I imagine that I could make a long list of the things that I'll do when I become supreme ruler of all the universe, but at the moment the one little thing chapping my hide is Daylight Saving Time.
Don't get me wrong, I love the extra daylight that DST shifts to the evening. It is great to trade daylight from the morning to the evening and not have to adjust everyone's schedule to make it happen. My problem arises from the (relatively) new laws that change the start and end dates for DST. The new rules have caused HUGE amounts of grief for those of us who have to manage devices that know the time. All over the place are devices that keep the time and many also know the timezone. Many of these have been trained to automatically handle the change to and from DST, but now that the rules have changed all of those devices need to be updated to make them work properly.
This issue first arose when the first new changeover date came around, and there were plenty of devices that didn't get it right then. Well, there are still lots that don't get it right. The biggest problems I run into are in scheduling and calendaring applications, and in email. These applications usually include time zone info. All manner of trouble arises from systems and devices that don't properly convey time zone info.
So, my grand scheme, that everyone will hate (therefore it requires a firm-fisted ruler to force it on everyone) is to adopt Universal Time for everyone everywhere. It will take a little time to adjust to the fact that I have lunch at 18:00 GMT (or UTC, but I kind of like the nostalgia of GMT, and if I'm the Decider...), but I think that in the end we'll all be better off.
Independent of all the grief it causes me personally, there are many cases where it just doesn't make sense any more to try to convey time zone info. With instant worldwide communication and fast worldwide travel come constant demands to try to figure out what time it is somewhere else based on the time zone there. With GMT everywhere there is no figuring - when the schedule says the plane arrives at 15:15, that is 15:15 on my watch no matter where I was when I last set it. When I tell someone we'll have a conference call at 8:30 we all know when to call, no matter where we are.
Unfortunately, adopting GMT for all times means that DST as we know it will be no more, but I guess that is the price we have to pay for the simplicity of one single consistent representation of time. Anyone who wants more daylight can just get up earlier (sez he who can never get up remotely early).
3 comments:
I like the plan, and have wondered before why we don't just split DST by half an hour and leave it alone year 'round.
But using GMT won't kill DST, as we'll still have to shift our schedules an hour seasonally in order to get the best use of the light. Being all on the same "time zone" will not change that. Instead, on a certain date, our whole scheduled times for doing things will need to shift an hour. That might be as complicated or worse (and certainly will not be uniformly applied).
Since my job hops across any and all time zones, our schedules are written exactly as you say, with everything in "zulu time." Then we have to think about how much of a shift is required to get to local time, a problem which would still exist even if, say, all Californians were ALSO on zulu time. We'd still need to know the zulu time where things happen (like Happy Hour) in CA.
The guys who fly around the world then have to cope with the Universal Date Line. I still have trouble wrapping my head around that one!
True, adapting GMT universally would not necessarily mean the death of DST. Although I could use my power to abolish it. And you are right that using GMT everywhere would certainly lead to other difficulties of the sort you mentioned. Some problems would be helped and others would be created.
Maybe I'll have to save my dictatorial power for some other trivial decree.
We do need to get rid of this biannual clock adjustment business. I like your idea of just splitting the difference, setting the clocks, and leaving them. I'll have to ponder that possibility a bit.
I had to deal with the time change while traveling, so there was the time change and then the time zone changes and then my phone said one thing but my Blackberry said another because one was thinking of the OLD daylight savings and the other was working on the NEW daylight savings and I think my brain may have liquified and oozed out my ears.
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