Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!newsfeed.fsmpi.rwth-aachen.de!newsfeed.straub-nv.de!diablo1.news.osn.de!news.osn.de!diablo2.news.osn.de!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Huge Newsgroups: alt.os.linux,alt.windows7.general,comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: What's the negative effect of changing the Time Zone? Date: 27 Jan 2015 10:05:31 GMT Organization: Piglet's Pickles & Preserves Lines: 41 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: usenet@huge.org.uk X-Trace: individual.net afcT1NDC0DCHZ+CKWmtQGwmTqLSHbDQ2u6HQPvXjEqRatzoWhI Cancel-Lock: sha1:xvNsVG6lV5fWnaAO9xtFIV69py8= X-No-Archive: Yes User-Agent: slrn/1.0.1 (Linux) Xref: csiph.com comp.sys.mac.system:69095 On 2015-01-27, Siri Crews wrote: > In article , Sage wrote: > >> A different thread got me wondering how to bring down my >> unique panopticlick ratio, by judicious setting improvements. >> >> My "Time Zone" has almost 7 bits of identifying information. >> >> Related questions to lowering the TZ bits: >> 1. Which time zone is the most common, world wide? >> 2. Can the time zone be changed automatically (to accomplish that)? >> 3. Are there any negative consequences of frequent time zone changes? >> >> I would envision that the "most common" time zone fluctuates >> throughout the day, so, that's why a script may be necessary. >> >> Note: I don't do calendaring or alarms on my computer (I do that >> on my phone). > > Unix software generally depends Greenwhich time expressed as seconds since a > specific date and time (1 Jan 1970 0000 GMT) rather than a formatted date time. > Apple software is generally the same except it sometimes uses 1 Jan 1904 0000 > GMT. Only up to OS-9. Not sure what it uses after that. Wikipedia says Cocoa uses Jan 1 2001, but I would expect Darwin to use the Unix epoch. [12 lines snipped] > Changing the system clock can have severe and widespread consequences. Some > unices adjust the clock by change the duration of a virtual second to speed up > or slow down the clock until it matches just to avoid discontinuities in the > clock. Most NTP client code has maximum slew rates to prevent sudden jumps in clock values, and a maximum delta after which it simply gives up. -- Today is Boomtime, the 27th day of Chaos in the YOLD 3181 I don't have an attitude problem. If you have a problem with my attitude, that's your problem.