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Discussion: Battlefield 2142 / Battlefield 2142 - General Discussion - Timezones - No matter what time zone you use, people will have to convert.
What makes you
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04-05-2009, 02:22 PM #31
Re: Timezones
No matter what time zone you use, people will have to convert.
What makes you think it's better to convert from UTC instead of EST?Fight!
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04-05-2009, 02:29 PM #32
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Re: Timezones
The majority of our members (especially supporting members) are EST/EDT, at least as far as our integrated map shows.
|TG| RogueTheory
Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise.
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04-05-2009, 02:46 PM #33
Re: Timezones
I'm from California, and I favor UTC universally (not just at TG). Not because I'm west coast but because I'm a programmer nerd.
All *nix server computers (Linux, Sun, even old Unix) run in UTC, and time is only converted for display. Files are stored on the disk with UTC times. This ensures that you can edit files on a server on the other side of the world and the times will be consistent.
Note that UTC and Zulu are a second or so different. UTC is atomic time, while Zulu allows for the Earth's wobble and so isn't quite so steady.
And on DST: I HATE having to get up an hour early once a year to make some random pressure group happy. (Getting up an hour early for my reasons is fine. It's when it's not under my control that I get pissed. Guys, I need my beauty sleep. Trust me on this.)
Politicians are constantly fiddling with which day Daylight Saving Time falls on, and that screws up embedded devices that were programmed before that fad started and don't have a provision for upgrades. It's caused all kinds of havoc in the software world for older operating systems.
BTW, here's my previous rant on this subject:
http://matureasskickers.net/wbb2/thr...?threadid=3387Dude, seriously, WHAT handkerchief?
snooggums' density principal: "The more dense a population, the more dense a population."
Iliana: "You're a great friend but if we're ever chased by zombies I'm tripping you."
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04-05-2009, 02:47 PM #34
Re: Timezones
Only problem I find with timezone converters is you're never 100% sure with the DSTs.
Originally Posted by Superfast
UTC is the standard time and all other time zones are given in relation to it. Originally Posted by Zhohar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern...disambiguation)
Notice all of these are given as "UTC+/-".Anger is a gift - Malcolm X
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04-05-2009, 03:24 PM #35
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Re: Timezones
If I ever host an event, I will do it in Mars time, choosing some random point on the planet, and not tell anyone which it is. If no one shows up but me, I win!!!!
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04-05-2009, 05:08 PM #36
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Re: Timezones
Everyone should know the difference between their time zone and UTC without having to look it up so...it should be easier.
And yes I'm UTC +1 hour lol, just checking you guys could catch me out
Last edited by MrJengles; 04-05-2009 at 06:16 PM.
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04-05-2009, 05:47 PM #37
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Re: Timezones
I have never seen UTC before this thread so that is a silly assumption to make.
I see no point in shifting over to UTC, instead of just the Euros and a few west coast players everyone would have to make adjustments to the given time. Now to me that seems like a lot more work for everyone.Reapator, overlord of ponies
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04-05-2009, 09:29 PM #38
Re: Timezones
The location of GMT/UTC with respect to the world is just as much convention as is the location of EST with respect to the TG's userbase. Originally Posted by SharinganTH1422
Conventions are created to be convenient to the majority. EST suits TG's majority.Last edited by Zhohar; 04-05-2009 at 09:56 PM.
Fight!
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04-05-2009, 10:56 PM #39
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Re: Timezones
Originally Posted by Zhohar
So if conventions are for the majority, and GMT was created as a convention...that means the majority of the world lives in that time zone? Lol, no, it was created because it made it simpler for everyone and that area happened to be chosen.
Anyway, everyone should know the difference between themselves and GMT/UTC in case they need to. In which case everyone would instantly be able to add or subtract accordingly to a time given in UTC. EST means the majority do nothing, but everyone else, unless they know the time zone difference and the daylight savings times has to look it up.
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04-05-2009, 11:16 PM #40
Re: Timezones
Actually, no. Originally Posted by MrJengles
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was established in 1675 when the Royal Observatory [in Britain] was builtGMT was established because it was useful and convenient to its founders. Other people adopted the convention, and no one questioned its actual physical position shortly thereafter because they were grateful for the benefit of the stable standard.The first time zone in the world was established by British railway companies on December 1, 1847
Like I said -- either way, some people will need to convert time. There are fewer people who need to convert if we use EST. That's about as simple as it gets.Fight!
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04-05-2009, 11:18 PM #41
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Re: Timezones
Chosen because 0'Degrees Longitude was established at Greenwich observatory: Originally Posted by MrJengles
Not that this has any bearing on this discussion. Excuse the pun
In Order to Dance
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04-06-2009, 09:52 PM #42
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Re: Timezones
I guess I brought this up because at work I have to co-ordinate with people from:
USA, India, China, Ukraine and Russia on a daily basis (I kid you not).
