[pdmunro]

I would like BBO to have a 24 hour clock that displayed BBO time (i.e. either local time in Las Vegas, or UTC) and date.

Players, commentators, announcements, etc. could use that time and date.

I would find it much easier than the present use of a variety of local times.

[Rain]

BST

But anyways, I doubt this idea will be popular. This won't be too different from the current method, whereas whatever time is mentioned, like EST, each user will compare it to their own zone and see how to derive at personal time.

I don't see how this time thing is so important anyway. It is very easy to google for a time converter.

http://www.timezonec...cgi-bin/tzc.tzc

I think this is a minor issue, and there are more important changes... The one reason I can think of for someone to need to know what time is "official" BBO time is when they are banned. Then they get a message saying "you are banned till 2004-08-02 24:30 hours", something like that. This time is the server time zone, which is US central time, if I'm not wrong. All other times listed in BBO by humans generally have EST or whatever pegged to it.


Rain

[pdmunro]

Quote

The one reason I can think of for someone to need to know what time is "official" BBO time is when they are banned. Then they get a message saying "you are banned till 2004-08-02 24:30 hours", something like that. Rain

Good point.

In another post, Walddk said he get lots of enquiries from people about tournament times.

Here's how easy my idea is:

Say, I am logged on to BBO and I read, "There is a BBO vugraph from Russia at 14:00 on Saturday, 19th February, 2005 (BBO time and date)".

I look at the BBO clock which says it is presently 12:00, Wednesday, 16th February, 2005.

It is very easy to tell that the vugraph is in exactly 3 days + 2 hours time.

It is also very easy to check as I get closer to the start time.

[pdmunro]

I have found two earlier posts on this topic:

http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?sho...t=0&#entry20567

http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?sho...=15&#entry54095

Quote

... the vugraph page will change to take the time from your web browser ...   Gerardo Feb 10 2005, 06:45 PM 

Will the Vugraph schedule really show my local computer time?

Fred said there have been less complaints after changing from GMT to Paris + New York time. Unfortunately, I have never been able to easily convert these to local time in my head. I know I can use software, but I would really appreciate it, if the Vugraph schedule did use another latitude for us on this side of the earth. Maybe Bejing time. That should please a few billion people. :-)

But I still like my idea of a BBO clock. It seems the simplest solution.

[Walddk]

pdmunro, on Feb 12 2005, 05:17 AM, said:

In another post, Walddk said he get lots of enquiries from people about tournament times.

When I send e-mails to my co-commentators, they get the session starting times in New York, Paris, London and Sydney. We have virtually no examples of people getting it wrong even if they don't live in those time zones.

On our vugraph schedule page there is limited space, so only New York and Paris appear there. A time converter should make it an easy task to get the time where you are. Keep this site among your favourites

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

The reason why I get loads of questions about where and when is mostly that our members are too lazy to go to our vugraph schedule page at

http://www.bridgebas.../online/vg.html

It's much easier to ask me.

Roland

[Gerardo]

pdmunro, on Feb 15 2005, 06:09 AM, said:

Quote

... the vugraph page will change to take the time from your web browser ...   Gerardo Feb 10 2005, 06:45 PM 

Will the Vugraph schedule really show my local computer time?

Yes. Just like myhands does now, but a tad more polished.

Quote

Fred said there have been less complaints after changing from GMT to Paris + New York time.

Meanwhile, I think GMT should be better than Paris time.

[Walddk]

Gerardo, on Feb 15 2005, 09:15 AM, said:

Meanwhile, I think GMT should be better than Paris time.

I disagree Gerardo. People in London can't even get GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) right, and people elsewhere think that GMT is the same as UK time. It is now, but not in the summer.

Which is quite strange since Greenwich is situated in London! GMT never changes, it does in all other parts of the world once a year.

Roland

[Gerardo]

I mean, it is easier to find by how much you differ from GMT than from Paris time (ALL timezones are usually expressed by GMT+/-hhmm or maybe UTC+/-hhmm, same thing

Particularly if your are outside Europe (CET used there?) and USA/Canada, but they don't care about either.

[FrancesHinden]

Walddk, on Feb 15 2005, 09:27 AM, said:

and people elsewhere think that GMT is the same as UK time. It is now, but not in the summer.

That's at least partly Microsoft's fault. In Outlook, if you define your timezone as "GMT" that is taken to mean "British Time" so in fact is GMT in the Winter & BST in the Summer. Very irritating.

As you already do, it's better to say "Paris time" or "London time" which is clearer and includes daylight savings.

[Gerardo]

So, British time is GMT is winter and GMT+1 or GMT+0100 in summer.

GMT has a nice property. It does NOT change, so it is easier to compare about (you don't need to know whether London or Paris or xx is using daylight savings).