4 ms·

> We never changed the actual feed schedule, but just changing the time for daylight savings was so incredibly awkward and contorted we had to summarize the ste

by codeka 14y ago

> We never changed the actual feed schedule, but just changing the time for daylight savings was so incredibly awkward and contorted we had to summarize the steps from the manual on a separate piece of paper as a "cheat sheet" Not really related to the point, but should you be adjusting the time for daylight savings at all? I mean, the cats don't care about the arbitrary 24 hours we humans use to divide up the day, so wouldn't adjusting the time for daylight saving just seem like an arbitrary change for no good reason to a cat?

guynamedloren 14y ago
Ha, this is interesting! Didn't even cross my mind, but makes a lot of sense.
terenceponce 14y ago
I'm pretty sure you meant to say that in a serious tone, but I couldn't help but laugh because cats.
Produce 14y ago
I'm not a cat and it still seems like an arbitrary change.
- keithpeter 14y ago
  I am not a cat either, but I do live 52.5 degrees North and quite often visit 57.5 degrees North. Daylight saving is not arbitrary for daylight liking non-cats
  - duncanj 14y ago
    But daylight saving occurs during the time when you already have more daylight than the vast majority of habitable landmass does. You aren't "saving" daylight at all during the daylight poor months when you're inside at work during the entire daylight period.
    - keithpeter 14y ago
      Up here its British Summer Time and then just UT in the winter. The phrase 'daylight saving' is not used here. http://www.polyomino.org.uk/british-time/ http://www.polyomino.org.uk/british-time/ Besides, we have large windows.
lifeisstillgood 14y ago
If your cats sit on your head at 5am to remind you to feed them, then if your auto-feeder thinks 5am is another hour off, your cats will not. they will howl and sit on your head, only now its 4am. Arbitrary change or not, at 4 am cat on face always wins
- rory096 14y ago
  Except the point with the 5am bit was that the cats no longer directly associate the author with food (and vice versa), so the cats don't sit on his face at all; they'll just get angry at the feeders.
espeed 14y ago
That's exactly what I was thinking. And the feeding schedule is at 8am so it's not clear how the 5am/4am thing plays out.
alister 14y ago
In the spirit of the OP's point about tiny details, I can offer you two reasons why setting DST matters: (1) I want my cats to be fed just before I go to sleep so the cats have the maximal period of full belly when I go to bed. I go to bed at 11:00 pm. Keep in mind that I observe DST changes for myself. But if I never adjust the feeder for standard/daylight time, then either the cats will be hungry until the midnight feeding or they'll be fed an hour early at 10:00 pm. In either case, they are more likely to wake me up for food during the night. (2) The cat feeder is in my bedroom and since I have it set to feed the cats just before bedtime, I don't want it making noise an hour after I fall asleep. That's what would happen when I've switched to daylight time but the feeder hasn't. The point is that there can be legitimate reasons why you'd care about a DST adjustment even if your cats don't.

by codeka 14y ago

guynamedloren 14y ago

Ha, this is interesting! Didn't even cross my mind, but makes a lot of sense.

terenceponce 14y ago

I'm pretty sure you meant to say that in a serious tone, but I couldn't help but laugh because cats.

Produce 14y ago

I'm not a cat and it still seems like an arbitrary change.

keithpeter 14y ago
I am not a cat either, but I do live 52.5 degrees North and quite often visit 57.5 degrees North. Daylight saving is not arbitrary for daylight liking non-cats
- duncanj 14y ago
  But daylight saving occurs during the time when you already have more daylight than the vast majority of habitable landmass does. You aren't "saving" daylight at all during the daylight poor months when you're inside at work during the entire daylight period.
  - keithpeter 14y ago
    Up here its British Summer Time and then just UT in the winter. The phrase 'daylight saving' is not used here. http://www.polyomino.org.uk/british-time/ http://www.polyomino.org.uk/british-time/ Besides, we have large windows.

lifeisstillgood 14y ago

If your cats sit on your head at 5am to remind you to feed them, then if your auto-feeder thinks 5am is another hour off, your cats will not. they will howl and sit on your head, only now its 4am. Arbitrary change or not, at 4 am cat on face always wins

rory096 14y ago
Except the point with the 5am bit was that the cats no longer directly associate the author with food (and vice versa), so the cats don't sit on his face at all; they'll just get angry at the feeders.

espeed 14y ago

That's exactly what I was thinking. And the feeding schedule is at 8am so it's not clear how the 5am/4am thing plays out.

alister 14y ago

In the spirit of the OP's point about tiny details, I can offer you two reasons why setting DST matters: (1) I want my cats to be fed just before I go to sleep so the cats have the maximal period of full belly when I go to bed. I go to bed at 11:00 pm. Keep in mind that I observe DST changes for myself. But if I never adjust the feeder for standard/daylight time, then either the cats will be hungry until the midnight feeding or they'll be fed an hour early at 10:00 pm. In either case, they are more likely to wake me up for food during the night. (2) The cat feeder is in my bedroom and since I have it set to feed the cats just before bedtime, I don't want it making noise an hour after I fall asleep. That's what would happen when I've switched to daylight time but the feeder hasn't. The point is that there can be legitimate reasons why you'd care about a DST adjustment even if your cats don't.