We should go to global UTC. One time all the time.
this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
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It was recommended multiple times in history, the problem is that it doesn't really solve any problems, just moves the problems elsewhere:
- At some parts of the world "midnight" (the time when the day changes) will be during the "day". Would you like that you have to use a different calendar date at the morning and at the evening? It also makes much harder to check if something happened one or 2 days ago by simply checking the date, you would have to know the new UTC time as well
- You still would have to know how far they are from you to set up an international call. Some people wake up at 2:00 UTC, some wake up at 16:00 UTC. So actually nothing solved, but you have to use different numbers instead of time zone names.
- Time in China works like that, you can already see how it's going there. Full of China is one time zone, on its western border if you would cross to Afghanistan you would have to set your clock 4 and half hours backward. In Xinjiang solar noon is around 15:00 (3 pm). How people live like this? They simply use different timetables, 9-5 job is something like 11-7. So even it doesn't have a separate time zone people live like they would have a separate time zone.
- Swatch Internet Time was a well known example of this in the late 90s, you can read the general problems with it on wiki
I'm in favor of global UTC, but the first argument is a really good one that I never saw before. You're leading me to reconsider.
Another potential solution to the mess of timezones does not work, shit.
Why is it a mess? I know from a programmer's point of view it is, I've seen the Tom Scott video a lot of times, but for average people it doesn't really matter.
Update to the video: they decided that they won't add a new leap second at least until 2035, and there are plans to switch to leap minutes instead, and sync to the astronomical clock once every century only.
Where it matters, e.g. international flight, they already use UTC for everything. How they solve this problem behind the scenes shouldn't affect the everyday lives of people. Computers use binary but we still use decimal system and noone want to change the numbering system. In a lot of places people use 12 hour clock in speech, but 24 hour in written form, and noone has problem with that. I don't understand why we should change it just because of the laziness of some programmers.
Plus you lose all of the cross-cultural understanding that's currently built into the time. The concept of what the number on the clock is and how that relates to the actual time of day has dozens if not hundreds of tiny bits of additional understanding baked into it depending on the situation.
In order to communicate these ideas, people would start referring to their local offset instead of the UTC and then we're just back at time zones again.
I keep arguing for this but everybody thinks I'm crazy. They say stupid stuff like but what time would school start kids would be getting up at 8:00 a.m. and it could be the middle of the night.
I'm onboard with this!
I think the author of this just hates Uncle Steve. If you cared about your uncle in Australia you'd know when it's best to call them.
I just had to coordinate an online meeting with some guy at a company, I had no idea where he's based but he suggested time slots in EST (I'm in Toronto). I asked him twice if he's sure, thinking he may be based outside of North America and doesn't know that Toronto currently follows EDT which is GMT-4h, and he just responded "Eastern Standard Time".
And of course he actually meant EDT. Turns out he is based in North America, just dumb.
Fuck timezones, but more than that fuck daylight saving time. You want an extra hour of sunshine after work in summer? Shift the work schedule, not the fucking clock!
Always, always, decide on a time zone that matches the clock above the CEOs desk at the company buying the service.
You're selling boats? Customer's wall clock. You're talking with azure support because your bill has some bloated charges? You better believe your clock is the only one that counts. The highest ranking person in the entity forking over cash has control over time zones and fuck everyone else.
The next time I ask Siri anything, she better just tell me the time in Atlanta even if I ask for anything else.
Do not ask for the time zone, ask for the city. Than use a tool for the task. People are stupid, and they don't necessarily know the name of their time zone, even during DST.
I used website this before, you just type the city names and it will show you which time is good for which participant: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html But I'm pretty sure a lot other websites exist to solve this.
The problem in your story was not time zones, but you didn't use the correct tool for the task.
It's not me who didn't use a tool, it was the other guy.
You should have confirmed in GMT, and then you could both convert it to whatever your local time is.
I just want sunrise to be as close to 8am in each timezone, no matter what part of the year. Let dusk come sooner or later, but I hate sunrise at 5am.
IIRC, Newfoundland is half an hour different from EDT.
Neat!
Now adjust for mountains.