Confusion over Reference Data strikes again!!! Bonnie K. O'Neil CBIP, CDMP Enterprise Data Architect Travelport Global Technology Solutions Office: 303-397-5239 Mobile: 303-725-1737 -----Original Message----- From: Stuart Bishop [mailto:stuart@stuartbishop.net] Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 1:01 AM To: tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov Cc: Paul Eggert; Anand Kumria; tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov Subject: Re: Revisiting Australian time zone abbreviations On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 12:43 AM, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
Anyway, this thread is starting to veer from the main topic. Perhaps some Australians could chime in?
Have in the past, but it never seems to help. Australian abbreviations in the tz database are nuts, and are the poster child for talking about timezone confusions. All the Australians I've discussed it personally with think it nuts. I've heard numerous anecdotes about the problems it causes, and people think it will continue to cause problems until it is fixed. And fixed is the word people use, but it never gets fixed due to concerns about some antique VMS system wheezing away in a basement that will explode killing many small puppies because it relies on the local timezone abbreviation remaining static. Somehow this system is so fragile it can't cope with the outside world evolving, yet receiving regular updates to its timezone database. So Australians are stuck putting up with this problem (and problem is the word people use), because politicians are busy trying to run the country (or whatever they do) rather than playing bureaucrats and blessing abbreviations to appease a committee for reasons they don't understand, because they run Windows and Windows doesn't use ambiguous timezone abbreviations. Especially since nobody really seems sure *which* politicians should bless them. State or National? Nobody in power cares enough to risk their careers to cough up the funds to work out the constitutional legalities of who can and how to perform such a blessing necessary because a loosely organized international volunteer non-profit group can't make their own decisions. Sorry for ranting. I think this is the point I get directed to the 20 year old anecdote in the Australasia file, which also happens to be the exact opposite of my recollection from growing up in Melbourne at the time (We had daylight savings time in my neighborhood; must have been all those immigrants and listening to 3XY rather than the ABC.) And maybe this will be the last time someone requests an Australian opinion rather than a civil one ;) -- Stuart Bishop <stuart@stuartbishop.net> http://www.stuartbishop.net/ If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail message, please notify the sender and delete all copies immediately. The sender believes this message and any attachments were sent free of any virus, worm, Trojan horse, and other forms of malicious code. This message and its attachments could have been infected during transmission. The recipient opens any attachments at the recipient's own risk, and in so doing, the recipient accepts full responsibility for such actions and agrees to take protective and remedial action relating to any malicious code. Travelport is not liable for any loss or damage arising from this message or its attachments.