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2010-04-18, 15:18
Member
188 posts

Registered:
Jan 2007
Hello, everyone.

It is that time of year again. The time when half of the planet goes batshit insane and tries to bend an instrument of measurement to somehow make it fit their view of reality. The time when confusion sets in. The time when noone really knows what time it is.

I'm talking about the phenomenon known as summer time, of course, or in USA as daylight saving time.

The problem is that most Quakeworld players don't seem to know what time zone they are in. There also seems to be widespread confusion as to what their offset from GMT is. This post will try to clean up after the gigantic mess created by summer time, by trying to explain how it works and what time zones people are in.

Let's start with a short introduction to summer time. The goal of summer time is to shift the time of day where the sun is shining to better utilise the light it gives us. Of course, even the people who came up with this weird idea realised that it would be impossible to halt earth's rotation for an hour, so they came up with a different idea: They simply change the time zone they are in, having everyone adjust their clocks twice a year, and they achieve the same net effect, save whatever negative effects this has on people's (and related animals') biological clocks. But that's another discussion.

Now, to most people, this simply means changing your clock twice per year, although in these modern times, this happens automatically on computers, mobile phones, radio controlled alarm clocks and a lot of other devices, so you might simply wake up one Sunday and feel you didn't quite rest enough, and that's all you'll ever notice of summer time. For this reason, most people are completely unaware of how summer time is implemented, and how it relates to time zones and international relationships, causing confusion when they try to specify an absolute time of some event.

The most common mistake is to specify the wrong time zone associated with a specific absolute point in time. More often than not when it comes to Quakeworld, I see people write 'CET' when they probably meant 'CEST'. The distinction is important, as the two time zones are an hour apart. If you think you're currently in the CET time zone, then you are wrong. There are currently no countries using the CET timezone, although there are plenty of countries, and a couple in Europe, which have a 1 hour offset from GMT, specified as +0100. The European countries currently in the +0100 offset are Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom and Portugal. Yes, that's it. Only those 3. The only country in Europe currently having a +0000 offset from GMT is Iceland.

So what time zones are you guys in? Here's a short list of European countries known to have at least a few active QW players, the time zone they are in and their offset from GMT:

Belgium: CEST, +0200
Czech Republic: CEST, +0200
Denmark: CEST, +0200
Finland: EEST, +0300
Germany: CEST, +0200
Ireland, Republic of: IST, +0100
Netherlands: CEST, +0200
Norway: CEST, +0200
Poland: CEST, +0200
Portugal: WEST, +0100
Russia: See below
Spain: CEST, +0200
Sweden: CEST, +0200
United Kingdom: BST, +0100

If I left your country out, be sure it is not done on purpose. If you'd like to see me update the list with a particular country, post a reply and I'll edit this post to include it.

Russia spans a total of 9 time zones, making this one a bit more different. At least 2 of those time zones are fully or partially in Europe, namely (with summer time in effect) USZ1S, +0300 ('Kaliningrad Time') and MSD, +0400 ('Moscow Time'). If someone knowledgeable on the topic of time zones in Russia wishes to comment further on this, please do so in a reply to this post. Thanks

Now, I hope this post has cleared up some of the confusion associated with summer time, and that I in the future won't have to guess which time zone people mean when they write at which time a Quakeworld event starts.

That's it for this time. Till next rant!
2010-04-18, 15:31
Member
251 posts

Registered:
Jul 2007
You could also add an explanation of UTC, while you're at it. Also, visualisation helps to understand a lot. Maybe enrich the text with some graphics?
2010-04-18, 17:00
Member
685 posts

Registered:
Jul 2007
Don't you just love it when Biggy gets pissed off after he missed a QW event?

2010-04-18, 17:02
Member
386 posts

Registered:
Apr 2006
I'm going to start spamming times in CET just to confuse everyone.
2010-04-18, 21:34
Member
398 posts

Registered:
Feb 2006
I don't really understand why this information would be so necessary? Who doesn't understand how the time zones and summer time works? GIVE ME NAMES :E
2010-04-18, 21:37
Member
357 posts

Registered:
Nov 2008
I would like toknow who invented the names, Central Europe Time = UK, Ireland and Portugal? That's everything but Central Europe :E
"the quieter you become, the more you are able to hear"
2010-04-19, 00:03
Member
370 posts

Registered:
May 2006
, if I'm not mistaken CEST (Central European Summer Time) equals CET but one is for Summer time and one is for standard time!

Time! wrote:
I would like toknow who invented the names, Central Europe Time = UK, Ireland and Portugal? That's everything but Central Europe :E

Bigfoot wrote:
Ireland, Republic of: IST, +0100
Portugal: WEST, +0100
United Kingdom: CST, +0100

There is no CET at the moment!

