Daylight Saving Time sorta sneaks up on us this year — a week later than usual, AKA this coming weekend. That’s causing problems for software and (especially) electronics that are on the old schedule:

It’s devices that aren’t connected to a wired or wireless network — including many wrist watches, alarm clocks and VCRs — that need extra attention. These often are the devices that need to be reset after a power outage, said Jenny Pareti, spokeswoman for [the Consumer Electronics Association].

“Anything that isn’t connected to a network or a broadcast source will need to be manually reset,” she said. If the product was made before August 2005 and it uses an internal calendar, owners should disable the daylight saving time feature and/or change the time manually, according to the group.

To me, this indicates that manufacturers of digital clocks and the like are due for a healthy spike in sales, as people junk their outmoded, non-patchable devices rather than put up with the hassle.

And that’s just one of the tangible business benefits of DST:

Of course, the candy manufacturers are likely happy about the change too, [Tufts University professor Michael] Downing said.

“They’ve been pushing for it for 30 years,” he said, adding that candy manufacturers think they’d be able to profit enormously if kids stay out an extra hour trick-or-treating.

It’s a possibility: When a month of daylight saving time was added in the 1980s, both the barbeque industry and the golf industry saw increases in sales due to the extra hours of light people had after work, Downing said.

So I guess this is all grist for the mill for those clock-conspiracy theorists out there.