.
I have a nice Dell laptop which came equipped with Windows 7.
I rarely use Windows 7, but it allows the laptop to be very close
to 'Observatory time' since it syncs up my hardware clock with an
ntp server every time it IS used. I also corrects for daylight
savings time, if allowed a peek at the internet. The hardware
clock in question is set to local Eastern US time. I also set
my Knoppix desktop to local 12-hour am/pm format.

I don't use ntpdate or any other Knoppix time correction.
The consequences of this are two as far as I can tell.
1. The result of a date command will erroneously append UTC to
the otherwise very nearly correct local time.
2. There is a small error, currently about 15 seconds, which I
observe by occasionally checking against the USNO.
See: http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/simpletime.html.

If I wanted to tweak the small error, I could spend a few
minutes with Window 7.
If I wanted to tweak the erroneous UTC, I could use an alias
date="date | sed 's\UTC\EST\'" or date="date | sed 's\UTC\EDT\'"

I rarely find the need to do either.
Nor do I care to disturb my Windows 7 which works ok for what it is.