Day light saving, how to change time
-
Hi, yesterday we (UK) lost 1 hour to day-light saving but my blog UTC time remained unchanged.
I adjusted it by 1 hour under the options section “Times in the weblog should differ by”. Although the ‘output time’ seemingly adjusted, I noticed my post was still published according to the unadjusted time.
This is not a big issue but would be grateful if someone can tell me how to adjust my blog UTC time. -
UTC does not have daylight savings time. UTC is the scientic time that is kept by the atomic clocks. Local clocks and changes made by local governments (ie Day Light savings time) is made against Greenwich Mean Time or GMT.
-drmike
-
-
Not a problem. Actually that was an interesting question because I always thought GMT and UTC were the same thing.
Good luck,
-drmike -
Mike
I was under the impression that GMT and UTC were the same thing too. Just had different names…
-
I was as well actually. :)
As I read the wikipedia pages on UTC and GMT as well as the governmental webpages on time that they link go, I gather that they are not.
It’s also confusing me because I see places where peopl call UTC Civil Time and where civil time is called Solar time which is what GMT is.
And then we have Universal Time.
Bloody hell….
I know my boxes do not change upon the changes for Daylight Savings time. I know Bush was an *cough* when he changed Daylight Saving Time a few months back and royally screwed up those who set their computer gear to GMT.
It’s my understanding that since servers need to be on the same time for communication purposes between each other and since different counties have different Daylight Saving Time rules, UTC stays the same year round. I know my time source (The atomic clock in Denver) is UTC and it doesn’t change.
Heck, I might be wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time. I’m sitting here wish I could find a “What’s the difference between UTC and GMT?” website actually. Tempted to go down to the reference desk and ask them.
We could always do a Ask Yahoo question. :)
Edit: Actually I found one but it doesn’t cover DST.
Ain’t this fun? :D
-
Could you implement a “Use Daylight Savings Time” checkbox for those in DST observing countries/states/municipalities/delusions? It would make me very happy, and I would make a sandwich to celebrate the happenings.
-
The problem with that though is every country/ state/ etc handles Daylight Savings time differently and with different dates. Heck, some locales don’t every do a full hour. (Some island in the Pacific does 30 minutes)
-drmike
-
Just picked up this interesting thread a little late, but thought I’d try explain the difference between GMT & UTC:
There isn’t one. Much.
GMT was a time based (as you might expect) on the mean (average) time that the sun is at the highest point on it’s axis over Greenwich, England. Unfortunately the rotation of the Earth is slightly irregular & is at present slowing down. This doesn’t cause a problem for day to day use, but in a number of different applications it is neccessary for timekeeping to be more accurate and predictable. UT (Universal Time) is a “astronomical” continuation of GMT designed to be more accurate in various ways, and of which there are various versions. GMT is now equal to this value.
UTC is a standard adopted for the net due to it’s regular nature, based on atomic clocks. Due to the different reference points (astronomical vs. atomic) UTC will differ from UT&GMT by a number of seconds at any given time, although leap seconds are added at the end of June 30 & December 31 to keep synchronisation. Announcements of these adjustments are apparently made by IERS who’s job it is to keep everything in check (this may change [1][2]).
Short answer:
In normal usage the differences between UTC & UT(GMT) are inconsequential. WET (Western European Time) can also be used if you want to confuse people.
-
-
Hah, I didn’t see you’re useful link… would have saved me a bit of time. Note to self: Read :)
Now, who want’s to explain the point of Swatch time. Erm…
-
<snip>
The problem with that though is every country/ state/ etc handles Daylight Savings time differently and with different dates. Heck, some locales don’t every do a full hour. (Some island in the Pacific does 30 minutes)
<snip>This should be easy enough. A check box and a drop down menu. Or one drop down menu. All it would take is one person who knows the most common daylight savings time rules. It doesn’t really sound that complicated as far as option dialogues go.
-
Then what do you when the rules change like with what happened here in the States this year? How about when the size of the datatables that would have to know the rules for each and every change for each and every location around the world for the next 50 years? Granted, they could upgrade their software but there are still folks who are running WP 1.22 out there. Not everybody can upgrade their own software. How about if a location drops their daylight sayings rule?
-
Dr.Mike,
I am on EST, as you are. How do I get my stat page to reflect this from the time stamp that WordPress uses? -
Stat page, you don’t. It runs on UTC time as well since it’s keeping track of the stats site wide, not just for your own blog.
-
- The topic ‘Day light saving, how to change time’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 