Time for the Biannual Timezone Offset Shuffle October 26, 2013 11:15 AM Subscribe
Daylight saving time is coming to end in Europe tonight. It is not coming to end in the US until next week. This means that if you live in a country that is doing the switch tonight, and you want posts and comments to show up in the correct local time, you'll need to adjust your site preferences.
To do that, click Preferences at the top of any page and scroll down to the last option in Display Settings. Check the text that shows current server time and your preferences time and make sure your preference time is correct. If not, adjust the offset and save. Then check again to make sure it's correct.
Then you'll need to set your offset back next week when the US catches up. Or you can leave things an hour off for a week.
Because we store dates and times in US Pacific Time, they shift as daylight saving time shifts in the Pacific timezone. We plan to move to storing dates as UTC and gathering timezones in preferences instead of offsets but we haven't made that move yet.
If you're in the US and your area observes daylight saving time you won't need to make any changes at any point. If your area doesn't observe DST, you'll need to change your offset next week.
If you want to look up when and if your country observes DST, here's a handy chart of Daylight Saving Time Around the World 2013.
DST shifts are already a pain and we apologize for adding to the hassle.
To do that, click Preferences at the top of any page and scroll down to the last option in Display Settings. Check the text that shows current server time and your preferences time and make sure your preference time is correct. If not, adjust the offset and save. Then check again to make sure it's correct.
Then you'll need to set your offset back next week when the US catches up. Or you can leave things an hour off for a week.
Because we store dates and times in US Pacific Time, they shift as daylight saving time shifts in the Pacific timezone. We plan to move to storing dates as UTC and gathering timezones in preferences instead of offsets but we haven't made that move yet.
If you're in the US and your area observes daylight saving time you won't need to make any changes at any point. If your area doesn't observe DST, you'll need to change your offset next week.
If you want to look up when and if your country observes DST, here's a handy chart of Daylight Saving Time Around the World 2013.
DST shifts are already a pain and we apologize for adding to the hassle.
Just a minor thing, but it's tomorrow night, not tonight.
Oh, actually, no it isn't. My brain's still on Friday...
As you were.
posted by pipeski at 11:26 AM on October 26, 2013
Oh, actually, no it isn't. My brain's still on Friday...
As you were.
posted by pipeski at 11:26 AM on October 26, 2013
Man, time is hard. I learned a few months ago that if you had started a 1 Hz counter on Midnight UTC Jan 1 1970 you would not in fact have the Unix timestamp, on account of it skips leap seconds.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 11:31 AM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 11:31 AM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
Basically what you're saying is:
KEEP BEING LOGGED IN
AND
CARRY ON
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:33 AM on October 26, 2013
KEEP BEING LOGGED IN
AND
CARRY ON
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:33 AM on October 26, 2013
I DON'T APPROVE OF MESSING WITH THE TIME LINE LIKE THIS. DOES YOUR WIZARDARDY KNOW NO BOUNDS?
posted by The Whelk at 11:45 AM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by The Whelk at 11:45 AM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
Rats, I forgot I was reading the grey. I thought I was about to learn about some bit of astronomical magic, a weird techno-cult festival, or near collapse of stock markets that happens once or twice a year. So here's Mr Grey on daylight saving time.
posted by K.P. at 11:47 AM on October 26, 2013
posted by K.P. at 11:47 AM on October 26, 2013
you would not in fact have the Unix timestamp, on account of it skips leap seconds.
IS NOTHING SACRED?!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:01 PM on October 26, 2013 [7 favorites]
IS NOTHING SACRED?!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:01 PM on October 26, 2013 [7 favorites]
MetaFilter should just succeed from all time and form MetaFilter Standard Time Keeping (MFSTK, pronounced meef-stick). The basic unit of time would be the quip, determined by the mean time for writing a comment, quips would be collected into rows, which would be collected into tiffs. I am sure everyone will embrace this eminently sensible solution to the problem.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:52 PM on October 26, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:52 PM on October 26, 2013 [4 favorites]
I weirdly had thought that DST had already ended. But just this morning I was puzzled why it was so thoroughly dark at 7AM, so that should have been a clue.
I pretty much don't have any timekeeping devices that don't automatically adjust their time themselves, so I pay less attention to this than I used to. I've been asleep during the switch in the past and all my clocks changed themselves while I slept, and I didn't realize that I'd not gotten the amount of sleep I'd thought until later.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 1:14 PM on October 26, 2013
I pretty much don't have any timekeeping devices that don't automatically adjust their time themselves, so I pay less attention to this than I used to. I've been asleep during the switch in the past and all my clocks changed themselves while I slept, and I didn't realize that I'd not gotten the amount of sleep I'd thought until later.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 1:14 PM on October 26, 2013
The transition to and from DST used to be so much simpler when clocks didn't change until you manually adjusted them. Now, half of my clocks (computer, phone) change on their own, and the other half still has to be adjusted. This makes for a quite confusing Sunday morning with multiple 'hey, wait, was this adjusted already? What clock is right? WHAT TIME IS IT?"
posted by Ms. Next at 1:41 PM on October 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Ms. Next at 1:41 PM on October 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
MetaFilter users in the UK need not bother, as the screaming media have relentlessly told us the last few days we're all going to be blown or washed away during Sunday night.
