So I gather there was a DST adjustment today or something. I gathered that because my forum time was off by an hour. So, no problem, I thought - I'll just make an adjustment to my preferences like I do every six months.
Except that I'm at GMT+5.5 hours. Not 5, not 6, but 5.5. That would mean I would need to make an adjustment of 10.5 hours, but the forum doesn't allow me to do that. I can make an adjustment of 10 hours or 11 hours, but not 10.5 hours. So I'll be forever having to make mental adjustments to figure out... Yeah, no, really, I'll just be forever confused.
*sigh*
You know, some forums allow one to set GMT time and indicate whether there should be a DST adjustment or not. I wish this one did, too - if it did, I wouldn't run into this problem. If wishes were horses...
Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
5.5? I thought that it only came in hour blocks.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
No, quid is right. It seems like you can only have two digits in the time ajdustment box, so you can have 9.5 or 10, but not 10.5, because that's 3 digits.
Poor quid!
Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
That's very interesting. I seriously didn't know that time zones existed in anything less than hourly blocks. The 1/2 hour countries seem to be mostly grouped together in a line running from the middle east to the Australia area. Is there some physical reason for this, or is it just a local decision?
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
When they originally came up with what time it should be, the minister of timekeeping was late for the meeting, and covered his mistake by setting his watch ahead 30 minutes, making him "on time." And since he was the minister of timekeeping, his time was the official time, so everyone else had to set their watches by him.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
ricree, I bet 1/2 hour time zones are mainly in Asia because of India's history with time zones: they have a unified time zone across the whole country even though it's big enough for 3 zones. And it's calculated from the Allahabad Observatory ,which is exactly 5.5 hours ahead of GMT.
In a weird coincidence, I learned this trivia about Allahabad earlier tonight from a Numbers episode.
quote: The Allahabad Observatory located in the town of Mirzapur, just outside Allahabad is the centre responsible for maintaining the Indian Standard Time (IST). The observatory is located at 82.5°E longitude, which translates to an exact time difference of 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
edit:in general, imogen is correct: 1/2 hour zones exist because of accuracy as well as historical causes.
[ October 29, 2006, 04:41 AM: Message edited by: Morbo ]
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
Here in Arizona, we don't celebrate this "Daylight Savings Time" thing. I think it's the lack of farms or something, but all I really do know is that class is at the same time as usual on Monday.
Posted by imogen (Member # 5485) on :
One of the Australian timezones is an half hour out (Australian Central Standard Time).
I guess it's just more accurate.
Posted by AvidReader (Member # 6007) on :
I wish we'd get rid of Daylight Savings Time. I takes me two months to reset my internal clock. That means I spend a third of my year trying to adjust to a completely arbitrary and outdated timekeeping system.
Farmers all use automated systems. I don't think they care if the sun's up or not when they have headlights on the tractor and power in the barn. Only 1% of children walk to school, so it can't be a concern for them walking in the dark.
I think we still do it becuase we used to and no one wants to make the effort to change it. I may have to get crazy and write my Congressman. This could be a good election year issue. Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :
I believe there's also somewhere in Canada that has a .5 time zone. Or maybe it's Greenland...
Edit: Australia and a number of other places have .5 time zones.
I always find it odd that most of Europe has the time zone and that Alaska has the same time zone for the entire state.
[ October 29, 2006, 10:12 AM: Message edited by: kojabu ]
Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
Here in Indiana we just switched back for the first time with much grumbling. Hate Daylight Savings Time. You learn in kindergarten that "everyone else is doing it" is not a good reason for doing something. Somehow our governor must have missed that day.
Posted by Theca (Member # 1629) on :
C'mon, it's been a big fight in Indiana every year. This was just the year it finally passed. And most people I know were actually loving it all summer. Except the parents, who were having trouble figuring out how to make kids go to bed with all the daylight.
Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
I don't know a single native Hoosier that likes it. Even the people who voted for Mitch Daniels are upset about it.
Posted by andi330 (Member # 8572) on :
I didn't even get a to really enjoy my extra hour this time. I'm sick, so I would have slept that long anyway.
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
Newfoundland is a .5 zone. Even from the other half of the province, landloacked Labrador. It must be a real pain.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
I love Daylight Savings Time so much, I'd be happy if we kept it that way all year. Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
Actually, Carrie our reason for doing it was all the farms, and I bet yours probably is too. There are at least 90 huge huge huge horse farms in the Scottsdale area, and a few in the Tuscon area (these are just farms I follow).
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Sri Lanka used to be at GMT+6, but it changed last April because the politician in charge wanted it to. Okay, the real reason... Apparently, about 14 years ago, Sri Lanka was at GMT+5.5, then the then-current president changed it to GMT+6. So this current president changed it back to where it should be based on accuracy and also on what the rest of the region is doing, making it easier to do business with the neighbors. That sort of thing.
But none of that solves the problem of me not being able to have accurate time in the forum for 6 months at a stretch. *grumble*
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