Re:Storing UTC is not a silver bullet (2019)
by kjrfghslkdjfl on Tuesday July 23, 2024 @04:39AM
(#41043966)
I didn't say aliens would care about UTC, did I? I said that we would have to specify a point in time without resorting to calendars. I didn't say we would use offset to UTC, because aliens don't know UTC either. But presumably they can measure time, so we could e.g. measure a point in time as an offset to "now". We would also have to use units that they understand. Not seconds, but perhaps Cesium revolutions.
> And it seems a bit pedantic to separate it
I would say that the fact that you can't see a distinction between time and a calendar is precisely the reason you're confused. So I wouldn't consider it pedantic.
No, you are absolutely right about the distinction, I didn't see it as useful since the article is dealing with calendars here, eg. time of event at some location. I don't think I've used time without a calendar so it seems a bit abstract to do so.
> If you want to represent a point in a calendar, use local timezone.
And actually, going back to the original comment, this part was covered by the article. Storing timezone doesn't cover the case of a location switching between timezones.
So it seems the article can't be summed up in a simple rule like the original comment contends.