Re: System time/timezone, was Re: Maximum size .bash_aliases file

[Keith Bainbridge <keithrbau@gmail.com>]

On 23/6/24 12:08, Nicholas Geovanis wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 22, 2024, 11:02 AM Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca 
> <mailto:monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>> wrote:
>
>      > Yes, I realise that. The times are being displayed by the gettys,
>      > controlled by the /etc/issue format string.  Jobs are being run
>      > by cron, logs written by rsyslogd, and so on. And the term is … ?
>
>     Maybe there simply isn't such a term.  The subject is sufficiently
>     complex/delicate that there can't be a term for every single situation.
>
>
> I think we are losing sight of the fact that all of timekeeping is an 
> abstraction and over-generalization. Time zones were created to help 
> regularize railroad schedules over wide areas. Timezones are an 
> abstraction that permit us to _pretend_ that it is (physical) noon at 
> the same clock time over an extended area. When in fact physical high- 
> noon, determined by the sun's position in the sky, cannot be at the 
> exact same time just a few centimeters west or east of my eyeballs.
>
>              Stefan

I can't resist.

Have you ever pondered why the 'international date line' is so convoluted?

I reckon it would have been (almost) straight if UTC was set about 11° 
west of it's current position.

Any chance of fixing it?   Probably even less now that UK has left the EU.

As for odd time zones, we have a narrow one, somewhere between the West 
Australian border (with Sth Aust) and the first notable town on the road 
West - Norseman. It's 45 mins different from Sth Aust and the a further 
45 mins to main stream West Aust.  There might be 10,000 people live 
within it.     I think that somewhere is Baledonia. I'll check next time 
I drive over, but that'll be sometime next year, if I'm lucky.

--
All the best

Keith Bainbridge

keithrbau@gmail.com
keith.bainbridge.3216@gmail.com
+61 (0)447 667 468

UTC + 10:00