Friday, April 16, 2010

Random Technical Question for Our Readers

It seems blogger is constantly attaching the wrong time to our posts, specifically, an hour above the current time. So what we post at 8pm e.g. shows up as having been posted at 9pm.

I have checked the settings and the everything seems to be in order. The time is set to Pakistan Standard Time (GMT +5) and Karachi time. However, the automatic time shown is wrong in the settings, even though the computer's own clock is fine. Is there some setting we have to tinker with?

Would appreciate some feedback.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe somehow the DST is activated somewhere. Look for it!

Umair Javed said...

yeah gmt is no longer +5...its +4 these days

Anonymous said...

its +4 these days...in Dubai (Pakistan is still +5)

Ahsan said...

Simple, just change your settings so blogger thinks you're posting from Dubai.

Ammara said...

just wondering...
y does it make a difference?

Anonymous said...

or...you could just write the time of posting yourself :)
"i wrote this at so and so time..."

technology is a b*tch.

XYZ said...

^^Correction to Umair J: "...since we have NOT opted for DST this year."

@Anon313: Couldn't you come up with something any more inelegant?

Asim U said...

We opted for DST last year on 15th April. This year time will get adjusted automatically according to your last year's DST settings.
I have an solution for Linux. I don't know how you will get it fixed on Windows. If your blogger server is running Linux, you can fix the problem as follows

1- Download "ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata2010h.tar.gz"
2- Untar the file in a new directory
3- Then 'cd' into that directory and run the following commands

# zic -d zoneinfo asia
# cd zoneinfo
# sudo cp -r * /usr/share/zoneinfo/

Our government does not take it seriously. Time zone information for each country is kept updated at a central location. This year we did not opt for it. So we have to update our DST settings accordingly.

Umair Javed said...

i dont know much about the workings of DST but to my knowledge a match thats supposed to kickoff at 12-45 pm in the UK (as listed on the Skysports website), kicks off at 16-45 in Pakistan. I dont know if the website uses DST or GMT but, regardless, the difference is 4 hours as of the last month or so.

XYZ said...

@Asim U: I am pretty convinved you are right. Thanks for taking time to explain it. Although I couldn't actually follow the Linux procedure (I don't even know what code the blogger server is running or what tar is!), I also wondered if little old me could go and simply change the seting for the whole country?

What I did do: I tried setting the thing to Dubai time and the time went back not one but two hours, proving your hypothesis I think! So I did the next best thing and set it to Dushanbe Time which is the same as PST. :)


@Umair: Dude, you really should learn the difference between UKST and GMT. Esp if you are based in London and studying int'l relations :) The former is the country's standard time, like PST, which changes with DST. The latter is the universal standard time which remains constant. Since the UK is on DST at the moment, the UKST is actually GMT+1. So yes, the diff between local UK time and PST is 4 hours these days, even though PST is GMT+5.

Anonymous said...

Guys- One general question - How was ET sunday edition? What was special for 40 Rs? A magazine like DT?

Anonymous said...

And from Twitter comes the message;

BinaShah

I've changed my mind. The Express Tribune Sunday edition was bad.

Anonymous said...

Wow "Anonymous" you must be really obsessed about ET. You commented about it on a post about some random technical question. I think "ihateexpresstribune" is a better screen name for you than "anonymous". And as far as Bina Shah or anyone else hating or liking it is a personal opinion,but valid criticism is appreciated by anyone, instead of biased bashing. Cheers

Anonymous said...

I had a genuine inquiry about Sunday edition since I have no access to print copy. I have no love hate affair but lot of people have opinion ET is mere a layout without much substance.

Anonymous said...

Well given that Bina Shah writes a load of utter crap, perhaps it is a case of it takes one to know one?

Anonymous said...

Cafe Pyala owes review of Sunday Edition of ET and its comparison with Sunday Editions of The News, Nation and DT. (On a good note ET has decided to reduce its Sunday Edition from 40 to 25 Rs.)

Anonymous said...

On a bad note, ET did not include the IHT Sunday magazine as part of its package this Sunday. What you got instead was an okay but rather skimpy local Sunday magazine.
Was it the 40-50 rupee price tag that prompted a last-minute panic decision? Would love to know