Times on the Watch.

[peter]

When I make a post it gives the UK time that I posted at the top. If I go to earlier posts by other people they also have times on them, but are those times also in UK time or are they in the time of the particular time-zone they were posted in? I could probably work this out for myself but it's 5.20 in the morning fer Christ's sake! .

[Avatar]

You see all times according to your time zone setting in your profile.

--A

[wayfriend]

The usual way these things work, peter, is that when the post is stored in the database, the time of the post is converted to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). This is basically the same as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Then, when it's displayed in your browser, the time is rendered according to the time zone configured on your computer. (Your browser has lots of smarts like that.) Everyone sees the time relative to themselves.

So there's a time conversion going in, and a time conversion coming back out.

[Hobbes]

Even a broken Watch will tell the right time twice a day.

[peter]

Thanks guys. It had to be that really because otherwise the times would have been all over the place .

[wayfriend]

Times are all over the place, peter!

[peter]

So it would seem WF!

[Sorus]

GMT still auto-translates to Galactic Midnight Time in my head. Greenwich Mean Time sounds like something that lurks under the bed and bites toes.

[Avatar]

I know UTC is the new standard name, but I still automatically think GMT when I think of time. Somewhere I have a pic of myself standing astride the Greenwich Meridian.

My browser/profile shows me all posts as GMT on the Watch, so the board doesn't do any converting for me.

--A

[sgt.null]

I am living on Tulsa time.

[wayfriend]

UTC and GMT are different in that GMT is a time zone and UTC is a zoneless method of representing time. So while they look the same, the reason why they are what they are is different. A distinction without a difference, maybe, but engineers are like that.

[kevinswatch]

Ive been on the Watch many times, so it's hard to count.

-jay

[Avatar]

UTC and GMT are different in that GMT is a time zone and UTC is a zoneless method of representing time. So while they look the same, the reason why they are what they are is different. A distinction without a difference, maybe, but engineers are like that.

Haha, fair point. They just happen to be the same time. I tend to think of the meridian, not of the actual zone.

(And of course it please the military and civil aviation to call it Zulu time, which always amuses me.)

--A

[peter]

Can I just clarify; if I scroll up to my last post, for me it shows a posting time of 1.51 am last Thursday morning. For you guys however, this time will be converted to the particular time in the time-zone you are in so that all posts will be shown as running in the correct chronological order in which they were made (in terms of the times given).

A zoneless method of representing time that gives the same times as a zone related time : how on earth does that work?

[Dread Poet Jethro]

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

[wayfriend]

Can I just clarify; if I scroll up to my last post, for me it shows a posting time of 1.51 am last Thursday morning. For you guys however, this time will be converted to the particular time in the time-zone you are in so that all posts will be shown as running in the correct chronological order in which they were made (in terms of the times given).

Think about it this way:

When it's 1:51 am where you are, it's 8:51 pm where I am.

If you post something at 1:51 am, when you look at it, it will say 1:51 am. But when I look at it, it will say 8:51 pm. Because that's what it was in my time when you posted.

A zoneless method of representing time that gives the same times as a zone related time : how on earth does that work?

UTC is a standard that says, in part: whenever time is stored or communicated, it is converted from local time to GMT time before doing so, so that anyone who receives or retrieves this time will know how to convert it to their local time (that is, they know it is GMT). So it's not really a big coincidence. The standard picked a time zone for everyone to standardize on. Written by anglophiles and monarchists, clearly.

[peter]

Yes well - we lost about all everything else so we need to retain at least something for dignities sake!

(D P Jethro; yes - best listened too while watching the Comedians rain soaked funeral in Watchmen .)

[aliantha]

I know UTC is the new standard name, but I still automatically think GMT when I think of time. Somewhere I have a pic of myself standing astride the Greenwich Meridian.

I think I read somewhere that that line is in the wrong place, but the right place is somewhere restricted. Or something.

I also always think of it as GMT, although I'm more apt to say "Greenwich Time" than the acronym. (To save y'all the trouble of asking: GREN-itch. )

[Avatar]

At least you can pronounce it Ali.

One of my favourite Dylan songs...maybe the favourite, DP.

(It says 1:51 for me too, because I told the board my time zone was GMT.)

--A

[peter]

The times, they are indeed a'changing; might be the time to take Ben Rickert's advice in The Big Short - buy seeds!