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Updated Australian time zone names/strings
by David J N Begley March 22, 2001

March 22, 2001

To whom it may concern... Summary: I'd like to request the "EST/EST" time zone strings for Australian eastern standard and summer/daylight-savings time be changed to "AEST/AEDT", given that "EST/EST": - clashes with an existing U.S. time zone; - gives no indication of the difference between standard/d'light savings; - is unnecessarily confusing; - is incorrectly quoted from the time zone database as authoritative; and, - does not necessarily gel with "common practice" in Australia. Whilst it is arguable exactly what string/abbreviation should be used in the absence of formal standards, I present "common usage" examples below and argue that at the very least, the abbreviations for standard and daylight savings time should be *different*. Detail: Checking the tzdata2001a archive (and various UNIX systems), Australian eastern time zones (particularly "Australia/Sydney") use the time zone string "EST" for both standard and summer/daylight-savings time. Notionally, this is just a visual issue that doesn't really bring the IT industry to its knees if it's wrong since most decent systems work directly on the UTC offset instead. However, some systems use the time zone database as an "expert reference" from which to extrapolate incorrect information - it is this that triggered my submission to you. For example, the time zone database includes the following comment: # From John Mackin (1991-03-06): # We in Australia have _never_ referred to DST as `daylight' time. # It is called `summer' time. Now by a happy coincidence, `summer' # and `standard' happen to start with the same letter; hence, the # abbreviation does _not_ change... I can't speak for Mr Mackin's direct experience, but I can most certainly contest the assertion that, "We in Australia have _never_ referred to DST as `daylight' time" - certainly everyone I know (and myself, of course) have always used the term "daylight savings" rather than "summer time". I've used UNIX systems for years so to a certain degree I'm used to this "error" in the time zone database; however, now that people are using the database as an authoritative resource (despite the comments in the file to the contrary), I thought it only fair to request a correction (in the hope that those relying on the database will in turn correct their information). Mr Mackin continues: # The legislation does not actually define abbreviations, at least # in this State, but the abbreviation is just commonly taken to be the # initials of the phrase, and the legislation here uniformly uses # the phrase `summer time' and does not use the phrase `daylight # time'. Unfortunately Mr Mackin does not indicate to what State he refers, but in *this* State (New South Wales - NSW), the relevant legislation clearly uses both terms (summer time and daylight savings) interchangeably; for reference, see the Standard Time Act 1987 (NSW), which *predates* Mr Mackin's comment: "New South Wales Consolidated Acts - STANDARD TIME ACT 1987" http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/sta1987137/ Whilst the Act clearly defines "standard time" and "summer time", it also makes specific mention of "daylight saving": - the long title of the legislation is: "An Act relating to standard time and daylight saving in New South Wales." - part 3 of the Act, talking about summer time, is in fact entitled: "PART 3 - DAYLIGHT SAVING" For further evidence of the use of the term "daylight saving", see: "Time in New South Wales" (NSW Attorney General's Department) http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/crd.nsf/pages/time1 "Daylight Saving in New South Wales" (NSW Department of Public Works and Services) http://dir.gis.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/genobject/document/other/daylightsaving/t… "When does daylight savings start in Australia?" (National Standards Commission) http://www.nsc.gov.au/PAGES/Info/info_faq.html#Daylight Savings "Daylight Saving" (National Standards Commission) http://www.nsc.gov.au/PDF_WORD/Info/IL27.pdf Clearly, the assertion that Australia always uses the term "summer time" instead of "daylight time" or "daylight savings" (and therefore, the time zone abbreviations must be the same) is *incorrect*. The confusion arises because in Australia it is the States (not the Federal/national government) that legislate time changes during the summer months; whilst technically it is a federal responsibility under the constitution (as a measure related to commerce), the parliament has never really been able to pass legislation on the matter due to the fear that the States would see this as removing some of their legislative powers (see Hansard, Commonwealth House of Representatives, 1991). Subsequently, there is no standard name for time zones or summer clock shifts just "common use" (for various definitions of "common") that sometimes vary from State to State. In the media you will experience all manner of phrases used such as "Eastern Time", "Summer Time", "Sydney Time" and numerous other variants; for example, C&W Optus (a large telco) uses abbreviations such as "AEDST" when referring to Australian eastern daylight savings time. I suspect, apart from Mr Mackin's comments above, that the local use of the phrase "Eastern Standard Time" (which is clearly local in context) is what has led to the use of the ambiguous "EST" in the time zone database. More recently, however, the media is recognising the global context (rather than local) and starting to prefix time zone references with "Australian" (more on this below). As noted above, this