I always come back here and link this talk whenever I try to explain to someone that time is a complicated matter in programming (even though it's usually only earth time but it is an entertaining talk and people realize that there is a lot more to time than what they immediately think of, with the different timezones, different countries switching to dailight savings time on different days or not at all and events like samoa jumping across the date line).
It's kind of surprising that they're working on Mars' clock. One would think that you can get around it by planning 2 or 3 days ahead. There must be so many things that the rover can do before having to be programmed on a daily basis.
In the Caves of Steel Trilogy, Isaac Asimov wrote about a colonized planet that had a completely metric time system. No colons, no AM/PM, no sexigesimal, no months with a variable number of days in them, no leap year day rules. It was streamlined and beautiful. So with all respect to NASA, the International Astronomical Union should establish a completely decimal-based stardate system *now*, like the creation of the metric system itself in the late 1700s, rather than duplicating our whacked-out and confusing Gregorian calendar all over the universe! Keep the Gregorian calendar just for Earth.
I always come back here and link this talk whenever I try to explain to someone that time is a complicated matter in programming (even though it's usually only earth time but it is an entertaining talk and people realize that there is a lot more to time than what they immediately think of, with the different timezones, different countries switching to dailight savings time on different days or not at all and events like samoa jumping across the date line).
thanks for the nice speech
It's kind of surprising that they're working on Mars' clock. One would think that you can get around it by planning 2 or 3 days ahead. There must be so many things that the rover can do before having to be programmed on a daily basis.
In the Caves of Steel Trilogy, Isaac Asimov wrote about a colonized planet that had a completely metric time system. No colons, no AM/PM, no sexigesimal, no months with a variable number of days in them, no leap year day rules. It was streamlined and beautiful. So with all respect to NASA, the International Astronomical Union should establish a completely decimal-based stardate system *now*, like the creation of the metric system itself in the late 1700s, rather than duplicating our whacked-out and confusing Gregorian calendar all over the universe! Keep the Gregorian calendar just for Earth.
ObiWanBillKenobi Stardate.....this is the starship Enterprise and our maiden voyage through the galaxies
Problem is time is relative, distance and gravity and direction and speed...
Fascinating! Nicely done, Nagin :)
Great talk!!
helpful indeed!
Great ted talk!
aliens are watching this like :0