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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">The fundamental reason this doesn't
work is that TZ info needs to be know about AHEAD of time so that
scheduling tasks (plane tickets, scheduled meetings in the future
across timezones (EDT to PDT for example)) can be scheduled
correctly before the change in TZ occurs. (and that explains why
short lead time before a change in TZ rules is a bad idea)<br>
<br>
Unless you have devices with built-in time machines to go probe
cell towers time signal in the future, this doesn't solve the
problem. <br>
<br>
What you suggest though could be useful to set watches or
microwaves to the correct local time using OTA data like the
clocks that derive their time from atomic clock radio signals. To
my knowledge that signal doesn't include any TZ info. Seeing the
low value in these devices I doubt there will be pressure to pay
for the infrastructure for such a solution.<br>
<br>
Beside, as far as I know, cell many compagnies are on this list
and have contributed to the data here so they pretty much find out
when we do. <br>
<br>
<br>
On 16/10/2014 4:58 AM, Zoidsoft wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAB+ttKwL-fRxT8sE=FUnyjwVu3Aat_oW_4CvtEDTRXF2JBghAA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">I was thinking of the Seti@home app that used to be
popular back in the 90's. Before that I always had to set the
time on all my devices. In my experience my cell phone has
updated time change info on something other than the tz
database. I don't know how Verizon did it (unless it's through
complex shape files), but when driving by Vidal, it was on
Arizona time; 6 miles north it switched to Pacific time. I know
because I let the tz database know about this strange little
town which Verizon somehow knew about and kept time with
(probably only a population of about 12).
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Perhaps an iterative process like this could help improve
accuracy when users change the time standard when it is wrong
sending that info back to a server that the tz database reads?</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 16, 2014 at 4:25 AM,
Jonathan M Davis <span dir="ltr"><<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:jmdavisProg@gmx.com"
target="_blank">jmdavisProg@gmx.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><span
class="">On Thursday, October 16, 2014 03:49:56 Zoidsoft
wrote:<br>
> This might seem like a stupid question, but now that
most of the world is<br>
> connected by computers, smart phones, etc... why
don't we develop an app<br>
> that collects time settings and standards along with
GPS for every device<br>
> world wide as to what is showing on the clock? Such
an app could then<br>
> automatically generate zone rules along with location
data for each of<br>
> those rules. It would be a complex exercise in set
theory getting the<br>
> program to recognize "groups" of similar data but I
think it could be done.<br>
<br>
</span>The first question that comes to mind is how on earth
each of those computers<br>
would get the time in the first place. Its the TZ database
that this list is<br>
for that's used to give most of them the information that
they need to give<br>
the time in a local time zone rather than UTC. All that
stuff like NTP does is<br>
give the current time in UTC, so without something like the
TZ database, all<br>
any of those devices would know about would be UTC.<br>
<br>
Also, time zone rules change over time, and we often need to
know what they<br>
are ahead of time, so trying to figure out what they are via
AI would not only<br>
be a mess, but it wouldn't even have the information that we
need when we need<br>
it. If all you cared about was generating a database of what
a bunch of<br>
devices _thought_ that the time was in a given time zone at
different points<br>
in time was, that would be one thing, but we care about
having the correct<br>
rules over pretty much as large a time span as possible -
both in the future<br>
and in the past. And what you're suggesting wouldn't work
for that at all. AI<br>
can be great for heuristics, but it's horrible if you need
to know the exact<br>
anwser to something - like what the time zone rules are
_exactly_ for a given<br>
time zone at any given point in time.<br>
<br>
But really, what you're suggesting pretty much comes down to
generating<br>
information from a group of devices instead of looking it up
in exactly the<br>
same place that they look it up, because the only way that
they know anything<br>
about the local time zone that they're in is because of the
TZ database. They<br>
don't magically learn it just because a government announces
it. They learn it<br>
because their TZ database files get updated with it.<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
- Jonathan M Davis<br>
<br>
</font></span></blockquote>
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