NoVA Drupal Meetup

We encourage users to post events happening in the community to the community events group on https://www.drupal.org.
kellyhedges's picture
Start: 
2013-07-23 19:00 - 21:00 America/New_York
Event type: 
User group meeting

Location: The Conference Center at ICF International
9300 Lee Highway, Fairfax VA 22031

Parking: Visitor section of Garage

Metro: Vienna Metro station, Orange Line

Join us for the next Drupal NoVA meetup!

At this meetup, we're giving everyone (who wants to) five minutes to share their favorite module.

To avoid duplication, please review this list before adding the module you want to share. If you want to share more than one, sign up for more, and we'll rotate depending on the number of people who want to share.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhePPJbU3oI-dFFMTy1zMWFTa2V...

We hope to see you there!

Comments

Time clarification for event

JTinVA's picture

Hello -- could you clarify the time for this event? It's listed as "7:00 - 9:00 UTC". UTC is Coordinated Universal Time (or Greenwich Mean Time), which is NY/DC time plus 4 hours (in the summer). That would mean that in Washington, DC local time, this event is at 3 am on 23 July! I know that can't be right. Thanks.

The time is 7pm - 9pm EST.

kellyhedges's picture

The time is 7pm - 9pm EST.

Thanks!

JTinVA's picture

Thanks, Kelly.

As the resident time nerd...

BMDan's picture

I know I'm adding nothing useful to this thread. I feel bad about that. But in the spirit of http://xkcd.com/386/ ...

It should be EDT, not EST. EST is Eastern Standard time, or UTC-0500. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) is what we have in summer (post-"Spring forward", pre-"Fall back"), and is UTC-0400.

For bonus points, the time in Grenwich, England is not GMT right now. The UK has a similar scheme to "daylight saving" time called "British summer time" (or, more formally, "Western European Summer Time", but nobody calls it that, not least because using WEST as an acronym is unnecessarily confusing).

Oh, and then there's UTC versus GPS time (doesn't include all the leap seconds) versus various astronomical observation-based time schemes versus...

Yeah, measuring time is complicated.

However, if you want to always be correct, there's a simple way: simply say "ET" instead of "EST" or "EDT". Or specify all times in UTC and watch as peoples' heads spin. ;)

(Bonus continuation on the time scheme point, above: there are actually no fewer than five systems that are broadly similar to UTC and will be within a few minutes or less for the next few millennia: UT0, UT1/GMT, UT2, TAI, GPS, and probably some others I've forgotten. Seriously, measuring time is ridiculously complicated.)

Other Option?

karolus's picture

Well, since we are in the USA, what about Miller Time(TM)?

Sadly, TM is not recognized,

BMDan's picture

Sadly, TM is not recognized, but you may be thinking of MT. Mountain Time is named after the cool Rocky Mountain peaks from whence come the logo and the water for Coors. That's a tenuous connection to Miller, I know, but it's also about the extent of my beer knowledge. When it comes to my time knowledge, however, you'll be pleased to know that it comes in handy, because any investigation into MT quickly hits upon the truly strange.

The issue here is Daylight Saving Time. Specifically, the fact that Arizona doesn't use it. This means that simply saying "MT" doesn't sufficiently identify a time zone for half the year. To make it yet more confusing, the Navajo Nation (which extends beyond Arizona's borders, but is mostly within Arizona) does observe DST. And then because that was insufficiently befuddling, the Hopi Nation (entirely enclosed within the Navajo Nation, but also entirely within the confines of Arizona) does not observe DST. This all means that, if you ever find yourself without a time reference in Arizona, you're better off driving until the sign says "Leaving Arizona" than asking anyone for the time.

As before, a bonus: three counties in Kansas, two in Texas, two towns in Nevada, and a fraction of a single county in Oregon observe Mountain time. The remainder of their states observe other zones. Except for one town in Oklahoma and a piece of a county in Texas, which, just to be contrary and to express the untamed spirit of the frontier West, unofficially keep to Mountain time.

Did I mention that time is complicated?

Is there a module that will

John Franklin's picture

Is there a module that will pull the HTML5 Geolocation and map that to the user's local timezone?

Exactly, BMDan

JTinVA's picture

Correct on all counts, and thanks for that.

I did not correct the use of "EST" versus "EDT" because I didn't want to go overboard with corrections here, because the site did correct the initial error. But I'm glad you noted it. And I agree, "ET" is always better because it elimitates unnecessary confusion.

However, it should be noted that the corrected version of the time announcement, as of right now (1530 ET), still does not indicate whether the event is happening at 7 in the morning or 7 in the evening. It just says, "07:00 - 09:00 America/New_York".

When indicating a time on an event announcement, and you have all these choices (e.g., from a dropdown menu), I would recommend always paying attention to these 3 factors:

1) Are you citing the time in the 12-hour format or the 24-hour format? If you're using the 12 hour format, ALWAYS indicate AM or PM.

2) What is the time zone of the event? If given a choice or if you're forced to select a time zone, ALWAYS select the proper time zone where the event is geographically located.

3) Pay attention to "summer time" issues; e.g., "EST" does not equal "EDT". If it's the summer, we are technically on EDT. ("ET" is a useful generic term for "whatever the time is on the Eastern Seaboard irrespective of the seasonal time change.")

And you're correct. The UK does change its clocks in the Spring and Autumn as we do, and now they are on British Summer Time, which is UTC/GMT +1 hour.

I did not know about all the other stuff you wrote about GPS, but thanks.

Site clock stamps posts with UTC

JTinVA's picture

I also notice this site is time-stamping posts in UTC, which is perhaps undersandable as it's an international site catering to people in all time zones. However, it should probably indicate UTC, and the times should probably use the 24 hour clock, which is used in MOST places in the world outside of the Anglophone world.

Lunchtime doubly so

johnnykrisma's picture

Given that time may not even exist we do ok. :-)

Washington, DC Drupalers

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