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I never understood why people thought that not showing UTC might be a good idea. With UTC anyone in the world only needs to know their own timezone (and DST sta

I never understood why people thought that not showing UTC might be a good idea. With UTC anyone in the world only needs to know their own timezone (and DST status) to convert it to local time instead of having to know their own plus whatever timezone the event is referencing (which is the actually tricky part).

rbanffy 5y ago
UTC is the only civilised timezone. That’s what server internal clocks should use.
- Someone 5y ago
  (Pedantic) UTC isn’t a time zone, it’s a time standard (https://www.timeanddate.com/time/gmt-utc-time.html https://www.timeanddate.com/time/gmt-utc-time.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time) Also, time zones were invented in Italy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#Worldwide_time_zones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#Worldwide_time_zones)
- ionwake 5y ago
  I disagree, the British created time. GMT it is.
  - neom 5y ago
    Canada created time zones so let's go with... err, GMT it is then.
    - evilduck 5y ago
      And Canada has the one time zone that’s shifted by only a half hour, invalidating their positive contributions to time management entirely. :)
  - samizdis 5y ago
    UTC is the successor of GMT, there's no difference other than the name.
    - entropic88 5y ago
      And it was approved by the TVA, so...there's that.
    - dcminter 5y ago
      I think someone claiming the British created time might not be 100% serious.
      - ColinWright 5y ago
        It's an interesting question. Clearly the British didn't "invent time", but when the railways became widespread in the UK they needed to have "Railway Time"[0]. Before that each village had their own local time, and it was a mess when trains would arrive or depart minutes earlier or later than expected. So "Railway Time" was invented in 1840 ... unified across the country, and it created a Time Zone. Was Britain the first place this happened? I suspect it was. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_time
        dcminter 5y ago
        In the context of GMT the importance of time to establishing longitude and the Longitude act[0] seem much more relevant to me. I still think it's a bit of a stretch from that to "created time" though! Whoever came up with the sundial first would have the claim to having invented time - and the sun's not out often enough in Blighty for them to be a contender :P [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_Act
      - justinclift 5y ago
        Dunno. The British have a Timelord, so they seem to take it pretty seriously. ;)
    - 5y ago

rbanffy 5y ago

UTC is the only civilised timezone. That’s what server internal clocks should use.

Someone 5y ago
(Pedantic) UTC isn’t a time zone, it’s a time standard (https://www.timeanddate.com/time/gmt-utc-time.html https://www.timeanddate.com/time/gmt-utc-time.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time) Also, time zones were invented in Italy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#Worldwide_time_zones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#Worldwide_time_zones)
ionwake 5y ago
I disagree, the British created time. GMT it is.
- neom 5y ago
  Canada created time zones so let's go with... err, GMT it is then.
  - evilduck 5y ago
    And Canada has the one time zone that’s shifted by only a half hour, invalidating their positive contributions to time management entirely. :)
- samizdis 5y ago
  UTC is the successor of GMT, there's no difference other than the name.
  - entropic88 5y ago
    And it was approved by the TVA, so...there's that.
  - dcminter 5y ago
    I think someone claiming the British created time might not be 100% serious.
    - ColinWright 5y ago
      It's an interesting question. Clearly the British didn't "invent time", but when the railways became widespread in the UK they needed to have "Railway Time"[0]. Before that each village had their own local time, and it was a mess when trains would arrive or depart minutes earlier or later than expected. So "Railway Time" was invented in 1840 ... unified across the country, and it created a Time Zone. Was Britain the first place this happened? I suspect it was. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_time
      - dcminter 5y ago
        In the context of GMT the importance of time to establishing longitude and the Longitude act[0] seem much more relevant to me. I still think it's a bit of a stretch from that to "created time" though! Whoever came up with the sundial first would have the claim to having invented time - and the sun's not out often enough in Blighty for them to be a contender :P [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_Act
    - justinclift 5y ago
      Dunno. The British have a Timelord, so they seem to take it pretty seriously. ;)
  - 5y ago