Does anybody really know what time it is?

January 5, 2002 6:36 PM

Does anybody really know what time it is? If anybody really cares, the NIST is the place to go for not only the answers (including a list of government operated open access NTP servers), but more information than you probably ever wanted to know about standard time.
posted by baylink (15 comments total)

This is amazing. I had no idea we had only a rough idea of what time it was. The next measuring device will be 1000 times more accurate than the one we are using now.
I specially liked the live clock and the shadow showing where it was still night. Very useful for Metafilter. Thanks, baylink.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:03 PM on January 5, 2002

How do we know this site's accurate? My clocks all say no! Of course none of them are on the same time, either... From the looks of it, I crossed the Equator when I went into my kitchen...
posted by Katy Action at 7:04 PM on January 5, 2002

Of course none of them are on the same time

What good is having more than one clock if they all tell you the same thing?
posted by diddlegnome at 7:44 PM on January 5, 2002

It's a damned poor clock cluster that can't think of more than one time to report...
posted by baylink at 8:15 PM on January 5, 2002

About Time is a handy and lightweight piece of software for accurately setting a PC's clock via NTP.
posted by normy at 8:15 PM on January 5, 2002

I use About Time at work. When we boot our computers they synch time with the network servers...like they're accurate. About five minutes off one way or the other, as a rule.

Jen
posted by NsJen at 8:24 PM on January 5, 2002

WinXP has a built in app that synchronizes the time with a NTP server.
posted by riffola at 8:39 PM on January 5, 2002

Thanks for the link, now I have to find out why my computer clock keeps losing time.
posted by swenson at 8:44 PM on January 5, 2002

A book came out this year on the origin of standard time, called Time Lord: Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time. I read an excerpt of it in August, and it looks to be pretty well written. The NIST site didn't go into the role of railroads in the development of standard time. They really needed standards badly -

"For instance, the Pennsylvania Railroad in the East used Philadelphia time, which was 5 minutes slower than New York time and 5 minutes faster than Baltimore time. The Baltimore & Ohio used Baltimore time for trains running out of Baltimore, Columbus time for trains in Ohio, Vincennes time for trains running west of Cincinnati. Some of its trains ran under New York time, Philadelphia time, and Chicago time."
posted by bragadocchio at 11:25 PM on January 5, 2002

time isnt real.
posted by Satapher at 7:10 AM on January 6, 2002

There's a Canadian version of the WWV and WWVH time stations: CHU, which announces the time in English and French.
posted by Mo Nickels at 8:45 AM on January 6, 2002

time isnt real.



Shows what you know.
posted by Dagobert at 8:52 AM on January 6, 2002

speaking of the winxp NTP thing, time.windows.com (Default timeserver) was 5 minutes off of NIST last time I checked...whats the point?
posted by thadk at 10:28 AM on January 6, 2002

I use time.nist.gov or ntp.ctr.columbia.edu
posted by riffola at 1:49 PM on January 6, 2002

"A man with one watch always knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never really sure."
posted by Foosnark at 11:35 AM on January 8, 2002