confusing lack of standards, local phrases and personal experiences have found their way into the time zone database, into nearly every UNIX system (well...) and has now created even more confusion, especially as some people start to quote the time zone database as authoritative. For example: "Australian time zones and their naming variants account for fully one quarter of all time zones in the Postgres time zone lookup table." http://www.postgresql.org/users-lounge/docs/7.0/user/datetime-appendix.htm (Caused by wierd variants - many of which I must admit to never having seen in use - to the ambiguous "EST". Also note that they recognise "AEST".) More of a concern, is this: "4.5. The timezone string for Sydney/Australia is wrong since even when daylight saving time is in effect the timezone string is EST. "{UD} The problem for some timezones is that the local authorities decided to use the term 'summer time' instead of 'daylight saving time'. In this case the abbreviation character `S' is the same as the standard one. So, for Sydney we have Eastern Standard Time = EST Eastern Summer Time = EST Great! To get this bug fixed convince the authorities to change the laws and regulations of the country this effects. glibc behaves correctly." http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/FAQ.html This is clearly based on Mr Mackin's comment in the time zone database, and as I have demonstrated is wrong (in terms of the legislation and government use). Unfortunately, despite the evidence, the glibc authors simply point to the time zone database as authoritative and allow this error to continue. glibc is *not* behaving correctly, nor is the time zone database (but to correct glibc I need to get the time zone database updated). So.. by this time I hope I've demonstrated that it *is* legitimate (and correct) to use a different abbreviation for daylight savings/summer time; all that remains is to demonstrate why I've chosen "AEST" and "AEDT" to replace "EST" for standard and daylight savings time respectively. Well, ignoring my own use of these abbreviations, some "common use" includes: - Australian Broadcasting Corporation <http://www.abc.net.au/news/> - Browse the ABC News site and see the instances of "AEST" and "AEDT" (even "ACST" and "AWST" for central and western standard time) in reference to eastern standard or eastern summer time depending on whether that particular State observes daylight savings or not. - In particular, see the "Posted" timestamps at: <http://www.abc.net.au/news/state/nsw/default.htm> - The home page currently has a timestamp (towards page top-right) of: "This Bulletin: Thu, Mar 22 2001 4:15 PM AEDT". - Even at the bottom of the first news page is the explanation of "AEDT" (which may disappear this weekend when DST ends in NSW): "AEDT = Australian Eastern Daylight Time which is 11 hours ahead of UTC (Greenwich Mean Time)" - These pages also appear in a search of the Commonwealth Government's <http://www.fed.gov.au/> Web site. - Australian Department of Defence <http://www.defence.gov.au/> - See various media releases, for example, referring to times in either "AEST" or "AEDT", including: <http://www.defence.gov.au/media/1997/05797.html> <http://www.defence.gov.au/media/1997/01197.html> - National Library of Australia <http://www.nla.gov.au/> - Search their Web site for "AEST", references to contacting them give times in this time zone: <http://www.nla.gov.au/dss/libraries_os.html#express> - Australian Taxation Office (ATO) - http://www.ato.gov.au/content.asp?doc=/content/tax_reform/nat3402.htm - Australian Football League (AFL) - Fixture times: <http://www.afl.com.au/matches/season_111.htm> - Australian Cricket Board (ACB) - Live game coverage: <http://www-aus.cricket.org/link_to_database/NATIONAL/AUS/MATCHES/> - "The Australian" (and other Murdoch/News-owned newspapers) - Example: <http://australianit.news.com.au/common/storyPage/0,3811,902553%255E2184,00.…> - You have to "view source" to see the "Updated...AEST" - Visible at the very bottom, "All times AEDT" - Other (small sample) - NineMSN's News service <http://www.news.ninemsn.com.au/> (notice current time given in AEDT) - "...each fortnightly Sunday morning at 8am AEST/AEDT" http://news.ninemsn.com.au/smallbusiness/help/help9.asp - AAP IS/News, as viewed through <http://au.dailynews.yahoo.com/> (pick AAP-sourced articles and notice times in "AEDT" and "AEST") The examples go on and on. As you can see, it is not just government sites using the time zones "AEST" and "AEDT" in this manner. An argument could probably be mounted to have all the Australian time zones altered accordingly (probably along the lines used by the ABC and The Australian), but it's mainly the Australia/Sydney time zone that interests me at present. I hope this is sufficient information/examples for consideration, but would be happy to provide further info/examples if necessary. Thanks for your consideration (and sorry for this being so long); hope to hear your comments soon. Cheers.. dave

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Time Zones
by Ana Peterson March 19, 2001

March 19, 2001

Hi, is there an official Time Zone list? If so, where can I find it? Thanks in advance. -acp This communication is for informational purposes only. It is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument or as an official confirmation of any transaction. All market prices, data and other information are not warranted as to completeness or accuracy and are subject to change without notice. Any comments or statements made herein do not necessarily reflect those of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., its subsidiaries and affiliates.

