Hi! I noticed that in the U15 patch, there is a new time in the car/track select screen. Whats UTC?

UTC = GMT = zulu time = Z time = zed time = The time in London without daylight saving (the +1 hour bit in the summer).

Yes I had to make up my mind whether to call it UTC or GMT. Because more people probably know the name GMT, and why change a name?

But sometimes names have to be changed, when an old one becomes outdated. So I decided to accept that we should use the term UTC.

In fact "Coordinated Universal Time" actually means something, whereas "Greenwich Mean Time" is really very obscure if you try to think about what the words mean. Also UTC has some standards attached, like it is always expressed in 24 hour format. I think 15:30 UTC is more clear than 3:30 PM GMT. So in the end I took the modern approach and chose to say UTC. I guess it is the future.

Plus the vast majority of Brits tend not to think of BST as a timezone, I know most of us think of the world revolving around us when it comes to time and that we are in GMT all year round, when technically we move into BST in the summer and GMT stays the same - which as the time in Greenwhich is +1hr to GMT this time of year, means that fundamentally GMT is wrong for 6 months every year, which is about as screwed up as the hitchhikers guide, but at least is typically British...

Thanks Scawen, seems small but it will be a great help for those of us in different timezones.

I totally agree with Becky, In NZ our local time is +12 or 13 hrs UTC and I've had to explain to brits that there is a difference between BST & GMT. i.e. giving racetimes as GMT & meaning BST.

It's REALLY ANNOYING to miss a race cus some noddy doesn't know the difference.

Of course this could be the first step in changing LFS to internet time - ultra geeky

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatch_Internet_Time

That's not ultra geeky, that's ultra stupid. Even surpasses the irrational imprerial measures. You'd always have to convert the @time to correct time.

Timezones are better because they have constancy and logic in them.
Unless you start comparing timezones you're not in during dst transition.... then it gets confusing, because not all countries change at the same time and some add hours/minutes and some subtract.

Quote :

i.e. giving racetimes as GMT & meaning BST.

I did it myself the other day out of habbit, and allegedly I know the difference, which just goes to show how ingrained into the British psyche the concept of GMT is, and just how little we actually know about our own standard...

In part this might be because we're clinging onto something that officially ceased to exist in the 1970's (the modern UTC is not actually equal to GMT, one of them adjusts seconds or something, although I forget which and why) because of some ancient notion of empire and industrial achievement.

This is okay however and perfectly justified and so if anyone cares to argue the point we've got this ruddy big colony over the pond to argue the toss on our behalf...

err, um.

Time to move on folks .

Quote from Becky Rose :

Plus the vast majority of Brits tend not to think of BST as a timezone, I know most of us think of the world revolving around us when it comes to time and that we are in GMT all year round, when technically we move into BST in the summer and GMT stays the same - which as the time in Greenwhich is +1hr to GMT this time of year, means that fundamentally GMT is wrong for 6 months every year, which is about as screwed up as the hitchhikers guide, but at least is typically British...

But the UK is just sooooo in the past, well at least from my perspective at +11 hours GMT lol

Sorry, but i think this is just wrong. Since when has UTC meant anything!!

GMT is recognised all over the world!

It's GMT not UTC...........

boooooooooooooooooo

I think it's right to use UTC instead of GMT. It's the same to prefer kilometres over miles etc. Standards should be used.

Since the 1970's? And UTC is pretty well known from what ive seen.

Sorry, but i think that's bullsh*t.

GMT is still the recognised standard....

Quote from Chopst1x :

Sorry, but i think that's bullsh*t.

GMT is still the recognised standard....

Its a better idea to use UTC because GMT is often confused with BST. That's all. I'm sure someone already pointed this out.

"Sorry, but i think this is just wrong. Since when has UTC meant anything!!

GMT is recognised all over the world!

It's GMT not UTC...........

boooooooooooooooooo "





Typical last ditch stand from the Imperialists

Why should we be tied to GMT - VIVA LA REVOLUTION

Take to the streets and demand internet time

illepall

Quote :

GMT is recognised all over the world!

GMT would be fine, if the people who invented it knew what it meant...

It's all to do with sailing. It wouldn't have really mattered where the Mean time was. It just happens to be in Greenwich. (Do not pronounce as written. It's GREN-ITCH) It's happens to be in Greenwich because we where sailing around a lot then being all imperialistic and needed a navicable time system. Thus we placed some brass on the floor at what ever median it's on, called it GMT and the sailing ships knew when they should have hit America.

It could have been the Le Line De Paris or something if the french had got there first.

So thats why we have it. Im sure I could get a bit more technical once I've done some research.

Why isn't it at the international dateline now?

Tradition. ;p

Quote from wark :

Why isn't it at the international dateline now?

Tradition. ;p

No... wherever the coordinated time would be, the international dateline must be 180 degrees (12 hours) away from it, on the other side of the world.

So, as the time measurement centre is on the line running through Greenwich, the international dateline is on the line running through Fiji. So you can stand on that line in Fiji with half your body in one day and half your body in the next day.

Quote from Scawen :

No... wherever the coordinated time would be, the international dateline must be 180 degrees (12 hours) away from it, on the other side of the world.

So, as the time measurement centre is on the line running through Greenwich, the international dateline is on the line running through Fiji. So you can stand on that line in Fiji with half your body in one day and half your body in the next day.

Ah. Makes sense.

Of course we could have invented a totally different system and kept the dateline for ourselves too - but it looked quite complicated to live with - so we washed our hands of it by giving it to Fiji.

This has led to some confusion in Fiji, where the term "coming and going" is generally miss-interpreted and weekends are either 1 or 3 days long depending on what side of the dateline you live relative to your work.

Does that mean you get jetlag by travelling from one end of the island to the other? Do you ever get that odd accasion of meeting youreslf coming back later from where you are going to now leading to some confusion about whether the party was any good or not and leading to a whole paradoxical moment in existence when you try and decide whether to go to the party or not?

Ok. I'm happy now. Got paradoxical and existence into the same sentence.

My work here is done.

Personally, I believe that all timezones should be banned. EVeryone should adopt the BSET zone, or 'Black Spiders Eejit Time' Zone, whereby everyone sets their clocks according to what time I have dinner.


[::.. Sagely Nod ..::]

My phone is set 10 minutes fast. I always forget in the morning so I'm always at least 10 minutes early. Great!

Or is that just me?