From: Hal Fulton <hal9000@...>
Date: 2003-12-05T02:44:21+09:00
Subject: Re: Swatch's internet time in Ruby [Code Inside]

Joey Gibson wrote:
> On 12/4/2003 2:24 AM, Hal Fulton wrote:
> 
>> I have no problem with the coding style... there are various
>> ways of doing it.
>>
>> But is this correct? Beat 0 isn't midnight GMT, is it? Isn't there
>> a time zone difference? Maybe I'm wrong.
>>
>> I wrote similar code in _The Ruby Way_, but I've forgotten the details.
> 
> 
> 
> I remember reading your Swatch time stuff in TRW and I thought then as 
> now: where does this 'Internet Time' get used? I'd never seen it before 
> I read TRW and I've not seen it since until this discussion. Is it 
> actually useful for anything? Is anyone really using it? Am I behind the 
> curve?

It's mostly a novelty. It has some limited usefulness but it's
mostly just a nerd toy and a Swatch marketing gimmick.

Part of the idea is: Let's make a universal time zone that's the
same for the whole world. ("Fine," you say, "just use GMT.")

This is so people around the world can meet in chat rooms at
prearranged times, etc.

It's base 10 (1000 beats per day) as that's the one holdout in
our units that's not "metric" (even in SI, I suppose). Obviously
it's a full-day clock, no am or pm.

The 86.4-second unit allows one to be fashionably late, as the
time is more "grainy"; and the cool at-sign ("Meet me @365")
reminds one of an email address.

There's desktop software available that will display the Internet
time, and Swatch does/did make watches that displayed it (in
addition to the traditional time). I'm the only person I know
who has one, though.

In short, it's just a novelty and has no real significance, and
you're not behind the curve. :)

Hal