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<DIV><SPAN class=300503602-15092008><FONT face=Arial size=2>Eric Muller
wrote:</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=300503602-15092008><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=300503602-15092008>"To my knowledge, there is not yet a
publicly available shapefile that covers all the tz timezones, but there are
shapefiles that cover "modern" time zones."<BR><BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>World
Time Explorer (a Windows program that I made) includes a shapefile that is
including all tz timezones. Additionally, it contains a DBF file for the
shapefile that both represents the names of the shapes, but also connects
each shape to WTE's own timezones. Note that often a given timezone spans
many little pieces since the land surface is split into many islands. The only
problem of mapping the tz timezones to the WTE timezones is just the naming
convention, for instance the tz timezone Europe/Uzhgorod is in WTE "Ukraine,
Uzhgorod". In most cases this should be straightforward, but some might need a
little bit of "digging". Timezones are present in the city.txt file with an "@"
in front, and represents the subsequent cities not having an "@" in
front.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=300503602-15092008><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=300503602-15092008><FONT face=Arial size=2>You can use WTE to
calculate the map colors for any given time since 1850 till today, where each
color represents a given GMT offset. There is an example of how this looks like
here: <A
href="http://www.worldtimeexplorer.com/WorldMapBig.gif">http://www.worldtimeexplorer.com/WorldMapBig.gif</A>
but also note that calculating the colors is only activated when you have a full
(paid) license.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=300503602-15092008>On the other hand I
consider the shapefile to be publicly available, although I have not supplied it
with a proper GNU free license or sim</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2><SPAN class=300503602-15092008>ilar license.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=300503602-15092008></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=300503602-15092008>P.S: I use
"timezone" instead of "time zone" deliberately, although I perhaps agree that
"time zone" is better English grammar. One reason is that the Danish language
would always put together the words to a single word with a new independent
meaning, in Danish "time zone" is "tidszone". But also it is clear that a Google
search for "time zone" gives a whole lot of hits for articles referring to time
and another pile of hits referring to zone, which really have nothing to do
with "time zone". Just my 2 cents.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=300503602-15092008></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=300503602-15092008>Regards,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=300503602-15092008>- Jesper Nørgaard
Welen</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Jesper Nørgaard Welen<BR>Email:
jnorgard@Prodigy.Net.mx <BR>Project Leader (Líder de Proyecto)
Software<BR>CIMMYT - Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y
Trigo<BR>Dirección: CIMMYT Int. c/o Jesper Nørgaard<BR>Km. 45, Carretera
México-Veracruz<BR>El Batán<BR>Texcoco, Edo. de México<BR>CP 56130
MEXICO<BR>Tel.: +52 (55) 58-04-20-04 ext.
1374<BR>Fax: +52 (55) 58-04-75-58<BR>Tel. Casa:
53-10-05-95 ó 53-10-97-78<BR>Download the shareware program World
Time Explorer, I made:<BR><A
href="http://www.worldtimeexplorer.com/index.html">http://www.worldtimeexplorer.com/index.html</A><BR></DIV></FONT>
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