Re: [LEAPSECS] BBC - Leap second talks are postponed

From: Clive D.W. Feather <clive_at_demon.net>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 08:53:28 +0000

Rob Seaman said:
>> Microsoft *spit* Outlook calendar management talks about "GMT
>> Daylight Savings Time" or some such idiocy. Every spring I respond
>> to the first appointment request from my boss with "so do you want
>> to meet at 10:00 GMT or 10:00 BST?".
>
> Isn't this a reflection of Britain having a single time zone?

No.

[And, incidentally, part of the United Kingdom operates on a different civil
time zone to the rest of it, though most people aren't aware of this.]

It's a reflection of Redmond's "the USA is the whole world" stupidity.

> Certainly there
> is occasional confusion about meeting times and TV schedules,

My comment above wasn't confusion, it's pedantry - point out that he's not
asking for what he wants. [Before you point fingers, such pedantry is part
of my job.]

> In particular, the multiple timezones enforce a common
> usage for daylight saving terminology.

It is NOT CALLED "daylight saving" and it is NOT saving any daylight.

It is "summer time".

And that's another bit of the Redmond stupidity - not all the world uses
the same terminology.

[Personally, I consider this bi-annual clock change even more stupid, but
that's another debate.]

> Contrarily, in Britain you have chosen to call your civil standard
> time "Greenwich Mean Time"

That being because it is the Mean Time at Greenwich. Strange, I know.
[Parts of the UK used to be on Dublin Mean Time.]

> and your civil daylight saving time
> "British Summer Time",

Correct, that because it's the time in the summer in Britain.

> rather than (for instance) British Standard
> Time and British Daylight Time.

British Standard Time is something else. And British Daylight Time is, I
would guess, the opposite of British Nighttime Time.

--
Clive D.W. Feather  | Work:  <clive_at_demon.net>   | Tel:    +44 20 8495 6138
Internet Expert     | Home:  <clive_at_davros.org>  | Fax:    +44 870 051 9937
Demon Internet      | WWW: http://www.davros.org | Mobile: +44 7973 377646
Thus plc            |                            |
Received on Mon Nov 21 2005 - 00:54:25 PST

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