4 ms·

People's obsession with "specific times" is kind of nice when you want to get on a plane, execute a contract before the offer expires, allocate scarce resource

by dfc 13y ago

People's obsession with "specific times" is kind of nice when you want to get on a plane, execute a contract before the offer expires, allocate scarce resources like tables at a restaurant or telescope time, calculate hours of ec2 usage, ensure adequate physician coverage in an ER, etc. I think "specific times" are one of the hallmarks of modern society.

MichaelGG 13y ago
How do relative times help in your scenarios? How on earth would timezones fit into EC2 billing?
- dfc 13y ago
  Relative times? Timezones? Neither of these concepts appear in my comment. My comment is concerned with "people's collective obsession with specific times" and this gem: "Don't like getting up when it's dark? Get up later. Yes, that requires participation if you depend on others' schedules." Modern civil society requires depending on other people; this is one of the big problems with division of labor. Imagine bringing your child to the hospital and having the nurse explain: "Sorry Doctor Bob decided he wanted to get up a little later today. So your child will not receive the routine emergency care that he needs. Oh and you should probably rush home. this is can be a rough area. Sometimes the cops that work the night shift decide they want to be in bed before it gets too bright and the day shift cops are not real big on getting up when it is dark." Collective obsession with coordination and organization is a hallmark of modern society. How am I going to schedule a trip if I am not sure when the plane will take off? How should I mitigate the risk that the pilot of my connecting flight decides to take off early so he can put his kids in bed when it gets dark? I have no idea how timezones fit into EC2 billing. But I do know how specific times relate to billing: "Billing commences when Amazon EC2 initiates the boot sequence."[^1] That is a specific time, not a "We think it started sometime after 0200 and before 0330." [^1]: http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/faqs/#Billing http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/faqs/#Billing
  - MichaelGG 13y ago
    I suppose if you misconstrue my first comment as "people should just do things, like, whenever, man", then you're right.
    - dfc 13y ago
      That is only part of my response. We seem to have fundamentally different understandings of living in a modern society: "Don't like getting up when it's dark? Get up later. Yes, that requires participation if you depend on others' schedules." I do not understand how you could even type "if you depend on others schedules." Other than Christopher "Alexander Supertramp" McCandless I do not know anyone who does not depend on other people's schedules. The disconnect is not limited to this sub-thread, in another comment on this story you wrote that you did not understand how children could reduce scheduling flexibility...

by dfc 13y ago

MichaelGG 13y ago

How do relative times help in your scenarios? How on earth would timezones fit into EC2 billing?

dfc 13y ago
Relative times? Timezones? Neither of these concepts appear in my comment. My comment is concerned with "people's collective obsession with specific times" and this gem: "Don't like getting up when it's dark? Get up later. Yes, that requires participation if you depend on others' schedules." Modern civil society requires depending on other people; this is one of the big problems with division of labor. Imagine bringing your child to the hospital and having the nurse explain: "Sorry Doctor Bob decided he wanted to get up a little later today. So your child will not receive the routine emergency care that he needs. Oh and you should probably rush home. this is can be a rough area. Sometimes the cops that work the night shift decide they want to be in bed before it gets too bright and the day shift cops are not real big on getting up when it is dark." Collective obsession with coordination and organization is a hallmark of modern society. How am I going to schedule a trip if I am not sure when the plane will take off? How should I mitigate the risk that the pilot of my connecting flight decides to take off early so he can put his kids in bed when it gets dark? I have no idea how timezones fit into EC2 billing. But I do know how specific times relate to billing: "Billing commences when Amazon EC2 initiates the boot sequence."[^1] That is a specific time, not a "We think it started sometime after 0200 and before 0330." [^1]: http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/faqs/#Billing http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/faqs/#Billing
- MichaelGG 13y ago
  I suppose if you misconstrue my first comment as "people should just do things, like, whenever, man", then you're right.
  - dfc 13y ago
    That is only part of my response. We seem to have fundamentally different understandings of living in a modern society: "Don't like getting up when it's dark? Get up later. Yes, that requires participation if you depend on others' schedules." I do not understand how you could even type "if you depend on others schedules." Other than Christopher "Alexander Supertramp" McCandless I do not know anyone who does not depend on other people's schedules. The disconnect is not limited to this sub-thread, in another comment on this story you wrote that you did not understand how children could reduce scheduling flexibility...