Timezone issue?

[eth]

Just spotted it. 4 different posts in the order they appear on http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=481486#481486

1. Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 12:11 am
2. Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 12:15 am
3. Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:55 am
4. Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 12:00 pm

I did the post #3 and i have in my profile GMT+2 timezone.

 

[Section8]

That seems okay though...?

12 am is midnight on the start of Feb 11, 12 pm is noon later the same day. It's a bit quirky, but essentially the AM portion of a day runs 12am-11am and the PM portion runs 12pm-11pm. It makes sense if you consider an analogue clock face. And also if you translate to 24 hour time, where you have 0000-1159 and 1200-2359

 

[eth]

Ah true. Didn't notice the am/pm part at all. I am used to 24h clock format

 

[Hory]

Who came up with AM/PM? It's only a source of confusion for me. What's the hour for midnight? 00:00 AM or PM?

 

[Shannow]

00:00 AM; 12:00 PM *g*

 

[Hory]

It's like, let's not use a single dimension for representing time, let's add an extra aspect that must be correlated to the numeric one based on an arbitrary point of reference (meridian).

 

[sheek]

Do people in your country not talk about "Three in the afternoon/six in the morning"? Because that's where it comes from... a time before digital wrist watches

 

[Hory]

They do, but "in the morning" is a lot more clear than "AM".

 

[sheek]

It's shorthand, it's meant for when you write it down to save space and time, everybody understands it.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

They do, but "in the morning" is a lot more clear than "AM".

Same by me.

It's shorthand, it's meant for when you write it down to save space and time, everybody understands it.

Not for me...

 

[Micmu]

Timezones are confusing.
Let's use stardate instead.

 

[sheek]

Um, look:
1/ anything before midday is AM,
2/everything before midnight is PM.

Is that really so fucking complicated?

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Um, look:
1/ anything before midday is AM,
2/everything before midnight is PM.

Is that really so fucking complicated?

After you have explained it it's even more confusing.

Isn't this better: AM>12:00<PM

 

[Shannow]

Um, look:
1/ anything before midday is AM,
2/everything before midnight is PM.

Is that really so fucking complicated?

If you didn't grow up with the system? Do you have something similar in France? I can only remember "Quelle heur est il?" I wouldn't understand the answer and I probably completely garbled spelling and grammar there *g*

In Germany people argue about: Quarter three and quarter past two. Depending on the region you'll be misunderstood if you use the "wrong" form.
The AM/PM system isn't difficult to understand but you have to be exposed to it a few times before you grasp and remember the meanings.

EDIT: "Isn't this better: AM>12:00<PM" No, is it 12 o'clock midday or midnight? Sheek's is clearer.

 

[Jasede]

I liked that game where the world all used the same time. Sure, some people had sunrise at 569 and some at 894 but since it was a new system nobody minded that much.

I think it was Stationfall or Planetfall. Yeah. The day was divided into 1000 or 10000 time units and that worked pretty well.

 

[sheek]

No, but I don't think it's hard to learn. Just look at the clock on your computer or watch if you can set it to AM/PM from time to time.

Yes I can see where you might initially be confused - if you were a newly arrived alien or something - people might say "12 in the morning" for midday but it's "12 PM", but once you realize that one difference it's not very difficult to remember, no more than learning that 'I' on electric appliances means on and 'O' means off.

And yes, AM is for everything before 12:00 (midday, time before lunch) and PM for everything between that and 24:00/00:00 (midnight, most people are asleep).

 

[Helton]

And really you just shouldn't bother with the 12:00s. There's nothing in everyday life that needs to be so precise, just use 12:01 or 11:59. Things that need absolute precision should use the 24:00 system.

 

[Hory]

The AM/PM system is simply broken since there's no way to correctly represent 12:00 o'clock (mid-day) in AM/PM syntax. The true 12:00 is neither post nor ante-meridian, it IS meridian.

Also, even more confusing is that the resetting of the incrementing cycle (eg. the jumping from 12:00 to a lower number - 1:00) isn't even synchronized with the AM/PM cycle, because the number decrease occurs an hour after the AM/PM switch in the daytime, but instantly in the nighttime.

I've actually had to set alarm clocks at 11:59 or 12:01 because logically there's no correct way to set it at 12:00 - and I wanted to be sure the alarm goes off.

Edit: Also, I hate people who find it wrong to say "fifty minutes past two" instead of "ten minutes to three". If more than half an hour of a certain hour has passed, why am I expected to advance the hour and subtract the difference from that? Two hours and fifty minutes have passed in the day - that's what the clock is. Let's not project arbitrary future time values. Maybe in 5 minutes the Earth will spin out of the sun's orbit, and "three o'clock" will have no more relevance.

 

[Fez]

Great to see how well the education system is working. It's ridiculous that anyone would be arguing about this at all. It's been around long before any of you were born. There is no excuse for not understanding it by now. If you can't read a clock properly then it is your own fault.

Go practice and become civilized people: http://www.wikihow.com/Read-a-Clock

 

[Fez]

I blame digital watches for this decay of society.

 

[Hory]

Is it my fault for finding it wrong that for each reading of 12:00, I am supposed to remember what the developers of this system arbitrarily decided should be the "correct" (but in reality erroneous) representation, in "AM" / "PM" notation, of this hour?

Edit: this usability glitch cannot be solved through the general rules of the clock, it must be explicitly taught, and specifically memorized as a workaround to the system's ambiguity and user-unfriendlyness.
Edit2: turning a blind eye to problems such as this is a PRECISE characteristic of the decay of society. THEIR SYSTEM IS NOT WORKING FOR US. FOOD CLOTHES SHELTER AND CORRECT TIME. THE SYSTEM IS A LIE. COMMON SENSE IS SELF DEFENSE :idea:

 

[Fez]

FIGHT THE POWER, HORY! FREE YOUR PEOPLE FROM THIS OPPRESSION!

 

[Hory]

WITHOUT A PEOPLE'S ARMY THE PEOPLE HAVE NOTHING.

 

[RK47]

0000 is night
1200 is noon

what's so hard about it?

 

[Hory]

0000 is night
1200 is noon

There is no 0 on the clock, my friend.

what's so hard about it?

TO BE A WARRIOR YOU MUST TRAIN