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GMT timestamp


sboucek1

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I received 38 emails over a period of three months from a business.  On the only time sensitive email out of the 38 emails, the time was stamped as:

 

                                                                              1:33:22 PM  GMT-8

 

Do these times have anything to do with each other.  Why would this happen?  I am EST and on daylight savings time.  It is important for me to understand this because it has to do with a complicated real estate closing time that has become a controversial issue.

Thank you for any information you have in this regard. 

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GMT is often used because that time zone is opposite the International Date Line, allowing you to express your time zone as GMT +/- up to 12. GMT is also not affected by Daylight Savings Time.

 

For your information:

Pacific Standard Time (PST) is GMT-8

Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) is GMT-7

Eastern Standard Time (EST) is GMT-5

Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) is GMT-4

 

So to figure out what time in your time zone, it was sent at GMT-8, so you add 8 to get GMT, or 9:33:22 PM, then you modify by your GMT value, or GMT-4 because it's EDT, so you subtract 4 to get 5:33:22 EDT.

 

Most email software actually sends the email in GMT format, then relies on the recipient's email software to convert it to the local time.

 

Hope that wasn't too confusing.

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Thank you.  You figured it out after no one in the whole town of Naples, Florida could. 

 

That's sad.  Greenwich Mean Time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Mean_Time) is, aside from some details that most people don't have to care about, the same as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time), which describes, among other things, how we divide up the planet's timezones.  GMT/UTC is literally universal, and should be familiar to anyone that's ever had to adjust their timezone for an online app/site/forum.

 

Of course, you could have saved yourself some trouble by simply doing this: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=gmt+time

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Yeah, I'm really taken aback when people don't understand what timezones are. Didn't elementary school teach that stuff?

 

There's been several times when I have been playing games online and trying to coordinate an event, asking people for their timezone and they go "huh?". I have to ask where they are from, to tell them their timezone.

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Yeah, I'm really taken aback when people don't understand what timezones are. Didn't elementary school teach that stuff?

The problem is that everything is automating the timezones, so it has become more transparent. Email programs convert the time for you. Cell phones update themselves based on the cell towers as you travel, and convert the time messages were sent.

 

Even computers update themselves for Daylight Savings time, without any user intervention.

 

I haven't set my alarm clock time for over 7 years, since I use my cell phone as my alarm clock now. I can set it for multiple alarms that can be set to go off only on certain days.

 

Without this real world experience, what was taught in school gets quickly forgotten. (Goes the same place as grammar does, I think :P )

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Cell phones update themselves based on the cell towers as you travel

 

Shouldn't that make it obvious? I mean, when we travel from Dallas to LA or Dallas to NoVa, I love watching the cell phone jump back or forward an hour. Shouldn't that make an average person go "oh hey, we're in a different timezone."

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Shouldn't that make it obvious? I mean, when we travel from Dallas to LA or Dallas to NoVa, I love watching the cell phone jump back or forward an hour. Shouldn't that make an average person go "oh hey, we're in a different timezone."

 

Most people don't sit there any watch their phone waiting for it to jump back/forward :D  They just see the time when they leave, then check the time when they get there.

 

I remember having to know about timezones as a kid from trying to watch cartoons on TV.  They would always advertise shows as being at for example "8/7 central" which was 8 eastern, 7 central.  we lived in mountain so it would be 6 our time.  I don't watch much TV anymore so I dunno if they still do that.  I can't remember hearing them advertise like that anytime recently when I have watched TV.

 

I'm always a bit amazed when people don't seem to know about timezones too.  Seems like it should be basic knowlege to me.

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What do you do as a passenger in the car without playing on your phone?!?!

 

I always thought it was funny that they don't announce the mountain time. I will say for a while my mom thought there were only 3 timezones in the US, which made it hard when I was in LA and she tried to plan when she would call me from the east coast. She thought it was 2 hours difference.

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Weird...seems to me that if anything, as technology progresses and we can communicate better with people around the world, time zone difference become more prominent... for example, I work from home CST, company's main office is in EST, we have clients all over the world...when trying to setup meetings, time is always an issue because people live all over the place. .. got this one client in ireland always wanting to have mtgs bright in the early in the morning their time and i'm like fuck you, i'm still sleeping, lol

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... I will say for a while my mom thought there were only 3 timezones in the US ...

 

I have to admit, the first time I flew to California, I started getting nervous when we were 30 minutes passed what I thought was our arrival time. I finally realized the arrival time on the ticket must be local time at the destination. So, an hour later, I was getting more nervous. I finally asked the stew... uhh, flight-attendant. I'm sure she struggled not to laugh in my face as she explained the "extra" timezone.  :facepalm:  well, it was my first flight west (and I'm not saying how recent that trip was).

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