So long, happy Americans. We loved you and your 1001 things you did with a deep fryer, even though you never really finished that epic sulk you started in 1776.
posted by Wordshore at 2:20 PM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
So long, happy Americans. We loved you and your 1001 things you did with a deep fryer, even though you never really finished that epic sulk you started in 1776.
posted by Wordshore at 2:20 PM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
I think we finished it in 1812.
posted by double block and bleed at 3:55 PM on October 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by double block and bleed at 3:55 PM on October 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
The US collectively doesn't really sulk. We're more like an erratic drunk: alternately ebullient, weepy, and belligerent.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:40 PM on October 26, 2013 [6 favorites]
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:40 PM on October 26, 2013 [6 favorites]
pronounced meef-stick
I believe you meant "mehf-stique."
posted by Ghidorah at 5:09 PM on October 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
I believe you meant "mehf-stique."
posted by Ghidorah at 5:09 PM on October 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
It's 1:30am here in Ye Olde Englande, so in the middle of the first iteration of that weird hour that will repeat itself in 30 minutes. Am sure I'm supposed to say some kind of incantation at this point. Or, something.
posted by Wordshore at 5:30 PM on October 26, 2013
posted by Wordshore at 5:30 PM on October 26, 2013
double block and bleed: "I think we finished it in 1812."
Ooh, sick burn!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:08 PM on October 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
Ooh, sick burn!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:08 PM on October 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
The US collectively doesn't really sulk. We're more like an erratic drunk: alternately ebullient, weepy, and belligerent.
I was just at a John Oliver standup gig and he said the most American thing he'd seen was a minor league baseball team hitting home runs off the deck of an aircraft carrier where the balls were being chased by people on jet skis because fuck you, that's why and I really couldn't think of anything more American than pointlessly hitting baseballs into the ocean from the deck of a warship where people riding jetskis chased them for souvenirs.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 7:15 PM on October 26, 2013 [14 favorites]
I was just at a John Oliver standup gig and he said the most American thing he'd seen was a minor league baseball team hitting home runs off the deck of an aircraft carrier where the balls were being chased by people on jet skis because fuck you, that's why and I really couldn't think of anything more American than pointlessly hitting baseballs into the ocean from the deck of a warship where people riding jetskis chased them for souvenirs.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 7:15 PM on October 26, 2013 [14 favorites]
(MFSTK, pronounced meef-stick)
Meefsteak, surely.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:29 PM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
Meefsteak, surely.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:29 PM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
I have wondered for years why those who want an extra hour of daylight in summer could not just quietly get up an hour early and leave the rest of us alone.
Because then the trains would be impossible to schedule.
posted by axiom at 8:48 PM on October 26, 2013
Because then the trains would be impossible to schedule.
posted by axiom at 8:48 PM on October 26, 2013
Daylight Savings Time annoys me endlessly. Resetting half my clocks as above, but also that as a shift worker, my daylight hours are largely unaffected by it and my sleeping habits are erratic enough already, thank you.
posted by RainyJay at 10:45 PM on October 26, 2013
posted by RainyJay at 10:45 PM on October 26, 2013
I just now realised that this place doesn't run on Greenwich time, as the Lords of the Admiralty intended, but on some weird Pacifist time that is eight hours behind. I have adjusted my settings and lost an entire working day. Who is going to give it back I ask rhetorically. No wonder the world is the place it is.
(signed) Disgusted, Melbourne.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:41 AM on October 27, 2013
(signed) Disgusted, Melbourne.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:41 AM on October 27, 2013
I just now realised that this place doesn't run on Greenwich time, as the Lords of the Admiralty intended, but on some weird Pacifist time that is eight hours behind.
Indeed you are correct, Sir; I was initially perplexed that MetaFilter manages to function eight hours behind on Portland Hipster Time, rather than Motherland Proper Time as Cthulhu, nature and Boadicea intended. It pleasures me that this aberration will soon be rectified by our enthusiastic cousins in the Western Colonies. God save the Queen.
posted by Wordshore at 2:53 AM on October 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
Indeed you are correct, Sir; I was initially perplexed that MetaFilter manages to function eight hours behind on Portland Hipster Time, rather than Motherland Proper Time as Cthulhu, nature and Boadicea intended. It pleasures me that this aberration will soon be rectified by our enthusiastic cousins in the Western Colonies. God save the Queen.
posted by Wordshore at 2:53 AM on October 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'm in England for work, and today found that the underside of the clock in the hotel room has a switch for DST! Surprisingly convenient!
Except the two settings are +1 and -1, which is quite clear from a UI point of view, but it annoys the pedant in me.
posted by aubilenon at 11:49 AM on October 27, 2013 [2 favorites]
Except the two settings are +1 and -1, which is quite clear from a UI point of view, but it annoys the pedant in me.
posted by aubilenon at 11:49 AM on October 27, 2013 [2 favorites]
Let's just give everything a timestamp in seconds-since-MetaFilter-went-live and be done with it.
posted by 256 at 8:48 PM on October 27, 2013
posted by 256 at 8:48 PM on October 27, 2013
What happens when there's a leap second?
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:22 PM on October 27, 2013
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:22 PM on October 27, 2013
Joe in Australia: "What happens when there's a leap second?"
MFT is like TAI, it doesn't leap, it just is.
posted by wierdo at 11:17 PM on October 27, 2013
MFT is like TAI, it doesn't leap, it just is.
posted by wierdo at 11:17 PM on October 27, 2013
What happens when there's a leap second?
That's when the Langoliers arrive.
posted by painquale at 10:28 AM on October 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
That's when the Langoliers arrive.
posted by painquale at 10:28 AM on October 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
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posted by Cranberry at 11:20 AM on October 26, 2013 [21 favorites]