Time Zone Problem April 4, 2006 12:12 AM Subscribe
Why is the time wrong, as I view it? Sitting here on the Australian east coast, it's 5:10 pm, or UTC + 10, which is how my preferences are set. So what's the Metafilter setting, where's it gone wrong?
Yeah, I'm in Sydney and I'm on UTC+9 (Japan Time) to make it right.
posted by tellurian at 12:35 AM on April 4, 2006
posted by tellurian at 12:35 AM on April 4, 2006
Well technically it only suggests places and what you're actually choosing on the preferences page is offsets to UTC. So it's not supposed to adjust based on daylight savings.
(well except when daylight savings affect UTC... if that happens?)
posted by holloway at 1:26 AM on April 4, 2006
(well except when daylight savings affect UTC... if that happens?)
posted by holloway at 1:26 AM on April 4, 2006
Normally, UTC is universal and doesn't change with the seasons.
One Metafilter, "UTC" changes when America switches to DST, which doesn't work well if you're in the southern hemisphere or a country that doesn't do DST (or does it on different dates).
posted by cillit bang at 2:03 AM on April 4, 2006
One Metafilter, "UTC" changes when America switches to DST, which doesn't work well if you're in the southern hemisphere or a country that doesn't do DST (or does it on different dates).
posted by cillit bang at 2:03 AM on April 4, 2006
I still don't understand, so what should I choose? I'm obviously not in Japan but it works for me. I had to disable all of my automagically updated networked machines at work when it changed daylights saving because of the Commonwealth Games by one week (what happened there, I'm still not sure why it was necessary)?
posted by tellurian at 6:47 AM on April 4, 2006
posted by tellurian at 6:47 AM on April 4, 2006
Just change the offset until it shows the right time for you. You'll have to change it again when your country or America switches DST on or off.
posted by cillit bang at 6:52 AM on April 4, 2006
posted by cillit bang at 6:52 AM on April 4, 2006
Can you imagine one day in the future when you on your computer can communicate and synchronise with another person and their computer and it will be clear to both of you via your computers what time it is?
posted by tellurian at 8:07 AM on April 4, 2006
posted by tellurian at 8:07 AM on April 4, 2006
One solution would be for the time zone drop-down to just say "pick what time it is". And then list all the offsets.
posted by smackfu at 8:31 AM on April 4, 2006
posted by smackfu at 8:31 AM on April 4, 2006
I put in hours off GMT and called it "timezones" here but the server does go through savings time and shift twice a year, but it would be a nightmare to keep track of all the timezone shifts per country and per section of country, and the date they switch back and forth (including those that don't switch).
Timezones are a bitch, and what you see is a ugly hack that works for most users.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:02 AM on April 4, 2006
Timezones are a bitch, and what you see is a ugly hack that works for most users.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:02 AM on April 4, 2006
out of curiousity, has anyone ever capitalized on the time-shift present in the yearly end-of-DST 1-2am do-over? How does the site deal with that?
posted by cortex at 9:26 AM on April 4, 2006
posted by cortex at 9:26 AM on April 4, 2006
out of curiousity, has anyone ever capitalized on the time-shift present in the yearly end-of-DST 1-2am do-over?
Every year when I'm in a bar with a 2:30AM last call.
posted by dersins at 9:38 AM on April 4, 2006
Every year when I'm in a bar with a 2:30AM last call.
posted by dersins at 9:38 AM on April 4, 2006
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posted by scodger at 12:25 AM on April 4, 2006