[Wikipedia-l] Timezone based on UTC? (was: New e-mail feature)

[Jaap van Ganswijk]

At 2002-08-21 13:05 -0700, lcrocker at nupedia.com wrote:
>> Agreed. Is there any reason we can't just set the internal clock
>> on the machine to UTC? (I personally can't, as I don't have root
>> access to the server.)
>>
>> I suppose we might want to automagically add 7 (or 8?) hours to
>> the timezone settings of anyone who's set it, of course, so they
>> still end up correct.
>
>Yes, whether we fix it by changing the server time itself, or by
>fixing the software to use UTC instead of server time, the user
>table in the database will have to be updated.

If updating the database is a problem, a more smoother conversion
might be to add a flag to signify who is still using the old
system and who is using the new system. Everyone using the old
system would be converted whenever he changes his settings.

I don't know if this system would be less complex than changing
the complete user database at once.

>Changing the time on the server is a decision Jimbo/Jason will have
>to make, because it may have effects with other machines on their
>network.

I wouldn't do that if the server is really in that timezone.
Servers have an actual location on earth and should run in
local time, I think.

>I really should fix the software; it's just that I haven't
>personally felt that it was an important thing to spend time on, but
>I suppose there are enough complaints now to raise that priority.

It looks very silly and a lot of people come across it...

Greetings,
Jaap