Uhhhh, last I checked Illinois is a state, and it is one of the northernmost states in the midwest. It is also one of the most populous states in the entire country. I don't remember Illinois being merely "a town".

You'd think the Slashdot nerds could at least be intelligent about this subject.

Many of the posts here refer to "Daylight Savings Time". For that matter, go to Options at the top of this page, and even Slashdot calls it "Daylight Savings Time". Yet there is no such thing.

I can't help but laugh. People aren't as smart as they often pretend to be :P

--Randall

It's Daylight Saving Time. Even Slashdot can't get it right. Go to "Options" and it clearly says Daylight Savings Time.

I laugh, and then I can't help but laugh some more. Even nerds can't get it right.

--Randall

It's not impossible. There can be a civic metric unit just for use on Earth (which is capitalized btw because it's a designated planetary body, not random soil awaiting tillage). Different civic metric units could be devised once we colonize other planets.

--Randall

I've been advocating for a +30 minute switch for a long time. I thought I was the only one that recognized that solution :)

--Randall

I'm in total agreement. What really needs to be rectified is the 24 hour days, 30/31 day months, etc. which are impractical for anything other than perhaps astronomical observations or zodiac readings.

When I was in high school I devising a comprehensive metric-based system of civic time measurement. I don't remember what the units were called, but the average length of the day was derived as a decimal and the annual calendar was based on degrees of revolution around the sun (with five extra days distributed evenly through the year). I'll have to go through my piles of notes to find that project again :)

--Randall

It drives me nuts when people use decimal points to refer to times and dates. It is called a decimal point for a reason, it refers to a base 10 system. Clocks are not based 10. Thus we use a colon as the standard. As for the calendar, we use a dash or a forward slash :P

Geeks use decimals everywhere because it looks cooler even though it defies the standard. What then is the point of a convention if it has no basis in effective communication?

--Randall

Timezones are an absolute necessity not just for global communication. If we eliminate timezones, it still does not obviate the need for a local standard to ensure effective interaction. Imagine if every city were then entitled to define a new standard by which its general populous is expected to adhere.

So in Los Angeles businesses would arbitrarily open an hour earlier than San Diego and two hours earlier than San Francisco, simply because the City of Los Angeles decided to establish 0:00 to 8:00 as the operational day for city government. Thus we've come full circle by obfuscating the system of measurement that was designed specifically to simplify our lives in both a local and global context.

--Randall

My proposed solution is to just advance all clocks a half-hour ahead. I advocate designating this as the standard time year round. Thus we would observe the average between daylight saving time and current standard time, and no further adjustment is necessary.

--Randall

Um really, social norms? I know plenty of businesses that open at 8am. In fact, frankly most businesses at least here in Illinois open at 8am. I don't know where you live but it seems pretty normal here :)

--Randall

I agree base-12 would have been much more practical for all purposes. I'm not sure why it was never universally adopted, except on the clock.

Perhaps if we ever "reboot" humanity, then we can establish base-12 as the standard.

--Randall

Not necessarily so. The "second" could remain for scientific use, and a separate metric unit could be designated for civic use. That's not much different than how it is now for length and weight measurement in the U.S. As long as they are separate units, they could be phased in over time (no pun intended) without interfering with the current system of measurement. --Randall

It's Daylight Saving Time, not "Savings" :P

I guess those numbers would mean something if the revenue streams were there.

Yet for some reason, in this country only Webcasters (and cable and satellite to a much lesser extent of course) remunerate the recording artists while every other commercial user is free and clear of paying paying ANY royalties for sound recordings played. Terrestrial radio? Nope. Nightclubs and Bars? Nothing. Amusement parks? Nada. Music on hold? Don't even think it.

Seems there could be an awful lot of other sources of revenue for rights holders, but here in the U.S. we only care about hammering the small guys. The Internet radio business model is hardly lucrative except for a select few. Even satellite and cable, which does have to pay royalties to SX, enjoys a sweet deal in comparison to those businesses that derive all their revenue from digital broadcasting.

Copyright law in this country pretty messed up if you ask me. You theoretically could get a lot of money, but instead you make license fees inordinately high for one very niche and still nascent industry with limited income, and every time you meet at the bargaining table (i.e. CRB or formerly CARP), you refuse any offers and forestall any negotiation unless your demands are met. Isn't that known as extortion?

It's interesting that it took so long for the wave of interest to catch on about this date. I remember blogging about the rollover to 1,111,111,111 back in March of 2005. And I've been looking forward to February 13, 2009 ever since.

Unix Time's 1111111111 Second Countdown

It's actually quite exhilarating -- esp. for us hardcore tech geeks -- to think that we will soon witness the last significant numerological date in computer history during our lifetime (using decimal notation at least, so long as the standard for Unix time maintains signed 32-bit integers).

--Randall