Remember LXers to change your time zone if you're country observes Daylight Saving Time
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Steven_Rosenber Oct 22, 2009 12:41 PM EDT |
In America, Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday, Nov. 1, and that means it'll be time to change your timezone preferences in LXer. If you're logged in, go to the timezone page http://lxer.com/members/timezone.php to change from Daylight to Standard time. And if you want to know what all the countries around the world are doing as far as Daylight Saving Time, here is a list http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst2009.html |
| Bob_Robertson Oct 22, 2009 12:51 PM EDT |
I read the original letter (ok, I read a copy of) by Benjamin Franklin that proposed Daylight Savings time. It was a JOKE. It was poking fun at the French upper-crust who partied past midnight then slept until noon. He wrote that he woke up early one day by accident, opened the shutters and, Miracle of Miracles!, the sun was already up. So the French party animals could save a HUGE amount of money on candles by partying during the day. However, by turning the clocks back by 6 hours or so, the habit of "partying past 12 and sleeping past 12" could still be done, and no one would notice the difference. |
| Steven_Rosenber Oct 22, 2009 2:54 PM EDT |
I'm no fan of Daylight Saving Time (the "Saving" is singular for some reason). I'd rather spring forward two hours and stick with it all year. But it's a reality, and it's easy to deal with in most cases. |
| jezuch Oct 22, 2009 3:03 PM EDT |
Wikipedia claims that the person who actually managed to sell DST to the British parliament was an avid golfer who wanted to have an extra hour of golf when the day started to get short. So it's still a joke, albet of different nature. |
| jezuch Oct 22, 2009 3:07 PM EDT |
Quoting:But it's a reality, and it's easy to deal with in most cases. Not if you're a programmer and you have to deal with calendars. And if you ever tried to PROGRAM one, you probably have a couple of suicide attempts behind you... |
| Bob_Robertson Oct 22, 2009 3:30 PM EDT |
Got it, "saving". Still just an sillyness to make a TLA possible. (Three Letter Acronym in case someone didn't already know) In one of the true 24x7 operations in which I was involved, the ops did everything in GMT. It worked just fine, and took a very short time for newbies to get used to. |
| cybergal Oct 22, 2009 4:18 PM EDT |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8266883.stm |
| montezuma Oct 22, 2009 5:50 PM EDT |
Bob,
Ben Franklin was a smart guy, Check this quote out (stolen from a recent biography): "As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously" Upon declining a patent for the first slow combustion stove. |
| hkwint Oct 22, 2009 7:17 PM EDT |
To those who don't understand the 'saving' part, here my unorthodox view: -When it becomes Winter Time, you can sleep one hour longer than usually, -When it becomes Summer Time, be sure to forward the clock during the day (and not during the night, that would be a mistake made by many!). That way, you have to be awake one hour less then normally, while sleeping the normal amount of time. Following the reasoning above, the two days after the clock is changed, you should be a tiny bit less tired then normally, meaning it saves you two days of headache. |
| jezuch Oct 23, 2009 2:18 AM EDT |
Hans, the DST switchover here is always on the night from saturday to sunday. That means that I sleep 12 hours anyway, and then worry about tweaking the clocks :) |
| Bob_Robertson Oct 23, 2009 8:27 AM EDT |
> Ben Franklin was a smart guy Of that there are no ifs or buts. I recently finished a large biography of Jefferson, and since Franklin's time in Paris coincided with Jefferson's, there was quite a bit about him and "what they were doing and saying", as it were. The French _adored_ Franklin. And, clearly, he adored them right back. :^) Somewhere I've got a volume of sayings from "Poor Richard's Almanac", and correcting for the linguistic drift over the last 250 years his genius comes through clearly. |
| gus3 Oct 23, 2009 10:38 AM EDT |
"Early to bed and early to rise is BORING!" |
| montezuma Oct 23, 2009 10:55 AM EDT |
