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Swatch Internet Time

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Re: Swatch Internet Time

#31

Post by eddieroger »

julioademar wrote: post #7
bluedevil2k wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1/10th of a day is just as arbitrary, maybe less so, then 1/24th of a day.

It's not arbitrary. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal

The only special thing about Decimal and Base 10 is that we have 10 fingers (for the most part, exceptions exist). If we had 12, then 1/24th of a day would make sense, because it would be twice our then-normal Base 12 system. It is evolutionarily arbitrary.

Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nC8J6YXqdo

Re: Swatch Internet Time

#32

Post by [deleted] »

0xEA wrote: post #22
mertd wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you know if it is appropriate to call someone in some other part of the globe? One way or another you have to do a lookup. A) Everyone uses UTC. Now you have to know the business hours in Tokyo because it is not universally 8-6 anymore. B) Everyone uses local time. Now you have to know their local time.

As an example: I don't know where you are, you don't know where I am. I tell you I am available from @300-@800 if you want to Skype today. Let me know which time is good for you.

[deleted]

Re: Swatch Internet Time

#33

Post by bluedevil2k »

jber wrote: post #8

It was a nice idea but I think Swatch made a big mistake by taking their headquarters as the base to calculate it. It needed to be an independant concept to bring other companies/competitors on board.

Not to be too US centric, but the time standard should be set around New York City. Bankers in London and San Fran all work on NYC time.

Re: Swatch Internet Time

#34

Post by 0xEA »

mertd wrote: post #27
0xEA wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an example: I don't know where you are, you don't know where I am. I tell you I am available from @300-@800 if you want to Skype today. Let me know which time is good for you.

Which would be scenario A. You just did the lookup of finding that 0xEA's business hours are from @300 to @800.

Sure, you would have to know that. But you have to look up if the business you want to contact is open on Sunday anyway, even if they are local. Or what time they close today.

Or you have to try to figure out the whole no work on Friday thing in the middle east and Monday being part of the weekend. You always have to look it up.

What made this dream cool in the digital age is I could just have hours that I'm available and if I wanted to work late at night, I could. I considered myself a 'hardcore hacker' in '98 and what appealed was how well this lined up with my natural inclination to hack on code from 10pm to 5am every day, despite being in high school.

I didn't care or need to know where my IRC friends were. We could collaborate none the less.

Re: Swatch Internet Time

#35

Post by mmahemoff »

When people say Bitcoin is a money standard for the internet, it reminds me of this. A time standard for the internet, similar to UTC but human-friendly.

A few things worked against its adoption.

First, it was too proprietary. A modern initiative based on open standards would have a much better chance of gaining a foothold in niche communities, much like Bitcoin.

Second, it was before its time (no pun intended). The web was already popular, but not very real-time. There was some chat, but it was pretty geeky, not like Skype or Facebook IM now. And hardly any videoconferencing or live-streaming. And not as much distance working as happens now. So there wasn't that much demand for syncing time.

Third, digital phones were locked down by the manufacturers and carriers (watches too). It would be hard for a grassroots movement to grow if no-one could make apps supporting the new time standard.

Re: Swatch Internet Time

#36

Post by joezydeco »

Aloha wrote: post #11
jber wrote: post #8

It was a nice idea but I think Swatch made a big mistake by taking their headquarters as the base to calculate it. It needed to be an independant concept to bring other companies/competitors on board.

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...

Re: Swatch Internet Time

#37

Post by bluedevil2k »

Uchikoma wrote: post #14
bluedevil2k wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

I honestly ask why?

Dates would be the same day forever. Financial quarters would be even and easily divided. Never print a new calendar. Etc.

Re: Swatch Internet Time

#38

Post by xcode »

I was a 14 year old who attended the initial launch at MIT. I remember at the time thinking: why have a random synthetic time, perhaps we can just accept GMT as internet time.

I still don't understand why you'd have Beil Mean Time - perhaps I haven't grown.

Re: Swatch Internet Time

#39

Post by [deleted] »

Aloha wrote: post #11
jber wrote: post #8

It was a nice idea but I think Swatch made a big mistake by taking their headquarters as the base to calculate it. It needed to be an independant concept to bring other companies/competitors on board.

It's an arbitrary choice, just like how Unix time is since 1970, or how UTC is timezone for Greenwich England.

[deleted]

Re: Swatch Internet Time

#40

Post by [deleted] »

Tomdarkness wrote: post #21
ComSubVie wrote: post #17

Lots of things would be easier if everybody uses the same time. It could stay the 24h/day time format, but timezones are a pain - I always have to recalculate them for local time. Why couldn't everybody work with UTC? And by the way: when will we finally get rid of the daylight savings time?!?

Consider this. Suppose I want to phone someone who lives in Japan and I live in the UK. Japan is +9 hours ahead of UK local time (GMT). Therefore I know if I phone slightly before lunch then I'll be phoning them in the evening. Now suppose we all had the same time. If I phoned them just before lunch, which would mean shortly before 12:00 in the UK then I'd have to try and figure out what Japan would be doing at that…

[deleted]
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