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IERS Message No. 6
by central_bureau＠iers.org March 19, 2001

March 19, 2001

*************************************************************************** IERS Message No. 6 March 19, 2001 *************************************************************************** IERS' Global Geophysical Fluids Center (GGFC) and Special Bureaus Websites Going to Business The Global Geophysical Fluids Center has made public its official Internet Website <http//bowie.gsfc.nasa.gov/ggfc/>, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, with an Europe mirror site in Strasburg, France <http//ggfc.u-strasbg.fr> (an Asian mirror site is under preparation). The seven Special Bureaus (SB) can be readily linked. The SBs, under the coordination of GGFC, have the responsibility of supporting, facilitating, and providing services to the worldwide research community, in areas related to the variations in Earth rotation, gravitational field and geocenter motion that are caused by mass transport in the geophysical fluids. The geophysical fluids of the Earth system include the atmosphere, ocean, solid Earth, and core, and geophysical processes associated with tides and hydrological cycles. The time variation of angular momenta and the related torques, gravitational coefficients, and geocenter shift will be computed for all geophysical fluids based on global observational data, and/or products from state-of-the-art models some of which assimilate such data. The computed quantities, algorithm and data formats will be standardized. The results will be archived and made available to the scientific research community. The SBs will maintain individual data archives and services. The Websites are the main conduits for these services. The present organization of the Global Geophysical Fluids Center is: GGFC Head: Benjamin F. Chao Space Geodesy Branch, Code 926 NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA e-mail: <chao(a)bowie.gsfc.nasa.gov> SPECIAL BUREAUS ATMOSPHERE (SBA) Head: D. A. Salstein Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER) OCEANS (SBO) Head: R. S. Gross Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) TIDES (SBT) Head: R. D. Ray GSFC Laboratory For Terrestrial Physics (LTP) HYDROLOGY (SBH) Head: C. R. Wilson University of Texas (UT) MANTLE (SBM) Head: B. F. Chao GSFC Laboratory For Terrestrial Physics (LTP) CORE (SBC) Head: V. Dehant Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) GRAVITY/GEOCENTER (SBGG) Head: M. M. Watkins Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) For more detail please see: Chao, B. F., V. Dehant, R. S. Gross, R. D. Ray, D. A. Salstein, M. M. Watkins, and C. R. Wilson, Space geodesy monitors mass transports in global geophysical fluids, EOS, Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union, 81, 247-250, May 30, 2000. A PDF file of this article is posted on the GGFC Website (see above), courtesy of AGU. Hard-copy reprints are also available by contacting any of the people above. Several GGFC business meetings (some open to public) as well as co-sponsored technical special sessions have been held at international conferences. The upcoming open meeting will be held at EGS2001 Assembly in Nice (on Thursday, March 29, 2001, 6 pm, Room M11 of Congress Center), in association with Geodesy Symposium G3, "Time variable geodetic parameters and global geophysical fluids processes". --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao Head, Space Geodesy Branch, Code 926 NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA phone: 301-614-6104, fax: 301-614-6099 e-mail: chao(a)bowie.gsfc.nasa.gov ***************************************************************************

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FW: Real time access to time zone/daylight savings time
by Olson, Arthur David (NCI) March 19, 2001

March 19, 2001

Tony Conti is not on the time zone mailing list; direct replies appropriately. --ado -----Original Message----- From: Tony Conti [mailto:TConti@hfcc.net] Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2001 9:07 AM To: tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov Subject: Real time access to time zone/daylight savings time I have a VB application that needs real time access to time zones and daylight savings time. Is there an ActiveX object that can provide me the GMT value given the country, city and date parameters????