But then again I always believed to live in GMT+1 timezone every time of year! So I'm prolly a fool!
Custom maps for the show, episodes for the pro.
2010-04-19, 06:07
News Writer
1267 posts

Registered:
Jun 2007
Prac 21CET anyclan?
Chosen
2010-04-19, 06:33
Member
398 posts

Registered:
Feb 2006
time! wrote:
I would like toknow who invented the names, Central Europe Time = UK, Ireland and Portugal? That's everything but Central Europe :E

No, they are in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). Central European Time is Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, Italy etc, so it is actually very much central europe :E
2010-04-19, 06:48
News Writer
1267 posts

Registered:
Jun 2007
HMHCT = His Majesty Hagge´s Cruel Time
Chosen
2010-04-19, 08:22
News Writer
283 posts

Registered:
Jan 2007
UK is in BST not CST I believe (British Summer Time). What about Czech and Poland?
2010-04-19, 09:19
Member
188 posts

Registered:
Jan 2007
pattah wrote:
You could also add an explanation of UTC, while you're at it.

Well, I could, but that distinction is not really relevant. UTC and GMT never differ by more than a second, which is so little it's not worth bothering with

pattah wrote:
Also, visualisation helps to understand a lot. Maybe enrich the text with some graphics?

Wikipedia \o/

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Timezones2008.png/800px-Timezones2008.png


In Europe, with summer time in effect as it is now, the yellow-ish areas, except for Iceland, are in +0100, the green areas in +0200, the brown areas in +0300 and the light-pinkish area is in +0400.
2010-04-19, 09:20
Member
188 posts

Registered:
Jan 2007
Hagge wrote:
I don't really understand why this information would be so necessary? Who doesn't understand how the time zones and summer time works? GIVE ME NAMES :E

That would be most QW players I'm afraid
2010-04-19, 09:23
Member
188 posts

Registered:
Jan 2007
time! wrote:
I would like toknow who invented the names, Central Europe Time = UK, Ireland and Portugal? That's everything but Central Europe :E

No. UK is BST, Ireland is IST and Portugal is WEST.
2010-04-19, 09:24
Member
188 posts

Registered:
Jan 2007
Hagge wrote:
time! wrote:
I would like toknow who invented the names, Central Europe Time = UK, Ireland and Portugal? That's everything but Central Europe :E

No, they are in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). Central European Time is Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, Italy etc, so it is actually very much central europe :E

Well, actually, they're not. UK, Ireland and Portugal are currently 1 hour ahead of GMT
2010-04-19, 09:27
Member
188 posts

Registered:
Jan 2007
Darff wrote:
UK is in BST not CST I believe (British Summer Time). What about Czech and Poland?

You're right - stupid typo

And I have no idea how I managed to leave out Poland and the Czech Republic, but I've added both now - thanks!
2010-04-19, 09:49
Member
398 posts

Registered:
Feb 2006
bigfoot wrote:
Hagge wrote:
time! wrote:
I would like toknow who invented the names, Central Europe Time = UK, Ireland and Portugal? That's everything but Central Europe :E

No, they are in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). Central European Time is Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, Italy etc, so it is actually very much central europe :E

Well, actually, they're not. UK, Ireland and Portugal are currently 1 hour ahead of GMT

Well yes, because of summer time, but you know what I mean :E Funny how Portugal, UK and Ireland chooses different names for the same timezone Be
2010-04-19, 10:34
Member
92 posts

Registered:
Aug 2007
Better stick to UTC and offset. It's much less confusing.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Time_zones_of_Europe.svg/340px-Time_zones_of_Europe.svg.png


blue
Western European Time (UTC+0)
Western European Summer Time (UTC+1)
red
Central European Time (UTC+1)
Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)
yellow
Eastern European Time (UTC+2)
Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)
green
Moscow Time (UTC+3)
Moscow Summer Time (UTC+4)


More here -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_European_Summer_Time

Diffrence between GMT and UTC (You can find more details on the Wikipedia of course )

"In casual use, when fractions of a second are not important, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) can be considered equivalent to UTC or UT1. Owing to the ambiguity as to whether UTC or UT1 is meant, GMT is generally avoided in technical contexts."

P.S: It's 13:38 here, time below is desynchronized lol.
2012-04-14, 13:09
News Writer
280 posts

Registered:
May 2006
> Moscow Time (UTC+3)
> Moscow Summer Time (UTC+4)
There is no Summer Time in Russia at all from 2011.
Moscow always UTC+4.

(Edited 2012-04-14, 13:12)
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