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Timezone Maintainer Retiring

Posted by timothy on from the sunset-clause-means-it's-noon-all-over dept.

linuxwrangler writes "It's used in Java. It's used in nearly every flavor of UNIX/Linux. In PostgreSQL, Oracle and other databases. Several RFCs refer to it. But where does the timezone database come from? I never gave it much thought but would have assumed that it was under the purview of some standards body somewhere. It's not. Since the inception of the database Arthur David Olson has maintained the database, coordinated the mailing list and volunteers and provided a release platform and now he is retiring. IANA is developing a transition strategy. Jon Udell has an interesting literary appreciation of the timezone database."

3 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. Definition of awesome by BeShaMo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know you're awesome when IANA have to develop a transitioning strategy when you retire.

    1. Re:Definition of awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's posts like this that make me lament only being able to spend one mod point at a time!

  2. Re:Stupid humans, why do we still need this crap? by Pingmaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's say you live your life in New York, where the sun is at it's peak at 7am (UTC -5 hours, 12:00pm-5 = 7:00am). You are used to waking up at 2am, having lunch at 7am and going to bed at 6pm. You then travel overseas, where the sun peaks at 1:00pm (UTC +1 hour). Now, instead of setting your watch and waiting for jet lag to run it's course, you now have to re-wire your brain to continuously remember to eat lunch at 1pm, not supper and that bedtime is somewhere around midnight.

    At least with time zones (as fucked up as the current system is), you can travel anywhere, set your clock to the local time and have a general estimation of the day. Wake up at 6-7am, eat lunch at noon, supper at 5 or 6, go to bed around 11. Makes things much easier on our dumb little brains.