Permanent Daylight Saving Time? Florida Says Yes, but It’s Not So Simple • Hacker News Board

Re: Permanent Daylight Saving Time? Florida Says Yes, but It’s Not So Simple

#201

Post by AnimalMuppet » Thu, Mar 08, 2018, 10:43 PM UTC

zanny wrote: post #123

FreeFull wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DST can make sense if you're sufficiently far north/south, but definitely doesn't if you're closer to the equator. And for Florida DST probably never made sense.

If you are sufficiently far north / south, you adapt your culture to not treat 4pm like people who have 18 hours of sunshine every day year round treat 4pm. You don't change the clock and act like thats changing the flow of time. It helps that you almost certainly already don't treat 4pm like that anyway since you are wearing 4 layers of clothing while those 18 hour sunshiners are going shirtless.

Nobody has 18 hours of sunshine year round. If you have the same number of hours of sunshine year round, you have 12 hours.

Re: Permanent Daylight Saving Time? Florida Says Yes, but It’s Not So Simple

#202

Post by mattigames » Thu, Mar 08, 2018, 10:44 PM UTC

function_seven wrote: post #191

mattigames wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not even a little bit the same; timezone are extremely crucial for communication, if people outside the state don't have to look up the current timezone to understand "3:00 PM" means exactly the same one month from now that's a win all round. Also, now that everyone has a powerful computer in their pockets its extremely useful to register the times without changes based on regional laws.

What does "3:00 PM" mean? Serious question. If the government is shifting work hours at different times of the year, then "3:00 PM" will mean different things. It will be before school lets out sometimes, and after school lets out during other months. It'll be 2 hours before work ends, or only one hour. I'm no fan of DST, I think we should pick a timezone and stick with it. My argument is that DST is better than havi…

"Massively coordinated" is just every news anchor being obligated to say "Remember today the work day starts at 9:00PM and ends at 7:00PM" (with casual reminders weeks before of course), that's it, has anybody even tried to see if that brings chaos or if is just a baseless myth?

Re: Permanent Daylight Saving Time? Florida Says Yes, but It’s Not So Simple

#203

Post by zanny » Thu, Mar 08, 2018, 10:44 PM UTC

Johnny555 wrote: post #133

gt_ wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the exact problem it would solve, once "everyone" had actually switched.

How does it solve anything? If everyone was on UTC and I want to schedule a meeting with my coworker across the country, I still need the application to tell me what time standard business hours are wherever he is located So the developer still has to do the UTC->Localtime lookup. Plus, when I travel, I have to keep a chart of local "human-time", so I know that when it's 03:00, it's time for lunch.

You always have to ask the question "what times are good for you?" because everyone lives on a different schedule.

With global UTC it just means the times each of you give don't need to go through a complicated conversion process to interpret.

Re: Permanent Daylight Saving Time? Florida Says Yes, but It’s Not So Simple

#204

Post by AnimalMuppet » Thu, Mar 08, 2018, 10:48 PM UTC

runarberg wrote: post #187

Iceland went to a permanent DST (GMT) back in the 60’s. But health officials are seriously advocating moving Iceland back closer to the solar noon (GMT-0100). Apparently consistently waking up way before sun rise may have negative consequences on the general public.

Probably not that relevant to Florida, though, because Florida is at much lower latitude...

Re: Permanent Daylight Saving Time? Florida Says Yes, but It’s Not So Simple

#205

Post by runarberg » Thu, Mar 08, 2018, 10:49 PM UTC

Sargos wrote: post #4

I am fully in favor of this. I enjoy having more sunlight after work when I can actually go out and enjoy it.

On the contrary Iceland, which is currently on permanent DST is considering moving the clock back an hour, getting closer to solar noon, because it turns out constantly waking up in darkness might have bad effects on the the general health of the population.

You might think you prefer sunlight after work. But it seems the scientific consensus is shifting towards believing the contrary. And having lived most of my life in permanent DST, I can honestly say I agree with this shifting scientific consensus.

Re: Permanent Daylight Saving Time? Florida Says Yes, but It’s Not So Simple

#206

Post by BigChiefSmokem » Thu, Mar 08, 2018, 10:49 PM UTC

notjustanymike wrote: post #72

As a web developer: screw you Florida!

Hello, welcome to the HN footer area.

I do have to ask though what is it that brings you to this opinion, as before moving to California to pursue my big data dreams I too was a Florida web developer, in a former life.

Re: Permanent Daylight Saving Time? Florida Says Yes, but It’s Not So Simple

#207

Post by jcranmer » Thu, Mar 08, 2018, 10:51 PM UTC

FreeFull wrote: post #54

bhauer wrote: post #10

Yes! Bravo to Florida. I don't care what timezone California wants to be in—PST or MST—as long as we stop the nonsense of changing between two timezones every year. This coming Sunday is another DST change, and with it will come countless small nuisances, immeasurable drowsiness and lost productivity, and a non-trivial number of injuries or worse. Just pick a timezone and stick with it!

DST can make sense if you're sufficiently far north/south, but definitely doesn't if you're closer to the equator. And for Florida DST probably never made sense.

The range of latitudes for which DST makes sense is roughly 30°-50°: those latitudes where summer solstice is 14-16 hours of daylight. Further north, there's going to be afternoon sun anyways, further south, there's too little difference between summer and winter for there to be any sense switching twice a year.

Re: Permanent Daylight Saving Time? Florida Says Yes, but It’s Not So Simple

#208

Post by AnimalMuppet » Thu, Mar 08, 2018, 10:51 PM UTC

What are they doing with the panhandle? It's on Central Time, not Eastern.

Re: Permanent Daylight Saving Time? Florida Says Yes, but It’s Not So Simple

#209

Post by slavik81 » Thu, Mar 08, 2018, 10:51 PM UTC

zanny wrote: post #160

Ajedi32 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you want to abolish time zones: https://qntm.org/abolish

Except if we did abolish time zones rather than asking Google "what time is it in Melbourne" you ask it "is it the waking hours in Melbourne". In either case you don't know what time to call Melbourne. You either need to know a complicated and inconsistent system of time zones, or you just ask the same question in terms of when the sun rises and sets. You don't get out of asking a question, you don't lose any informa…

I agree with you on that, but there's still a piece of this puzzle left unaddressed. Using UTC would improve the clock, but the calendar would end up worse.

Re: Permanent Daylight Saving Time? Florida Says Yes, but It’s Not So Simple

#210

Post by ErnestedCode » Thu, Mar 08, 2018, 10:52 PM UTC

fold wrote: post #17

I wouldn't mind everyone moving to UTC. Sure, only people in Greenwich would be able to eat lunch at 12 noon. But at least it would simplify my life as a programmer.

That will work until Elon Musk opens his Mars settlement. Then we will have to rename "Universal Coordinated Time" to "Earth Coordinated Time" and have separate "Planet Times".