[tz] News article: Turkey’s plan to ignore daylight saving time has been foiled by smartphones

[Carlos M. Martinez]

Hi all,

I'm from Uruguay, where we had a *very similar* situation a month ago:

http://www.elobservador.com.uy/uruguayos-llegaron-una-hora-antes-sus-trabajos-n683204


(in Spanish, Google Translate is your friend)

Actually I subscribed to this mailing list after this problem, and out
of interest to learn how time zone maintenance and distribution works.

Thanks!

-Carlos

On 10/27/15 12:25 PM, Paul_Koning at dell.com wrote:
> 
>> On Oct 27, 2015, at 2:30 AM, Philip Newton <philip.newton at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> http://qz.com/533126/turkeys-plan-to-ignore-daylight-saving-time-has-been-foiled-by-smartphones/
>>
>> Turkey, like other countries on Eastern European Time (EET), was
>> supposed to turn its clocks back by one hour on Sunday (Oct. 25) for
>> the annual end of daylight saving time—or, as it’s known in Europe,
>> “summer time.” But this year, the Turkish government told citizens to
>> wait until Nov. 1 to allow more hours of light for voting in the
>> nation’s upcoming parliamentary elections, reports the BBC.
>>
>> However, anyone who uses internet- or radio-connected mobile devices
>> or computers to tell time knows that those clocks sync automatically
>> to international standards. Today, Oct. 26, many people in Turkey with
>> the latest Apple, Android, and Windows devices woke up with their
>> clocks an hour slower than the government’s.
> 
> That story certainly got some key facts wrong.  
> 
> One substantial error is the claim that timezone rules are "international standards".  They are not, with the possible exception of the EU.  Instead, they are national rules (at best), subject to national political whims.
> 
> The other substantial error is the implication that software that changed on 10/26 is "latest".  It may be the latest software release, but it clearly is not the latest tzdata release.  Clearly it isn't sufficient for governments to announce this sort of thing with just 3 or 4 weeks lead time.
> 
> 	paul
>