Gus3, Of course Franklin never followed his own advice on that matter. Particularly when in France. |
| Scott_Ruecker Oct 23, 2009 12:17 PM EDT |
I live in Arizona, we don't change our clocks..;-) |
| hkwint Oct 23, 2009 8:24 PM EDT |
Quoting:I live in Arizona, we don't change our clocks..;-) Let me guess: You only change the time displayed by the clocks, and not the clocks themselves? Believe it or not, but even people over here found out they don't need to buy a new clock after the switchover. Before we found that out, true, these switchovers were always expensive - buying a winterclock and storing the summerclock for six months and everything. |
| gus3 Oct 23, 2009 8:33 PM EDT |
@hans: No, he means their clocks know how to change their own diapers (nappies). |
| jdixon Oct 23, 2009 8:42 PM EDT |
> Let me guess:.. Arizona doesn't have DST. |
| hkwint Oct 23, 2009 8:48 PM EDT |
Wow, not having DST is even cheaper. Think of all the headaches solved... Especially for children DST seems to be a problem. |
| Scott_Ruecker Oct 23, 2009 9:13 PM EDT |
Have you ever tried to put a diaper on a clock..what a pain..lol! The hardest thing I have to remember is if New York is 2 or 3 hours away.. |
| caitlyn Oct 23, 2009 9:26 PM EDT |
Just remember, a broken clock is right twice a day unless you have DST. Then once a year it might be right three times. |
| gus3 Oct 23, 2009 9:36 PM EDT |
@caitlyn: If it happens to be right three times in one day, the extra "right time" will be compensated for the night it's outright skipped. |
| caitlyn Oct 23, 2009 9:41 PM EDT |
@Scott: That depends on how fast you drive. Unless, of course, New York is always in your heart. :) |
| jdixon Oct 23, 2009 10:05 PM EDT |
> New York is always in your heart. :) New York state or New York city? I have some fondness for northwest New York state, having driven up route 5 to Buffalo on my way to Canada a few times. New York city will never be anywhere near my heart, but then that's true of almost all cities. |
| caitlyn Oct 23, 2009 10:32 PM EDT |
Both. I grew up in New York City. I spent summers growing up in the Adirondacks. I went to college in Rochester. |
| Scott_Ruecker Oct 23, 2009 11:26 PM EDT |
I lived in NYC as an early teen and my Mother lived there up until 2003. I still have some family and old friends there so I always keep an eye on just far away it is.. |
| hkwint Oct 24, 2009 6:57 PM EDT |
Quoting:The hardest thing I have to remember is if New York is 2 or 3 hours away.. Firefox has a nice extension for this: Foxclocks. A bit clumsy, but does the trick. |
| montezuma Oct 24, 2009 8:33 PM EDT |
New York City is the center of the universe. If you live there that is. People ask me if I like it and I tell them that isn't really a good question. It has major advantages and major disadvantages. |
| caitlyn Oct 24, 2009 11:28 PM EDT |
@Hans: I just run two instances of Orage on my Xfce panel: one in Eastern (U.S.) time and one set to Israeli time. It's a nice way to avoid calling someone in the middle of the night (their time). |
| jdixon Oct 24, 2009 11:29 PM EDT |
> It has major advantages and major disadvantages. Not for me. :) But yes, the people who live there do consider it the center of the universe. But again, that seems to be true of most major cities. |
| caitlyn Oct 24, 2009 11:40 PM EDT |
I'm a native New Yorker who is not terribly happy with living in the South so I'm biased. From my viewpoint New York City has more of everything than anywhere else in the U.S. simply because it's bigger than anywhere else in the U.S. The metro area has 30 million people. So, from my perspective it has more of the best things: theatre, live music, museums, libraries, bookstores, restaurants, you name it. It also has more of the worst things. Having more people tends to do that. Interestingly enough it's crime rate per capita hasn't ranked in the top 10 in years. Some people consider it a dangerous city but statistically nearby Durham, NC is more dangerous and New York is relatively safe. |
| tuxchick Oct 24, 2009 11:51 PM EDT |
eeee any area that is measured in "X thousands of people per square mile" gives me the willies. I like X square miles per person. |
| montezuma Oct 24, 2009 11:57 PM EDT |
I'd agree with most of that Caitlyn.
