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Time to Dump Time Zones

nytimes.com

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Re: Time to Dump Time Zones

#351

Post by raldi »

gameshot911 wrote: post #349
raldi wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People (and kids) survive wars and famines I'm sure we can handle a little bit of darkness. I never claimed otherwise. To use your own rhetoric: People, including kids, survive wars and famines; I'm sure we can handle changing the clocks twice a year. But to clarify my position, it's that when asked to choose between two hardships: * Gain an hour of sleep every fall, lose an hour of sleep every spring * Have an ext…

>...the majority chooses the first. Does it? If it were up to a popular vote today, I'm not so sure DST camp would win out.

Do you mean in California or somewhere else? If California, how do you explain the fact that Sacramento has considered this many times, most recently two months ago, and always decides to keep things the way they are?

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-sac-essenti...

There are two possibilities: California's representatives are representing the will of the people, or they're not. Occam's Razor would point toward the former, but if you have evidence of the latter, what is it?

Re: Time to Dump Time Zones

#353

Post by djrogers »

solatic wrote: post #327
darawk wrote: post #17

Hmm...this is an interesting idea. However, the core of the argument seems to be this: > “The economy — that’s all of us — would receive a permanent ‘harmonization dividend’ ”— the efficiency benefits that come from a unified time zone. But this editorial is pretty light on actually supporting that. The basic argument seems to be that it reduces 'translation costs'. But..does it? What about the benefits of being able…

> 9 o'clock this morning Changes to "two hours after sunrise". Which is more accurate in a globalized world anyway, because 9:00 is sometimes an hour after sunrise and sometimes several hours after sunrise, depending on where you live. > Mental sanity checks If you're setting a remote meeting with someone several hours flight away, you will have access to their calendar. Their calendar will include their normal and e…

> Changes to "two hours after sunrise". Which is more accurate in a globalized world anyway, because 9:00 is sometimes an hour after sunrise and sometimes several hours after sunrise, depending on where you live.

Depends just as much or more on the time of year - sunrise/sunset varies a lot by season. I think it makes less sense to base things relative to sunrise when it's so incredibly varied.

Re: Time to Dump Time Zones

#354

Post by aomega08 »

stouset wrote: post #246
the_watcher wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you aren't contrarian. Remove timezones, and it still doesn't help me sort out if it's morning in Italy yet, or if business hours have started. In fact, it's more difficult, since I'd then have to figure out what Italian business hours are.

You still have to figure out what Italian business hours are in the current system. Do they show up to work at 9? 8? 10? I don't know, do you?

Most schools and public offices open at 8 am.

Factories and offices usually run business from 9 to 18, but YMMV ;)

Re: Time to Dump Time Zones

#355

Post by ekianjo »

jobigoud wrote: post #289
roel_v wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, it might be a social construct. I'd never say 'treize heures' to set a time with my Parisian colleagues, and neither would they (to the best of my recollection). Sometimes people would say it, yes, but it'd sound strangely artificial, like read literally from a schedule - which in many cases it would be.

> I'd never say 'treize heures' One of the main midday newscast is called "Le journal de treize heures".

And the 8pm one is called le vingt heures. Really used everywhere.

Re: Time to Dump Time Zones

#356

Post by djrogers »

raldi wrote: post #351
gameshot911 wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>...the majority chooses the first. Does it? If it were up to a popular vote today, I'm not so sure DST camp would win out.

Do you mean in California or somewhere else? If California, how do you explain the fact that Sacramento has considered this many times, most recently two months ago, and always decides to keep things the way they are? http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-sac-essenti... There are two possibilities: California's representatives are representing the will of the people, or they're not. Occam's Razor would poi…

California's representatives haven't represented the will of their constituents in decades... Just look at how many ballot initiatives pass in spite of opposition from Sacramento or vice-versa.

I'm pretty sure if put to a vote we'd stop changing times twice a year.

Re: Time to Dump Time Zones

#357

Post by m_eiman »

Houshalter wrote: post #301
bluejekyll wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah agree completely. And keeping zones is important to understand workdays. I wouldn't mind dropping named time zones completely in favor of UTC+Offset, I always end up looking that up, annoyingly. Or just name the zones based on the offset. So NY would be -5. We could for humans write time with the ecoding, similar to ISO-8601, but it would just be 15:30-5 for 3:30pm EST. While we're at it. Can we make all the mon…

28 is perfect because it's divisible by 7. So every day lands on the same day of every month and every year. Every 1rst is a Sunday. But really, while we are on the topic of reform, is there any particular reason the week should be 7 days? Or that there should be a week at all? Time keeping is also weird. Base 24 and 60 is so arbitrary. Make it base ten, and you can express date and time easily. Right now is 6.976. T…

Every 1rst is a Sunday.

Except the week starts with Monday. At least in the civilized world…

Re: Time to Dump Time Zones

#358

Post by raldi »

djrogers wrote: post #356
raldi wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean in California or somewhere else? If California, how do you explain the fact that Sacramento has considered this many times, most recently two months ago, and always decides to keep things the way they are? http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-sac-essenti... There are two possibilities: California's representatives are representing the will of the people, or they're not. Occam's Razor would poi…

California's representatives haven't represented the will of their constituents in decades... Just look at how many ballot initiatives pass in spite of opposition from Sacramento or vice-versa. I'm pretty sure if put to a vote we'd stop changing times twice a year.

"I'm pretty sure" is not evidence.

Re: Time to Dump Time Zones

#359

Post by scottmf »

Houshalter wrote: post #301
bluejekyll wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah agree completely. And keeping zones is important to understand workdays. I wouldn't mind dropping named time zones completely in favor of UTC+Offset, I always end up looking that up, annoyingly. Or just name the zones based on the offset. So NY would be -5. We could for humans write time with the ecoding, similar to ISO-8601, but it would just be 15:30-5 for 3:30pm EST. While we're at it. Can we make all the mon…

28 is perfect because it's divisible by 7. So every day lands on the same day of every month and every year. Every 1rst is a Sunday. But really, while we are on the topic of reform, is there any particular reason the week should be 7 days? Or that there should be a week at all? Time keeping is also weird. Base 24 and 60 is so arbitrary. Make it base ten, and you can express date and time easily. Right now is 6.976. T…

You want to switch time to base 10 and everything else to base 12 even though you consider it to be arbitrary?

We use 12, 60 (and 360deg) because our fingers are divided into 12 sections on the palm side.

You can use your thumb to point to each section on your right hand, counting to 12, while using the number of fingers on your left hand to keep track of how many 12s (up to 5) hence base 60.

Re: Time to Dump Time Zones

#360

Post by grzm »

m_eiman wrote: post #357
Houshalter wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

28 is perfect because it's divisible by 7. So every day lands on the same day of every month and every year. Every 1rst is a Sunday. But really, while we are on the topic of reform, is there any particular reason the week should be 7 days? Or that there should be a week at all? Time keeping is also weird. Base 24 and 60 is so arbitrary. Make it base ten, and you can express date and time easily. Right now is 6.976. T…

Every 1rst is a Sunday. Except the week starts with Monday. At least in the civilized world…

ISO, and many places, yes, but not everywhere. Is it necessary to add "At least in the civilized world"? Seems unnecessarily inflammatory. And the gp is proposing a new system anyway.
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