F-22 Raptors, Trains and the problems of timezones and daylight savings.
I was testing something that dealt with timezones in the last month, so when I read about the F-22 Raptors having some problems with dates I wasn’t too surprised. It’s easy to get things mixed up regarding timezones and time in general and this latest timezone change is just going to make lots of systems die. I was reading this post by Scott Rosenberg and this line caught my eye.
I suppose this started with the first railway schedule, but with the dateline-addled F-22 it has entered a whole new realm of disconcert. http://www.wordyard.com/2007/02/26/stealth-fighter/
Notice that first railway schedule bit up there? (emphasis mine) Turns out that the notion of having 24-hour time hasn’t been around all that long and started out with a missed train.
Sir Sandford Fleming, a Scottish-born engineer and ”the most distinguished Canadian of his age,” missed a train in 1876. He was forced to spend a night at an Irish country station because of a misprint in a timetable. Fleming was on time for the 5:35 p.m., but unfortunately the train had arrived on schedule too, at 5:35 a.m. In his hours of waiting, Fleming began to form a a simple but never-before-conceived notion of counting time on a 24-hour basis. ”Why double-count the hours . . . twice a day? Are we so stupid that we cannot compute above the number 12?” Blaise asks, paraphrasing Fleming. New York Times: How Late It was
Go read the book Time Lord : Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time