this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 245 points 8 months ago (29 children)

I'm ok with timezones, but the guy who invented daylight savings time I'd slap to all the way to the sun

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (7 children)

From a development perspective it certainly sounds easier to have one global timezone with DST than a bunch of smaller ones without it. Would that make sense in reality? Probably not but I definitely think timezones take more work to compensate for properly.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 8 months ago (2 children)

What matters is consistency and our time system has tons of crazy inconsistent shit in our. Everyone knows about leap years, but do you know about leap seconds? Imagine trying to write a function to convert unix time to a current date and suddenly all your times are a second off.

Just look at this insane bullshit nonsense. The added complexity of time zones and daylight saving time is nothing compared to simply supporting our time system.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

We need to synchronize all computer times with that one clock that can stay accurate to within 1 second every 40 billion years.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I'm referring to this one, the most bleeding edge of accuracy. I don't think NIST would have implemented this particular clock (yet).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Incredible list, the scale.

The software will never run on a space ship that is orbiting a black hole.

hmm
A little aspirational?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Not really. Timezones, at their core (so without DST or any other special rules), are just a constant offset that you can very easily translate back and forth between, that's trivial as long as you remember to do it. Having lots of them doesn't really make anything harder, as long as you can look them up somewhere. DST, leap seconds, etc., make shit complicated, because they bend, break, or overlap a single timeline to the point where suddenly you have points in time that happen twice, or that never happen, or where time runs faster or slower for a bit. That is incredibly hard to deal with consistently, much more so that just switching a simple offset you're operating within.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Switching sucks but DST is better than Standard Time.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

Which part of the year is DST and which part is Standard Time?

I know, but it seems like half the people that say they prefer DST have it backwards.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's easy, the good part is DST (which is what we're currently in - Spring through Fall in the northern hemisphere).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It's only good from spring to fall. Come winter and it's a permanent depression.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (6 children)

Standard Time during that period is what's depressing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

yeah it's literally ass-backwards. how can anyone support DST as it stands is beyond me

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

DST vsm Standard time literally doesn't matter. It's the switching between the two that kills people.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

The real problem is that across the globe there is like 50 different implementations of it. Some places have a fucking half hour, or some goofy shit. Really fun handling time zones with that sprinkled on top.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (7 children)

I love DST! I just think ever switching out of it is where the mistake lies

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Love me some early evening daylight though. Nice warm but not hot cruise/drive with the windows and the top down on the car.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Isn't that Benjamin Franklin or did West Wing lie to me?

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