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It absolutely fixes one of the biggest planning problems I come across all the time (as someone who follows international sporting fixtures a fair bit). If I h

It absolutely fixes one of the biggest planning problems I come across all the time (as someone who follows international sporting fixtures a fair bit). If I hear "The US Formula 1 GP will be starting at 2pm local time", I have to then go through multiple steps as follows in order to ensure that I can watch it: 1. Ok, WHERE is the US F1GP being held? 2. I have to identify which timezone Austin, Texas is in 3. I have to figure out if that timezone incorporates daylight saving and whether DST is in effect or not. 4. I then have to do the convoluted maths to work out local time - HOPING that I have access to a computer which can do the conversion for me, or else convert Austin time to UTC then UTC to my time manually in my head. You are adding locality and timezones into an already complex equation. Or, if someone said "The US Formula 1 GP starts at 20:00 UTC", then all I need do is: 1. Add 09:30 to that start time to ensure I tune in to the broadcast and don't miss the moment Charlie Whiting flips the lights to green. A lot of the arguments here talk about mutually suitable times, but in a lot of cases, it DOESN'T HAVE to be mutually beneficial. You will rarely find a 'mutually beneficial' time for everyone even if your are in the SAME time zone. There is always a skewing of the priorities that means one party will not care if the time is convenient - they just know they want to be there and not miss it.

stephen_g 10y ago
If you have a smartphone or computer, just type '2pm in Austin' into Google - I get '2:00 pm Sunday, in Austin, TX, USA is 6:00 am Monday, in Brisbane QLD'
- cyberferret 10y ago
  True. But as I mentioned in my example, it relies on having a phone and internet connection ready and available to process the information, which is really the issue here. On two occasions recently, someone mentioned an event to me when I wasn't connected up. Once at a bar late at night when my phone battery was dead, and once while a colleague and I were out literally in the outback driving around a remote area outside of internet coverage. Both times I had to wait until much later to figure out the event start time so I wouldn't miss it the next day. If I am travelling home on a non-WiFi long haul flight and the guy in the seat next to me says "Oh, don't miss the qualifying for the Bahrain GP - I think they are running it at 11am their time", I don't want to go diving for my phone and ask the internet to resolve it. Adding 9.5 hours to a UTC time datum though, is so extremely trivial.

stephen_g 10y ago

If you have a smartphone or computer, just type '2pm in Austin' into Google - I get '2:00 pm Sunday, in Austin, TX, USA is 6:00 am Monday, in Brisbane QLD'

cyberferret 10y ago
True. But as I mentioned in my example, it relies on having a phone and internet connection ready and available to process the information, which is really the issue here. On two occasions recently, someone mentioned an event to me when I wasn't connected up. Once at a bar late at night when my phone battery was dead, and once while a colleague and I were out literally in the outback driving around a remote area outside of internet coverage. Both times I had to wait until much later to figure out the event start time so I wouldn't miss it the next day. If I am travelling home on a non-WiFi long haul flight and the guy in the seat next to me says "Oh, don't miss the qualifying for the Bahrain GP - I think they are running it at 11am their time", I don't want to go diving for my phone and ask the internet to resolve it. Adding 9.5 hours to a UTC time datum though, is so extremely trivial.