Comments on: Time zone fix?

Time zone fix?

intermod — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 08:04:53 -0800

TimezonePony .... It's that time of the year again. Instead of showing the false EST/PST/etc standard timezone stamps, can the system be tweaked to either show the correct EDT/PDT/etc, or at least ET/PT/etc? Cue snarks.

By: raedyn

raedyn — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 08:10:26 -0800

Not everywhere uses DST.

(stuborn places in the world REPRESENT!)

By: dersins

dersins — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 08:20:07 -0800

Cue snarks.

What, does your computer not have a down arrow?

/ snark

By: tellurian

tellurian — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 08:20:44 -0800

Is this somehow related to this? What's an EST/PST/EDT/PDT/etc/Cue snarks?

By: tellurian

tellurian — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 08:22:02 -0800

jinx *dersins*

By: tellurian

tellurian — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 08:31:04 -0800

Second prize: narebuc award

By: wakko

wakko — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 08:38:21 -0800

cue sharks

By: cortex

cortex — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 08:52:04 -0800

i snarked your cue btw

By: antifuse

antifuse — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 08:57:51 -0800

cue cards?

By: 327.ca

327.ca — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:00:23 -0800

queue sparks

By: mathowie

mathowie — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:01:12 -0800

Timezones are a bitch. In the US, people rarely use "EDT, PDT" and you often see "EST, MST, CST, PST" used year-round. If I wanted to be correct about it, I would not only have to code in a switch depending on the date, but keep track of DST for each and every timezone. There are hundreds of exceptions and it's a nightmare to deal with. I chose the easy path and just added hourly offsets from GMT.

By: antifuse

antifuse — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:04:11 -0800

The bonus of living in GMT time... it's ALWAYS 0 hours away from GMT... woohoo! :)

By: cillit bang

cillit bang — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:09:49 -0800

Actually during summer Ireland is GMT+1

By: cortex

cortex — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:10:01 -0800

yeah but what about GDT omg

By: antifuse

antifuse — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:11:40 -0800

Hrmm... then I spent 6 months not noticing that the time on the site was an hour off... how bout that!

By: cillit bang

cillit bang — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:15:32 -0800

During summer on MeFi "GMT" is really GMT+1, so it all works out Except last week when Ireland was already on GMT+1 but MeFi GMT hadn't changed to being GMT+1 yet

By: Sprout the Vulgarian

Sprout the Vulgarian — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:16:22 -0800

Okay, but what about next year, when Daylight Savings Time in the U.S. is for seven months of the year? That means the timestamp will be off by an hour for most people more often than it's accurate. Perhaps it would be better in 2007 to use EDT year-round instead of EST?

(Thanks for leaving the thread open, btw.)

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:26:03 -0800

Even if there is no fix to handle time zones properly, the 'S' should be dropped.

In the US, people rarely use "EDT, PDT" and you often see "EST, MST, CST, PST" used year-round.

If Bobby jumped off the CN Tower would you jump too?

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:46:45 -0800

Can't we just switch to internet time?

By: cortex

cortex — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:50:47 -0800

*synchronizes Swatch*

By: mathowie

mathowie — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 10:17:49 -0800

That means the timestamp will be off by an hour for most people more often than it's accurate.

You forget that about 80% of the membership is from the US, so the time will work fine.

By: Sprout the Vulgarian

Sprout the Vulgarian — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 10:52:20 -0800

Oh, ok. I had it backwards, I think. I assumed that where this page refers to the time from April-October as "Daylight Time", that that's what "EDT" meant, and that "EST" was the time from Nov-March. I take it all back.

by the way, cortex, I think Chuckles would prefer that you *ynchronize watch*.

By: cortex

cortex — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 10:54:28 -0800

Touche.

By: Zozo

Zozo — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 10:56:05 -0800

Is this something you'd need to be able to tell time to understand?

By: grouse

grouse — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 12:35:05 -0800

I assumed that where this page refers to the time from April-October as "Daylight Time", that that's what "EDT" meant, and that "EST" was the time from Nov-March.

That's all correct. If you live in the timezone on the eastern seaboard of the U.S.

By: moift

moift — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 17:21:17 -0800

petition to change December to Diosember

By: veronitron

veronitron — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 17:38:08 -0800

Moiftoberfest.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 18:05:17 -0800

Just drop the S for standard, year-round.

By: intermod

intermod — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 09:35:14 -0800

Yes, what Eideteker said. mathowie, you don't need to bother with the daylight calc (which is indeed the path to madness), just drop the S ...

By: grouse

grouse — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 10:46:27 -0800

That makes a lot of sense. I think that's what CNN does IIRC to avoid confusing people who don't know what EDT means.