If we all chose to base our time on Ukraine time (which is actually where the majority of people we are interacting with are are based) then it would mean that every other individual would have to work out their timezone in relation to Ukraine's current time, including DST calculations. As soon as we mention UTC, most people involved know pretty much exactly where they are in relation to that without having to look it up. It just struck me as odd that an international online community wouldn't do the same thing.
And honestly, I couldn't give a damn about the politics. If UTC happened to be based on a zero degrees longitude that were in the middle of Panama and England were UTC-7, I wouldn't care. It still makes sense, as far as I'm concerned, to start at zero rather than plus or minus anything and calculate from there.
TG-E1st TacticalGamer European Division - Staying healthy with two portions of AWESOME CAKE per day.
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04-06-2009, 10:04 PM #43
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Re: Timezones
To address this issue, I suppose I have to bring my everday life into it. Say that you belonged to three online communities - one based in Central Europe, one based in Japan and one based in the USA. Each of them organises events and each of them uses a timezone in which their majority player base happens to be in. Originally Posted by Zhohar
You see events on all three. Their times are 1300EST, 1900JST and 1500CET. How much effort is it going to be for you to determine which, if any, of these events clashes? How much easier would it be if they were laid out 1800UTC, 1000UTC and 1400UTC?
Added for clarification: Now the people in Europe can lookup anywhere on the net their own timezone and find that CET is UTC+1, the people in Japan can lookup JST and find that it is UTC+9 and those on the East Coast in the USA can lookup EST to find that it is UTC-5. Conversely, for somebody in Central Europe, for example, it would take some searching and manual calculations based on current times to find that their present time is EST+6 (which will, of course, change for several weeks of the year once DST changes kick in at different times in different countries).
The point being that people who play on TG might have other schedules to keep and it just adds cognitive load to have to balance schedules and times across timezones like that.
A second point to this is when you say "No matter what time zone you use, people will have to convert." True but with UTC the difference between your own timezone and UTC can be found easily all over the net, the difference between EST and say JST is not such a simple one to work out (I don't know if we have players in Japan but the principle remains). In fact, I brought up this very thread after a quick conversation and extended discussion on Steam with a couple of people who were confused and unable to determine for certain when an event was supposed to be starting. That was even WITH the Steam calendar system in place, they weren't sure if the conversion was right, if the people writing that the time was based on EST were aware that the timezone in operation was EDT etc etc.
Edit: I posted this in the early hours of the morning before I went to bed and wasn't really that wide awake so forgive the rambling and slightly incoherent nature of my post.Last edited by DrProctor; 04-07-2009 at 04:32 AM.
TG-E1st TacticalGamer European Division - Staying healthy with two portions of AWESOME CAKE per day.
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04-06-2009, 11:10 PM #44
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Re: Timezones
Honestly, I don't even know when's EST and when's EDT. I know EDT is daylight savings time, but is that over the summer or the winter? It's not something that gets taught to us, and all TV programs are always "7pm EST/6pm CST" as we grew up (at least in the states). I personally wouldn't mind switching to UTC, wouldn't take me long to remember which half of the year is EDT and which is EST.
Then again, I also think that we should just do away with timezones/DST completely. Just make UTC the standard for the entire world. Sure it'll take some time to adjust, but who cares. So what if the sun only rises at 6am in england. Wouldn't it be easier for the entire world if everybody's watch/clock gave the exact same time, all the time? (I guess new years would probably be crazy). Also if all the UN countries switched (including the US), I can guarentee you that the rest of the world would switch too, except maybe north korea... but they seem to have a burning desire to be separated from everyone else anyways.
While we're at it, are there any other countries outside the US that still use the imperial measurement system? I'll never understand why we haven't converted to metric yet...
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04-07-2009, 04:19 AM #45
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Re: Timezones
My main problem is that times are currently posted claiming to be in EST, but they are not. They are an hour out because in summer the server time zone changes.
Anyone living in a place that has summer time changes time zones twice a year.
If you really want to keep the server on EST, then please keep it on EST (which means that in summer anyone living in the EST time zone will have to deduct an hour from the server time to get EDT).
I missed a TGU class because I happened to be the only guy that actually got the time zone calculations correct. EDT <> EST
It is a very common mistake. Time zones do not change times. It is the other way around: In summer you change time zone!I want a semi-automatic grenade launcher for the support role... like the one available in Aliens vs. Predator 2. All those different "warhead" types would be extremely useful.
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