Comments on: Time zones: do we really need them? http://leuksman.com/log/2009/12/29/time-zones-do-we-really-need-them/ reticula, electronica, & oddities Tue, 13 Jul 2010 23:40:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Sean Whitton http://leuksman.com/log/2009/12/29/time-zones-do-we-really-need-them/comment-page-1/#comment-41192 Sean Whitton Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:40:55 +0000 http://leuksman.com/log/?p=683#comment-41192 You could still have the selection box, but an onLoad hook or somesuch that, if JS is enabled, changes it from 'please select' to 'auto-detect' and then you satisfy every browser (and those who might want to manually set a timezone) and make it easy for others. You could still have the selection box, but an onLoad hook or somesuch that, if JS is enabled, changes it from ‘please select’ to ‘auto-detect’ and then you satisfy every browser (and those who might want to manually set a timezone) and make it easy for others.

]]> By: Dami http://leuksman.com/log/2009/12/29/time-zones-do-we-really-need-them/comment-page-1/#comment-40892 Dami Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:23:26 +0000 http://leuksman.com/log/?p=683#comment-40892 While this might not work for everyone, I'm fairly certain that you could correlate geo-IP data with time-zone data of the notices. (The slight extra information this would result in in addition to the UTC time is that you could see if someone was "denting", for example, in the middle of the night...) While this might not work for everyone, I’m fairly certain that you could correlate geo-IP data with time-zone data of the notices.
(The slight extra information this would result in in addition to the UTC time is that you could see if someone was “denting”, for example, in the middle of the night…)

]]> By: Aryeh Gregor http://leuksman.com/log/2009/12/29/time-zones-do-we-really-need-them/comment-page-1/#comment-40891 Aryeh Gregor Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:54:00 +0000 http://leuksman.com/log/?p=683#comment-40891 I think the best way to do it is have a server-side preference, but keep it updated via JS. On registration, have JavaScript autodetect the right setting and submit it. Thereafter, maybe even on every page load, you could check the user's preferred timezone and compare via JS against the current system timezone, and update the preference automatically (via AJAX or whatnot) if there's a mismatch. Should be a simple variable compare in the common case, no noticeable client-side overhead, and requires no more JS than necessary. For people whose system time is wrong, or who don't use JS, you could have a preference somewhere out of the way, with the default being "Autodetect using JavaScript". I think the best way to do it is have a server-side preference, but keep it updated via JS. On registration, have JavaScript autodetect the right setting and submit it. Thereafter, maybe even on every page load, you could check the user’s preferred timezone and compare via JS against the current system timezone, and update the preference automatically (via AJAX or whatnot) if there’s a mismatch. Should be a simple variable compare in the common case, no noticeable client-side overhead, and requires no more JS than necessary.

For people whose system time is wrong, or who don’t use JS, you could have a preference somewhere out of the way, with the default being “Autodetect using JavaScript”.

]]> By: David Gerard http://leuksman.com/log/2009/12/29/time-zones-do-we-really-need-them/comment-page-1/#comment-40882 David Gerard Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:47:45 +0000 http://leuksman.com/log/?p=683#comment-40882 UTC Forever! If it's good enough for Wikimedia, it's good enough for everybody! The mere detail that I live in UTC+0 is neither here nor there. UTC Forever! If it’s good enough for Wikimedia, it’s good enough for everybody! The mere detail that I live in UTC+0 is neither here nor there.

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