS Outlook was written by some obscure software vendor that knows
>> nothing about the intermingling of apps and system software....
>>
>>
>> /m
>
>

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