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Domain: webexhibits.org

Stories and comments across the archive that link to webexhibits.org.

Comments · 104

  1. Re:Wierd thing just happened by pheared · · Score: 1 · on Slashdot is Moving. Help Load Test!

    Actually it's Daylight Saving time.

    From: This link

    Spelling & grammar

    The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight SavingS Time.

    Saving is used here as a verbal adjective (a participle). It modifies time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving daylight kind of time. Similar examples would be dog walking time or book reading time. Since saving is a verb describing a single type of activity, the form is singular.

    Nevertheless, many people feel the word savings (with an 's') flows more mellifluously off the tongue, and Daylight Savings Time is also in common usage, and can be found in dictionaries.

    Part of the confusion is because the phrase Daylight Saving Time is inaccurate, since no daylight is actually saved. Daylight Shifting Time would be better, but it is not as politically desirable. In fact, scientifically misguided politicians sometimes misunderstand. In 1995, the British Time (Extra Daylight) Bill was introduced by John Butterfill, attempting the impossible -- to legislate extra daylight. The bill did not pass.

  2. Re:Dual boot? by lewiscr · · Score: 3, Informative · on Daylight Savings and UNIX?
    BTW, I've always wondered about how the transition day is calculated. I've never been able to find a simple description of it.
    *snip*
    Is it just a 'last Sunday in October/April' or something like that hard coded in the library?

    Depends on the Country and the Hemisphere. The US (and most of North America) is first sunday in April and last sunday in Octoboer. I didn't realize that the Southern Hemisphere observers DST the other six months (ie, their summer). Seems obvious in hindsight.

    Web Exhibits has history and start/stop days by country.

    I shamelessly stole a bit of DST calculation code from their web site.

  3. Time Zones by kirkjobsluder · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Legal Pundits Pan Internet Exceptionalism

    Um, didn't the railroads create a need for the federal government to enforce standardized time zoned. For another example of law applying to a specific information technology, what about the regulation of radio in the early 20th century to reduce interferance.

  4. Re:MORE MONTHS? by tordia · · Score: 1 · on 13 Month Calendar?
    But think about this. We have seconds defined to be the time it takes for light to travel a certain distance (measured in km), but now we have defined km to be the distance light travels in 1 second. This is a cyclic definition. You still haven't given a reason why we can't change the definition, not that that's what you were trying to do, necessarily.

    There's no reason for keeping the current measuring unit for time (except tradition), because we arbitrarily picked these constants. What's so special about 299,792.458 km, besides the meaning we gave it?

    I just found the "current official" definition of the second. According to this website, the current official definition of a second is "time it takes for 9 192 631 770 oscillations of the Cesium atom at zero magnetic field". Even so, what is so special about that. It's arbitrary, too. I get the feeling that these things were officially defined after they had been in use for some time (specifically the units of time), so the definitions that were created had to agree with the current use of the units.

    When you get down to it, are there any units that aren't arbitrarily based?