Technology is getting more and more complex, but at the same time, amazing technological benefits are available to us average Joes without too much fiddling around. That is what this column will be covering. Every Monday, right here at BloggingStocks.com, I'll feature an easy-to-use hack, gadget or service that really can make your life better. Geeks, technophiles and early adopters have plenty of other places to look for hot new technologies to try. Here you'll find technology for the rest of us.

There's a new computer-based bug in the works that could threaten to cause computers to hiccup slightly here in just a week. It's being called the mini-Y2K, and it has to do with the fact that computers are going to be unprepared for the new daylight savings time shift on the 11th. This means your clock, PDA, computer, laptop, DVR or whatever else has a time-keeping chip in it could be at risk for this blip of a bug.
My first front page story for the student newspaper I worked for in college was a piece I did about Y2K for the campus, going from office to office asking network admins and buildings and grounds personnel who would be affected. At the time the professionals on the ground were un-hysterical, unlike the media and various talking heads.

As I wandered from point to point it became clear that the Y2K problem was a nuisance more than anything else. And indeed, on the day itself, most people were pretty underwhelmed.

What is it?

The bug comes from the fact that a lot of time keeping chips or software code lines know that daylight savings time comes on the first Sunday of April. The code knows to look for it.

If you have just about any modern operating system installed on your computer, you've probably gotten a popup message telling you the computer has set itself to daylight savings time, no need to thank it.

Because these computers expect that to be the date, you may experience devices being confused about what time it really is from March 11th to April 1st. Some information technology people are sounding the alarm that servers could get confused and cause issues with the internet. However patches are being rolled out and people don't seem to be panicking in the halls of IT just yet.

Who is affected:

If you have a computer go ahead and make sure to download any updates available to it, this will probably be covered in there. I just noticed a 'Daylight Savings Time Update' pop up in my software update queue.

On Windows XP you can see instructions on getting the latest update here. On Apple's OS-X it's here.

If you have a PDA, there may be a new patch for you to download to it. Go ahead and check out your manufacturer's page (here for Palm and here for Pocket PC). Your cellphone will probably get the time from a wireless point, so you shouldn't have to worry about it. But if a text message appears to update your cellphone's software, go ahead and make the time to do it.

You should keep an eye on your alarm clock, and certainly your online or computer based calendar (Outlook, Palm) in the unlikely case your computer misses a beat. But seriously, the worse case scenarios that you directly have control over are missed appointments and an hour lost here or there. Hardly a catastrophe.

The worst doomsday scenario, for internet and server troubles, is something IT people will be working on.

More of a whimper...

What is recommended is that you print out your calendar before the 11th so that you can avoid hour confusion as the date change takes affect. This is the official recommendation that is being passed around. This is not a moment to head for the hills with canned goods. It is, however, a great excuse for being late to a meeting you didn't really want to attend.

I have to imagine that fans of paper-based calendars are having a good chuckle at the folks who are now getting their data off their PDAs and Outlook calendars onto paper. But while you're doing this anyway in anticipation of mini-Y2K, you might as well check out some resources on paper based calendars. Pocketmod allows you to create various pocket paper calendars, and who knows, you might just find out that you like some of the work calendar lovers have been doing with their paper calendars.

But if not, check here next week where I'll be going over online calendars and how they've matured into technology for the rest of us.

Tobias Buckell is an author, freelance writer and professional blogger.