Re: Time Zones (Was: IBMLink is UP - just kidding)

On Fri, 5 Oct 2007 08:17:03 -0700, Edward Jaffe wrote:

Of course, Shane was referring to the fact that he lives in Australia.
Eastern Time for them is not the same as Eastern Time in the United States.

Worse yet, responding to the OP's plaint, in the Uniform Daylight Time
Act of 1966, the U.S. Congress in its wisdom found it expedient (fewer
other laws would need change) not to define "Daylight Saving Time",
but to redefine Standard Time as an hour faster in the summer than in
the winter:

Linkname: US CODE: Title 15,260a. Advancement of time or changeover dates
URL: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode15/usc_sec_15_00000260---a000-.html

(a) Duration of period; State exemption
During the period commencing at 2 o'clock antemeridian on the first Sunday of April of
each year and ending at 2 o'clock antemeridian on the last Sunday of October of each
year, the standard time of each zone established by sections 261 to 264 of this title,
as modified by section 265 of this title, shall be advanced one hour and such time as
so advanced shall for the purposes of such sections 261 to 264, as so modified, be the
standard time of such zone during such period; ...

... so "Eastern Standard Time" is technically and legally correct, even while
clocks are advanced an hour during the summer.

An immediate consequence was that radio station WWWV which had previously
announced Eastern Standard Time changed to announcing UTC to avoid the
otherwise inevitable confusion.

IMHO, we should either a) make all time-telling devices adjust
themselves automatically -- with some way to keep up with the local
policy changes that will inevitably occur from time-to-time -- like
mainframes do when synchronized with an ETR (notice the on-topic
reference!) -- or b) just *permanently * set the time half-way between
Standard and Daylight Time and call it even!

Expanding on (a), a paradigm shift is required. We must cease thinking
of a time change as a semiannual event requiring, e.g., updating a field
in the CVT. Rather we must think of an algorithm for each locale which
converts any TOD value, either present or historical, to the correct
local time. Such an algorithm would not be changed for the predictable
semiannual perceived events, but be changed only for the unpredictable
local policy changes.

-- gil

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