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IERS Message No. 5
by central_bureau＠iers.org March 19, 2001

March 19, 2001

*************************************************************************** IERS Message No. 5 March 19, 2001 *************************************************************************** Dear Colleagues, The ITRF2000 Primary Solution is now available on the WEB at: http://lareg.ensg.ign.fr/ITRF/ITRF2000/ The remaining densification parts will be added as soon as possible. The IERS ITRS Product Center thank all the Analysis Centers as well as the ITRF Working Group for their valuable contribution to this project. For any question, please contact: itrf(a)ensg.ign.fr Sincerely yours, Claude Boucher and Zuheir Altamimi, IERS ITRS-PC ***************************************************************************

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US/Pacific "double" DST in a few weeks?
by James A. Woods March 18, 2001

March 18, 2001

are you tracking stories like this, from the 26 march 2001 issue of business week? the news blurb appears to describe some urgency associated with background info at http://www.energy.ca.gov/daylightsaving.html just curious, since the first of may doesn't seem so far away. i can't imagine multiple state legislatures acting this fast, together with some sort of federal approval in accordance with the uniform time act. jaw(a)cfcl.com p.s. as a supplement to the periodic release of tz{code,data}*, is there an archived timezone interest mailing list? ________ MARCH 26, 2001 Up Front Edited by Sheridan Prasso U.S. EDITION Washington BROWNOUT BLUES Let a Thousand Outlook StairMasters Bloom International Day-for-Night in California Business Pitch Your Idea in 28 International What would California be like if Floors or Less Outlook the sun set at 9 p.m.? Two more Developments hours to skateboard or surf, to A Coverup in to Watch paint or play? It's possible. A Washington? People congressman from California, Management Democrat Brad Sherman, has Footnotes Government introduced a bill enabling The California and states in the Corporation Pacific Time Zone to set their clocks two hours ahead on Economics May 1. That way, it would stay light well into the evening--particularly on the northern Pacific Coast--and Legal Affairs hold down demand for electricity during peak periods. While BusinessWeek the sun would rise later, too, the change could cut Investor electricity consumption by 1% to 2% a day, says Sherman. The Barker "The bill provides California with the tools to ease the Portfolio burden," he says. Inside Wall Street "Double Daylight Saving Time" has support from more than a Figures of dozen House lawmakers but is still looking for Senate the Week backers. The California legislature first asked Congress to Editorials act last year, since time changes need federal approval. It wouldn't be the first time the U.S. extended Daylight INTERNATIONAL Saving Time. The last time was during the energy crisis in EDITIONS 1973-75. International By Laura Cohn -- Editor's

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leap second news from NIST, ITU/R, etc.
by Paul Eggert March 15, 2001

March 15, 2001

Yesterday Demetrios Matsakis reported on the Leap Second Discussion List some results from an informal session on leap seconds held at the 2001 European Time and Frequency Meeting. He said that the ITU/R committee on leap seconds, which may recommend the abolition of leap seconds, has asked for cooperation from other international bodies, and that the IERS and the IAU are involved. He also mentioned a few other things: * The planned European satellite system Galileo will run on TAI. * NIST is planning to make TAI-UTC available in its WWV series of broadcasts, and it is already available in their NTP format. * NIST plans to do a user survey about this. * Judah Levine of NIST has proposed including the complete list of leap seconds in all NTP packets. Others have suggested just giving the current value plus a change bit. For more about this, please see his full notice, archived on the Leap Second Discussion List (you need to join to to view the archives), at: http://clockdev.usno.navy.mil/archives/leapsecs.html

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Real time access to time zone/daylight savings time
by Tony Conti March 14, 2001

March 14, 2001

I have a VB application that needs real time access to time zones and daylight savings time. Is there an ActiveX object that can provide me the GMT value given the country, city and date parameters????

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tz-art.htm request
by Olson, Arthur David (NCI) March 13, 2001

March 13, 2001

I'd love to hear from someone who recorded the episode of The Lone Gunmen broadcast on 2001-03-11 with an accurate quote of the reference to Daylight Saving Time. --ado

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tzcode2001a.tar.gz and tzdata2001a.tar.gz
by Olson, Arthur David (NCI) March 13, 2001

March 13, 2001

The files ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzcode2001a.tar.gz and ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata2001a.tar.gz are now available. These incorporate the changes circulated last week on the time zone mailing list by Paul Eggert. There's also an addition to the "leapseconds" file: comments with the text of the latest IERS leap second notice. Trailing white space has been removed from data file lines, and repeated spaces in "Rule Jordan" lines in the "asia" file have been converted to tabs. --ado

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