Time zones are kind of arbitrary.. there are infinite ones, for each horizontal movement around the earth.
Swatch Internet Time
91–100 of 103 posts
Re: Swatch Internet Time
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not arbitrary. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal
base 12 (or 24) and base 60 are actually much nicer to work with mentally than 10. 10 divides by 1 5 and 10 so you can easily figure out halves and tenths thats about it. 12 divides by 1 2 3 4 6 and 12 so you can easily figure out halves, thirds, quarters, sixths, and twelths without much of an issue, less non terminating decimal nastyness. 60 is even better, as it divides by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30 and…
> base 12 (or 24) and base 60 are actually much nicer to work with mentally than 10.
I would say binary is the best base, and perhaps the least arbitrary of all bases since it is the simplest.
EDIT: whoops, bad formatting.
Re: Swatch Internet Time
#93I for one welcome our new logical programmer-sanity-saving standard.
Re: Swatch Internet Time
#94Related: http://thepresent.is/
Re: Swatch Internet Time
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's kind of the point. NASDAQ trading hours are 0930 to 1600 eastern. At a former job thats what mattered, although we were not in the eastern zone and had sites spread across 5 or 6 timezones. Live where you want but production hours on the production boxes were 0930-1600 eastern. A large chunk of financial world workers live in eastern standard time. They might live anywhere in the world, but that doesn't matter…
Sure, professionals use real time. We're not talking about anything where time is critical. We're talking about kids wanting to meet each other on a Minecraft server, or a band releasing a video, or simar casual online meetings.
One example is the ham radio guys scheduling a contact/net on a certain freq and UTC time.
Live "events" like superbowl and the endless self-congratulatory entertainment industry awards. I'll meet you on IRC during the superbowl and we'll comment on the commercials.
To some extent computers and the internet are a tool for making time not so critical. We both need to be available for a phone call, but not for email. To watch the same network TV show we both need to watch about the same time, but we can watch youtube videos anytime. Thats the other oddity of "internet time". If we're going to make obsolete concepts, why not "internet distance" or even worse "internet long distance"
Re: Swatch Internet Time
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's an arbitrary choice, just like how Unix time is since 1970, or how UTC is timezone for Greenwich England.
Greenwich wasn't arbitrary at all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Meridian_Conferen...
Historical precedent and agreement make the choice no less arbitrary - 0 degrees could have been anywhere, there is no technical reason that Greenwich was chosen.
Re: Swatch Internet Time
#97I've always loved this idea. It just makes sense. People argue against the "circular notation" of a clock face and how it relates to 60 minutes/seconds, but all that analog stuff is dead.
And as long as we're discussing "out there" time notations, I'll throw out my support for a calendar system that makes more sense. 12 30-day months with a 5 (or 6) day "Holiday Month" at the end. Adjusting the "week" to be 10 days instead of 7. 3 weeks a month, 9 weeks a quarter, 36 weeks a year. Work 7 of the 10 days in a week would be the same as a 5-day work week (2 more days off a year actually).
Perhaps a start would be not naming months after dead early roman emperors
Re: Swatch Internet Time
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Greenwich wasn't arbitrary at all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Meridian_Conferen...
Historical precedent and agreement make the choice no less arbitrary - 0 degrees could have been anywhere, there is no technical reason that Greenwich was chosen.
It says so right in the article.
Choosing Greenwich as 0-longitude meant that the International Date Line would be located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, avoiding a situation where it could be two dates in the same country simultaneously.
Re: Swatch Internet Time
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Historical precedent and agreement make the choice no less arbitrary - 0 degrees could have been anywhere, there is no technical reason that Greenwich was chosen.
It says so right in the article. Choosing Greenwich as 0-longitude meant that the International Date Line would be located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, avoiding a situation where it could be two dates in the same country simultaneously.
Have you looked at the map for the IDL?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Internati...
That not jiggered by politics at all.
Re: Swatch Internet Time
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
It says so right in the article. Choosing Greenwich as 0-longitude meant that the International Date Line would be located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, avoiding a situation where it could be two dates in the same country simultaneously.
Have you looked at the map for the IDL? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Internati... That not jiggered by politics at all.
I thought we were talking about the "arbitrary" choice of Longitude 0. What's the political (and not economic) basis for the later IDL modifications?