Back to the Future?

Errr server status page...

[As of 7 Jul 2012 | 3:50:08 UTC]

OK, when did we buy Matt a Delorean?

I'm assuming this is why the backup database is 102,000 seconds behind the master?

Errr server status page...

[As of 7 Jul 2012 | 3:50:08 UTC]

OK, when did we buy Matt a Delorean?

I'm assuming this is why the backup database is 102,000 seconds behind the master?

Wait. So SETI and BOINC are both in Berkley, and yet they are dating their results by some random European time zone? Is there a method to the madness?

Wait. So SETI and BOINC are both in Berkley, and yet they are dating their results by some random European time zone? Is there a method to the madness?

Californian time isn't set, isn't constant, it changes once a year to summer time and once a year to winter time. It also makes it quite difficult to calculate what time it is at any other time zone, when BOINC would use Californian time.

UTC doesn't use summer or winter time, it's set to the prime meridian of the Earth, and is therefore a constant of time (outside the leap seconds).
(See also GMT vs UTC explained)

You can always easily calculate what time it is in your neighborhood by knowing what time UTC it is plus the time zone you're in. While it may not be so easy to do that if Californian time were used and you're in Australia, running this program.
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Jord

- BOINC FAQ Service
- BOINC User Wiki

Real is just a matter of perception.

Still makes no sense to me. I could understand it if the webpage used whatever random timezone as a base timezone, and displayed either my timezone, or the timezone where the project is located, but I still can't understand why a project in California would have any interest in setting a clock to a timezone where they are not. Unless, for some reason they are linked to another project somewhere else that I've never heard of? Financial and travel companies frequently have clocks for other timezones available because it's handy to know what time it is somewhere else when you want to do business in that other time zone, but what reason is there for SETI to do such a thing?

What critical aspect of SETI@home requires that the webpage display a time that has nothing to do with the actual time at the project, or at the viewer's location?

I imagine that there probably is a reason. SETI seems to be run by some pretty levelheaded folks, but I simply can't see it from where I'm sitting.

How does this universal time make it easier for my computer to display the time where I am or where Berkley is? It's just using a lookup table or a calculation anyway?

If you didn't have a fixed point of reference for time, the Message Boards would make no sense at all, well, even less than they do now! Now consider, when WUs are sent out and results received back....the servers don't know which time zone that each WU was sent to or what time zone the result came from. Don't forgot, that each WU has a completion time and date. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue in all the databases, if the servers had to make corrections for time zones? This is 1st day kindergarten stuff, on Gallifrey - they like order in matters of time, there.



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Don't take life too seriously, as you'll never come out of it alive!

If you didn't have a fixed point of reference for time, the Message Boards would make no sense at all, well, even less than they do now! Now consider, when WUs are sent out and results received back....the servers don't know which time zone that each WU was sent to or what time zone the result came from. Don't forgot, that each WU has a completion time and date. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue in all the databases, if the servers had to make corrections for time zones? This is 1st day kindergarten stuff, on Gallifrey - they like order in matters of time, there.

If you didn't have a fixed point of reference for time, the Message Boards would make no sense at all, well, even less than they do now! Now consider, when WUs are sent out and results received back....the servers don't know which time zone that each WU was sent to or what time zone the result came from. Don't forgot, that each WU has a completion time and date. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue in all the databases, if the servers had to make corrections for time zones? This is 1st day kindergarten stuff, on Gallifrey - they like order in matters of time, there.

I can imagine no chaos from using the time zone of the location where the project is located. There is no difference between arbitrarily chosen "base" time zones.

And if anyone wants to know how late it is in Berkeley, the Cricket graphs show the local time. ;-)

Gruß,
Gundolf

If you didn't have a fixed point of reference for time, the Message Boards would make no sense at all, well, even less than they do now! Now consider, when WUs are sent out and results received back....the servers don't know which time zone that each WU was sent to or what time zone the result came from. Don't forgot, that each WU has a completion time and date. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue in all the databases, if the servers had to make corrections for time zones? This is 1st day kindergarten stuff, on Gallifrey - they like order in matters of time, there.

I can imagine no chaos from using the time zone of the location where the project is located. There is no difference between arbitrarily chosen "base" time zones.

If there is a reason why the project needs to be based on the time at some arbitrary place on the planet, that's fine, but it's not conceivable that it's any sort of calculation or simplification of process that the project is getting for doing so. There are plenty of possible reasons why an arbitrary non-project time was chosen. I'm just curious as to the WHY because I've seen nothing to indicate a real reason why the project time isn't based on the time at the project.

If they are aligning time because all astological measurements worldwide are standardized to some agreed upon standard for date and time, then that's enough of an explanation. Heck, if it's an EFFORT to try to bolster such a standardized time, since the SETI@home project is collecting data from many places, that's fine too.

Heck, it's fine even if nobody bothers to every give a real reason at all. I don't need to know why my neighbor wears a blue shirt every Tuesday, and without a real reason, I'll just have to consider the project's use of an arbitrary time of day to be a "neighbor-wears-blue-shirt-on-Tuesday" class phenomenon.