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In-Depth Information
to.pretty.much.worldwide..The.base.time.standard.originally.
came.from.the.Royal.Greenwich.Observatory.in.Greenwich,.
England,.where.they.carefully.monitored.the.rotation.of.the.
planet.and.calculated.the.exact.agreed.upon.“mean”.time.or.
what.was.known.as.Greenwich.Mean.Time.
*
More. recently. this. was. replaced. by. something. called.
Universal.Time.that.is.calculated.by.comparing.many.differ-
ent.atomic.clocks.around.the.world.and.adjusting.for.anoma-
lies. to. come. up. with. a. time. standard. that. is. as. accurate. as.
possible..This.is.the.base.time.upon.which.other.time.zones.
around.the.world.are.based..Greenwich.is.still.considered.the.
“prime”.or.base.meridian.of.time.calculations,.and.Universal.
Time,. or. what. you. will. hear. referred. to. as. UTC. (Universal.
Coordinated. Time),. is. still. the. time. you. will. ind. on. all. the.
clocks.in.England.
Depending. on. the. distance. from. Greenwich. and. some-
times.some.arbitrary.and.even.politically.motivated.lines,.the.
time.in.a.certain.zone.will.differ.from.Greenwich.time,.usually.
(but.not.always).in.hourly.increments.somewhat.correspond-
ing. to. the. movement. of. the. planet. around. the. Sun. and. its.
approximate.24-hour.spin.
Now. you. might. be. wondering. how. all. this. is. related. to.
understanding.the.time.of.an.activity.on.a.computer—good.
question..The.reason.we.are.delving.into.this.fascinating.dis-
cussion. on. time. standards. and. time. zones. is. that. most. all.
computers.will.record.creation,.access,.and.modiication.time.
of.the.activities.that.occur.on.them.in.UTC.
If.you.are.producing.records.and.hope.to.prove.or.disprove.
a.point.with.those.records.based.on.the.time.they.happened,.
you.may.need.to.understand.and.translate.between.UTC.and.
the.time.zone.in.which.the.activity.took.place.
That.last.part.of.the.sentence.above.is.very.important.to.
note..To.establish.what.time.an.activity.took.place,.you.need.to.
consider.where.it.took.place.and.the.date.it.took.place.as.well.
*.
http://www.polyomino.org.uk/british-time/..Retrieved.2011-07-09.
