I haven’t stepped up on the soapbox lately so I thought I’d do a re-run of my editorial on Daylight Savings Time. It gets dark early now that we have set the clocks back and the roosters here in Key West are up an hour earlier, too.

p(. Spring ahead, fall behind–it is that time of year again when we revert to “standard” time. Even the dogs don’t want to get out of bed until the sun makes it way over the horizon. I hate waking up the rooster when I let the dogs out!

p(. I guess I’ll go out on a limb here and use this week’s soapbox to discuss Daylight Saving Time and why I think it might be a good idea to eliminate “standard” time and just stay with the same time all year around. Why did daylight saving time (DST) start, and why does it still continue?

p(. Daylight saving time began in the United States during World War I, primarily to save fuel by reducing the need to use artificial lighting. Although some states and communities observed daylight saving time between the wars, it was not observed nationally again until World War II.

p(. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 provided the basic framework for alternating between daylight saving time and standard time, which we now observe in the United States. But Congress can’t seem to resist tinkering with it. For example, in 1973 daylight saving time was observed all year, instead of just the spring and summer.

p(. The earliest known reference to the idea of daylight saving time comes from a purely whimsical 1784 essay by Benjamin Franklin, called “Turkey versus Eagle, McCauley is my Beagle.”

p(. Over the years, supporters have advanced new reasons in support of DST, even though they were not the original reasons behind enacting DST. One is safety. Some people believe that if we have more daylight at the end of the day, we will have fewer accidents.

p(. In fact, this “benefit” comes only at the cost of less daylight in the morning. When year-round daylight time was tried in 1973, one reason it was repealed was because of an increased number of school bus accidents in the morning.

p(. Eastern standard time is the same as Central daylight time and Mountain standard time is the same as Pacific daylight time. So maybe it would be a good idea to have the Pacific and Central time zones remain on permanent daylight saving time, and the Mountain and Eastern time zones remain on permanent standard time.

p(. In addition to releasing us from the burden of having to reset our clocks every few months, this will also reduce the number of time zones in the United States from four to two. For example, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Dallas would all be operating on the same time, and people would no longer have to adjust to different time zones when they do business or travel between any of these cities. Furthermore, people traveling or doing business between the East and West coasts will only have a two-hour time difference to contend with, instead of the three hour difference with which we are currently burdened.

How do you feel about changing your clocks twice a year? You can share your opinion at the Small Dog blog – “**blog.smalldog.com**”:http://blog.smalldog.com.

I was lucky enough to snag one of the new Apple TVs before I took the long drive down here to the Keys and I had a chance to set it up and start playing and watching this week. My first priority was to get the NBA Team Pass set up so that I could watch the Celtics’ opening game. With the old Apple TV all the Apps or Channels were present unless you made them go away. The default with the new Apple TV is that only the basics are present when you first plug it in, i.e. Apple’s apps like iTunes Movies, iTunes TV Shows, Music, Photos, Computer, Settings and the App Store.

I went to the App store and after signing in with my Apple ID I was able to easily locate the NBA App and download it. Once I signed in with my NBA Team Pass credentials I was able to watch the game. During time-outs I downloaded a bunch of other apps, too. Some of them you are familiar with if you have used an Apple TV in the past, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, Showtime anytime as well as CNN, CBS, ABC and others. The App store, for now, shows only featured apps so if you really want to explore you need to use the search function. There are a bunch of new apps out there especially games and for some reason a ton of “fireplace” apps. I know, you want a nice crackling fire so you can imagine you are cuddled up in Vermont. Somehow a 1080p fireplace just ain’t the same.

With all of the new apps sorting them is the same as the old Apple TV. If you select and hold the remote button down, they will start to wiggle and you can move them around. One of the first improvements I would recommend to Apple for the tvOS is to allow iOS-type folders so that you can clean up the screen and more easily find what you are looking for. Games are fun but I think Grace is getting tired of all the car crashes and casino-like sounds coming out of the Sonos set-up on my TV. I do think that this new Apple TV is going to be a great gaming platform, especially with apps that take advantage of the internet connection so you can play against people all over the world.

The new AppleTV remote is fantastic. The top third is a touch sensitive trackpad and while it took a little getting used to, navigation is much easier. The motion sensor on the trackpad allows game action and I have gotten pretty good at one of the bowling games, although I did knock over my iced tea with one twist of my wrist. If you get enthusiastic with the remote, I do recommend that you invest in one of Apple’s remote loops that plugs into the lightning port and holds the remote to your wrist. Siri on the remote works for some functions and is especially useful in searching for content. I asked it to find all the David Lynch movies and within seconds Eraserhead, Wild at Heart, Dune and Twin Peaks popped up.

It would be nice if Apple had a new Remote App for your iPhone and Apple Watch that could control the new Apple TV but I guess that is coming sometime later. The new search text entry is a bit laborious. Instead of the grid keyboard that we are all used to, letters are strung out in a single line and you swipe back and forth to enter text. It is not very user friendly. I’ll have to see how Siri does in searching for stuff so maybe I will only need that to enter my Apple ID every now and then.

I have really just scratched the surface but I am a fan. I know it is a “first release” of the tvOS and there is a lot of room for improvement and enhancement but I do think the new Apple TV is a game changer and will lead to cable cutting as Apple makes deals for more content. In my very limited sampling, we are using Apple TV for content about 70% of the time and cable about 30%.

Halloween is over and the big party down here has ended. Up in Vermont it is stick season and the leaf peepers have gone and the skiers are not quite ready to hit the slopes. The weather has been warm and I miss my late season motorcycling in the Green Mountains. We are between seasons a bit here in Key West as the snow birds (yeah, that’s me) are just beginning to arrive and the tourist season won’t get into full swing for a few more weeks. I have a bunch of maintenance to do here, my deck seems a bit squishy so I have to tear it up and shore it up a bit.

I am ordering a big Bernie 2016 sign to put outside so we bring a bit of the Bern to the Keys.

Thank for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

_Don, Dean, Scott_