You talk to "old timers" about the late 70s and they say it was a different universe.
Drug dealers on every block. After that the city transformed demographically amazingly. The crime rate dropped because of that and the hard-ass mayors. Today Manhattan is a Disneyland for young adults. I have lived here for 10 years and never felt threatened once on the streets. |
| gus3 Oct 25, 2009 12:03 AM EDT |
@TC: I did an interesting study of population density in the United States last year: http://gus3.typepad.com/i_am_therefore_i_think/2008/09/inter... |
| jdixon Oct 25, 2009 12:21 AM EDT |
> From my viewpoint New York City has more of everything than anywhere else in the U.S. Hmm... Like trees, deer, turkeys, rabbits, squirrels, foxes, open space, no neighbors, no city taxes, no city ordinances? The things you like about New York city are things I can live without. The things I dislike about it are things I can't live with. I can drive anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours to visit a museum, theatre, concert, or restaurant (though that's usually neither necessary nor worthwhile); and the net is the best library and bookstore you can find. > ...I like X square miles per person. Absolutely. |
| tuxchick Oct 25, 2009 12:27 AM EDT |
I'd love to visit NYC. Live there, I don't think so. |
| jdixon Oct 25, 2009 12:35 AM EDT |
> I'd love to visit NYC. I've been to enough cities; I don't need to visit any more. Pittsburgh, Baltimore, DC, Richmond, San Jose, Chicago, Toronto, Houston, and probably some others I'm forgetting. To me, they're all pretty much the same, though from what I've heard New York takes the rudeness trophy. Houston was probably the least objectionable of the ones I've been to. |
| caitlyn Oct 25, 2009 12:50 AM EDT |
@jdixon: I find many cities are very from one another. The hills and charm of San Francisco are very different from Chicago. I also found Pittsburgh, with the hills and rivers, to have a lot character. I knew the stereotype of an industrial city and I was amazed just how nice a place it is when I first spent time there. I find Boston different from any of the above and Miami with all the Latin culture different still. I also found Portland, Oregon, with all the parks and gardens, and Ottawa, to be particularly lovely cities. Funny, if you asked me to name a city I really dislike I'd probably put Houston at the top of the list. I find it bland, nondescript, and I don't like the culture and politics of Texas one little bit. It's also incredibly hot and humid. I don't think you could pay me enough to live there. People who think New Yorkers are rude generally don't know or understand New Yorkers. New Yorkers are up front and direct. Many say what they mean and mean what they say and don't sugar coat things. People find that rude. I personally find "southern hospitality" more than a bit phony and prefer the way New Yorkers deal with people. I value directness. New Yorkers are often also considered rude because they don't often make time for small talk and chit chat with strangers. They won't take time to say "hi" to people they don't know. OTOH, if they see someone in trouble or if someone asks for help they are the fastest to offer the proverbial shirt off their backs. Some of the most helpful people I have ever met are New Yorkers. Of course, these are generalizations. There are all sorts of people everywhere, but the stereotypes do exist for a reason. If you think New York is bad then you'd hate Tel Aviv. It's much cleaner than New York and the signs are in Hebrew, but take the New York attitude and turn it up several notches and you have Israelis. I've always felt right at home in Israel, particularly in the coastal cities. |
| Scott_Ruecker Oct 25, 2009 1:06 AM EDT |
I loved New York for many reasons, it was there that I learned that if you live in a big city you get to choose who you want to know, never ask for a pop when you really want a soda, and got my first taste of real cuisine. There's more, but why bore you all..;-) |
| tracyanne Oct 25, 2009 1:59 AM EDT |
I rarely bother to set my time zone on web sites, so it's usually whatever the site displays as the default. |
| tuxchick Oct 25, 2009 2:43 AM EDT |
Scott, that's why I want to visit. And the things Caitlyn said, and to see a real international city. Caitlyn, you've probably heard the joke about the three Southern women trying to one-up each other bragging about the goodies their rich husbands bought them, and the third one just rocks and says "That's nice" as the boasts escalate. The punch line is her gift was finishing school, where she learned to say "That's nice" instead of "f- you.' |
