Standard Time

[David Barnert]

Recently returned from a week away, and now reading concertina.net for the first time since Friday, the 17th. I just posted another message and noticed that the posting time seemed off by an hour. Oy. I went to my profile page, clicked "Board Settings" (after searching several other screens in vain) and unchecked the "Daylight Savings Time is in effect" box.

 

I guess I just added one more to the list of 22 clocks/computers/gadgets that I have to reset every October and April.

 

Sure would be nice if this could be done automatically.

[Ken_Coles]

David,

 

Move to Indiana! We are so behind here (about 200 years behind most folks socially) that we never change clocks. Whatever the merits of the system (I don't wish to open that debate here, go to anti-daylight dot net and put your posts there), it puts us out of step with 46 other states. Folks driving over from Illinois to use the Indy airport are always missing their planes because 1/2 the year we are on NY time, and 1/2 the year we are on Chicago time. In other words, you use a calendar to figure what time it is in Indiana.

 

Arizona also never changes time. But one of the few kinds of sovereignty the American Indians have is on this issue, so the Navajos (with whom I lived for 6 months) in the middle of Arizona DO change their clocks. But the Hopi Indians DON'T change their clocks. And so on. Driving across Arizona in the summer can lead to half a dozen time changes in one day.

 

Seriously, I don't know about the set up here on the forum, but it is worth looking into.

 

Ken

[David Barnert]

Move to Indiana!  We are so behind here (about 200 years behind most folks socially) that we never change clocks.  Whatever the merits of the system (I don't wish to open that debate here, go to anti-daylight dot net and put your posts there), it puts us out of step with 46 other states.  Folks driving over from Illinois to use the Indy airport are always missing their planes because 1/2 the year we are on NY time, and 1/2 the year we are on Chicago time.  In other words, you use a calendar to figure what time it is in Indiana.

It's more complicated than that. According to a, Indiana University web page at http://www.iupui.edu/it/ibrc/Misc/indiana_time.html most of Indiana observes Eastern Standard Time all year (without changing for Daylight Savings Time) but 10 counties in the western part of the state observe Central Time (Standard and Daylight, as appropriate) and 5 counties in the southeastern part of the state observe Eastern Time (Standard and Daylight, as appropriate). This arose as a plot factor in an episode of "The West Wing" last season (they missed the plane ).

 

But all this is beside the point of my question. My Macintosh computer and several other of my more sophisticated gadgets that know both the time and the date have check boxes to enable automatic DST adjustment. Now that the date of conversion from ST to DST has been officially set as the first Sunday in April (only since 1987), it shouldn't be hard for the software to take care of that by itself. Shouldn't this forum site have such an option?

 

Interestingly, I learned last weekend that while my GPS unit has such an option and I never thought there was anything unusual about how it worked, I had occasion to be looking at it early Sunday morning and noticed that it makes the switch an hour late (at 3 AM daylight time it switched to 2 AM standard time). Go figure.

Seriously, I don't know about the set up here on the forum, but it is worth looking into.

Indeed.

[David Barnert]

Move to Indiana!  We are so behind here (about 200 years behind most folks socially) that we never change clocks.  Whatever the merits of the system (I don't wish to open that debate here, go to anti-daylight dot net and put your posts there), it puts us out of step with 46 other states.  Folks driving over from Illinois to use the Indy airport are always missing their planes because 1/2 the year we are on NY time, and 1/2 the year we are on Chicago time.  In other words, you use a calendar to figure what time it is in Indiana.

It's more complicated than that. According to an Indiana University web page at http://www.iupui.edu/it/ibrc/Misc/indiana_time.html most of Indiana observes Eastern Standard Time all year (without changing for Daylight Savings Time) but 10 counties in the western part of the state observe Central Time (Standard and Daylight, as appropriate) and 5 counties in the southeastern part of the state observe Eastern Time (Standard and Daylight, as appropriate). This arose as a plot factor in an episode of "The West Wing" last season (they missed the plane ).

 

But all this is beside the point of my question. My Macintosh computer and several other of my more sophisticated gadgets that know both the time and the date have check boxes to enable automatic DST adjustment. Now that the date of conversion from ST to DST has been officially set as the first Sunday in April (only since 1987), it shouldn't be hard for the software to take care of that by itself. Shouldn't this forum site have such an option?

 

Interestingly, I learned last weekend that while my GPS unit has such an option and I never thought there was anything unusual about how it worked, I had occasion to be looking at it early Sunday morning and noticed that it makes the switch an hour late (at 3 AM daylight time it switched to 2 AM standard time). Go figure.

Seriously, I don't know about the set up here on the forum, but it is worth looking into.

Indeed. Edited October 29, 2003 by David Barnert

[JimLucas]

My Macintosh computer and several other of my more sophisticated gadgets that know both the time and the date have check boxes to enable automatic DST adjustment.

I have three versions of Windows. Two of them change the clock for me automatically. The oldest does, too, but asks my permission before doing so. I prefer that.

 

I would think that there should be some way of asking the machine where you're running your browser what its time is, but maybe not. If there is, the Forum software isn't doing that.

[JimLucas]

Move to Indiana!

It's more complicated than that.

Ohio had a siimilar system -- DST in some counties and not in others -- when I lived in there, but I believe it's now uniform statewide. Washington State adopted DST while I was living there.

[JimLucas]

Whatever the merits of the system (I don't wish to open that debate here, go to anti-daylight dot net and put your posts there),...

Not debate, but how about anecdotes?

 

Washington state adopted DST while I was living there. It was an item on the state ballot, and was passed by a lopsided majority. Basically, nearly all the cityfolk in the west voted for it, and nearly all the eastern farmers voted against it, but the urban population was much greater than the rural.

 

The opposition of the farmers -- especially dairy farmers -- was understandable. Twice a year they have to retrain all their animals to a new schedule. The funny thing was that immediately afterward the workers at Boeing -- at that time by far the largest employer in the state -- voted to shift their working hours, which put them back on the pre-DST real time... at least until the clocks changed again.

 

Then there was the woman who wrote into the paper in Katonah, NY complaining that DST's "extra hour of daylight" was scorching her lawn and killing it.