On Sunday 18 September 2005 00:57, Randall R Schulz wrote:
Dear Anonymous Synthetic Cartoonz wrote:
Oh pompous one
Pompous? I think we're using different dictionaries.
You, however, are displaying condescension and paternalism in your insistence in protecting people from something that you admit doesn't adversely affect you.
The only one displaying such an attitude is you. The DST problem doesn't affect you, so nobody else should bother worrying about it. When the school zone warning lights don't come on at the proper time and a few tots get squashed then I'll remember that Randall R Schwartz, Emperor Of Space Time, commanded it wasn't worth worrying about.
So daylight savings time does not adversely affect you. Do you think that while you can easily accommodate DST, others need to be protected from it?
As has been expressed here and by many others with many examples time keeping affects people. Many people trust time keeping systems. We've hooked our infrastructure to time-keeping systems to better manage them. When those systems cease being trustworthy then varying degrees of mayhem results. ...
If you've somehow achieved a personal nirvana that requires you don't ever look at a clock then Congratulations.
Cut the sarcasm, will you, please?
What the clock displays when the sun comes up and goes down does not matter to me. Why should it? It's all entirely arbitrary.
Naturally, the passage of time, how much I have in a day, how long I'll live, do matter to me. DST start and end dates have nothing to do with these aspects of time.
You say I'm sarcastic and then you confirm exactly what I said. Time keeping matters to other people. The fact it doesn't matter to you is not reason enough that other people must obey your Que Sera Sera dictate to the masses. By the way, does that sun-goes-up, sun-goes-down, time-is-arbitrary excuse work with your boss when you show up late? I'll have to plan to show up late to work one day and try it out. I suspect I'll be referred to HR for a drug test.
You've now confirmed my earlier suspicion: that you believe it's up to you to protect others from the ravages of DST.
It is a programmer's job to protect people from the dangers of systems that are not perfectly predictable or inadequately managed. What do you think a programmer's job is? Showing up to work "whenever" and drinking coffee? [snip pseudopolitical silliness]
I remain completely unconvinced that this is a real issue. It is trivially accommodated within existing technological means, as we've already covered.
Excluding the previous World War I and II time fudging policies, the current attempt at a Federal DST schedule began in the 60s, was tweaked in the early 70s, and amended in the mid-80s. There are not many computer systems of any importance still functioning from that era or before it. Many of the current "technological means" that accommodate DST have been created and operate under the assumption (yes, an incorrect assumption) that the schedule set by law doesn't change. Yes, badly engineered systems. But, if everything coded before us was done perfectly then few of us would have jobs. Then again, since time doesn't matter to you why should anyone bother accommodating it at all? Hakuna Matata, baby. Don't Worry, Be Happy.
People have been dealing with it for decades without serious impact.
People have been dealing with a known schedule that had not changed since the time before everything was trusted to computers. ...