| jdixon Oct 25, 2009 11:08 AM EDT |
> I find many cities are very from one another.... The things to like are different in each city. The things I dislike are pretty much the same. > People who think New Yorkers are rude generally don't know or understand New Yorkers .... I personally find "southern hospitality" more than a bit phony... I think they understand them quite well and simply don't like them, and I could say you just don't understand southerrners, so we'll just have to agree to disagree. > If you think New York is bad then you'd hate Tel Aviv... Almost certainly. And London, and Paris, and Berlin, and Amsterdam, and Cairo, and New Delhi, and Tokyo, and Peking, and Shanghai, and Hong Kong, etc. Like I said, I've seen enough cities. They all have their good points, but none of them are worth putting up with the bad ones. |
| caitlyn Oct 25, 2009 2:13 PM EDT |
@jdixon: Everything you have said about cities I could say about rural areas. |
| Bob_Robertson Oct 25, 2009 2:50 PM EDT |
Hk, > Especially for children DST seems to be a problem. Sleep deprivation is an integral part of torture and brainwashing techniques worldwide. No surprise it would be used on kids, especially by setting school start times arbitrarily and early, then homework to keep them awake at night. > ...I like X square miles per person. As an author of my acquaintance has said, "shoot off the front porch in any direction and hit only trespassers." But seriously, I liked living some three hours drive time from NYC. The museums are unequalled, but I would never, ever, live there by choice. Shifting demographics have cleaned up NYC more than the hard-butt mayors. That's true of all cities. There are ebbs and flows, districts that fall into disrepair are then bought by the young and artistic (think Greenwitch Village) and what was a dying district becomes the new Place To Be. What would really clean up NYC is the same as what would turn all cities back into the teeming, churning caldrons of creativity and verve that they have always been: Repeal of Prohibition. Let's take the profits out of crime. Oh, and repeal rent control. |
| caitlyn Oct 25, 2009 2:54 PM EDT |
Prohibition was repealed back in the 1930s if I remember my history. Anything else you might mean would be a pure TOS. New York City is, to me, an outstanding, if expensive place to live, It is still most certainly one of the creative centers of our society. |
| Bob_Robertson Oct 25, 2009 2:59 PM EDT |
> Prohibition was repealed back in the 1930s if I remember my history. I didn't specify what or which prohibition, deliberately. There are many prohibitions, all of which have the same results as the single "prohibition" semi-repealed in 1933. |
| caitlyn Oct 25, 2009 3:01 PM EDT |
That is a political statement, one which I could strenuously refute, but doing so would definitely be a TOS violation. |
| Bob_Robertson Oct 25, 2009 3:05 PM EDT |
> That is a political statement, Actually it's a statement of history and economics. |
| montezuma Oct 25, 2009 3:14 PM EDT |
Caitlyn, It's what you get used to really. I lived in rural/suburban Australia before moving to NYC. The shock lasted 3 years. Australia and NYC metro area have roughly the same population but somewhat different areas ;-). I went back to the same place in Oz a couple of years back and I am certain I would go crazy for a few years living there again. Man was it quiet and provincial. Everything has its charms and burdens. |
| Sander_Marechal Oct 25, 2009 4:24 PM EDT |
Quoting:Actually it's a statement of history and economics. Nevertheless, let's stay on topic, okay? |
| hkwint Oct 25, 2009 4:51 PM EDT |
Quoting:and to see a real international city. Go to the city where I work, it's calmer (though a bit further away). Only 1/30th of the people in NY metro. But still 167 nationalities live there. And when I walk 0,7km from my work to the train station, I'm the only one on the street whose grandparents are born in the country in which I'm walking at that moment. |
| caitlyn Oct 25, 2009 5:11 PM EDT |
What Hans describes in his Dutch city can also be said of Tel Aviv, which is about twice the size Hans describes, plus it has beautiful Mediterranean beaches. :) |
| Bob_Robertson Oct 25, 2009 6:17 PM EDT |
> Nevertheless, let's stay on topic, okay? Which one? |
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