Re: Time

[Paul Allen Rice <PaulRice -at- BROADCAST -dot- NET>]

On 11:06 AM 9/8/97 -0500, the following was submitted for consideration by
Wing, Michael J:

>using a delta (GMT -0500) is still subject to daylight savings time
>whereas a time such as 05:00:00 UTC is not subject to seasonal shifts.

It's true that UTC is not subject to seasonal shifts, but if your business
hours remain constant, 9am - 5pm, during both Standard and Savings Times,
you're still going to vary according to UTC.

Being in the Central Time Zone, and being a Ham Radio Operator that uses
UTC in all radio communications, I can tell you that UTC does provide a
standard time reference, but when your hours fluctuate, UTC time
expressions will change.  A person in the Central Time Zone will either be
off five hours or six hours from UTC depending on the temporal season.  So
Saying you are open 0900 - 1700 UTC (or whatever) won't cut it, unless you
also say during Daylight Savings Time or not.

And as for our friends down under, I have never had any luck getting our
time through to them (no offense, mates) and my company does a LOT of
business in Australia.  It is a problem.  I'd suggest just dropping the
idea of being all things to all people and just listing your hours as you
would for the US.  If someone is going to be doing business with you,
they'll take the time to calculate the time offset, or will get the voice
mail recording when they call and you are closed.   9am - 5pm CST Mon- Fri
works as well as anything.

You're personal mileage may vary.

Paul Rice
mailto:PaulRice -at- Broadcast -dot- Net  (24 hours a day)

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