EST

[Alex LIVINGSTON]

At 09:06 -0800 2001-01-10, Paul Eggert wrote:
>  > 1. Is there an "official list" of all the names or labels used to
>>  designated time zones
>
>No, unfortunately.  And in practice, the names are ambiguous.  For
>example, "IST" means UTC+2 in Israel, but UTC+5:30 in India.
>Simiarly, "EST" has different meanings in the US and in Australia.
>Even if you limit yourself to Australia, "EST" can mean UTC+10 or
>UTC+11, depending on the time of year.

... and location! Right now, "EST" can mean both UTC+10 and UTC+11, 
as the state of Queensland does not observe daylight-saving time, 
whereas the other regions in the eastern time zone do (Victoria, 
Tasmania, and most of New South Wales). And it's not just because "S" 
stands for "standard" in the former case and "Summer" in the latter: 
it stands for "standard" in both cases! Sometimes I'm ashamed to be 
Australian.

_______________
Alex LIVINGSTON
IT, Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM), UNSW SYDNEY NSW 2052
Fax: +61 2 9931-9349 / Phone: +61 2 9931-9264 / Time: UTC + 10 or 11 hours

At end of today, Thursday, January 11,
   time since epoch (1-1-1 at 00:00:00)
     = 730496 days = 2000.03011698 average Gregorian years
   time since 2nd millennium, 20th century, 200th decade, 2000th year
     = 11 days = .03011698 average Gregorian years