Time Zones Are Hard (Apparently)

By Adrian Sutton

You know if there’s one thing more confusing and less documented in programming than character set encodings, it has to be time zones. For example, here’s the package tracking log for my new monitor:

      <td>
        <strong>Time</strong>
      </td>
      
      <td>
        <strong>Location</strong>
      </td>
      
      <td>
        <strong>Event Details</strong>
      </td>
    </tr>
    
    <tr>
      <td nowrap="nowrap">
        Feb 26, 2008
      </td>
      
      <td nowrap="nowrap">
        04:29:00 AM
      </td>
      
      <td nowrap="nowrap">
        SWANSEA WEST GLAM GB
      </td>
      
      <td nowrap="nowrap">
        Arrival Scan
      </td>
    </tr>
    
    <tr>
      <td nowrap="nowrap">
        Feb 25, 2008
      </td>
      
      <td nowrap="nowrap">
        10:30:00 PM
      </td>
      
      <td nowrap="nowrap">
        SWANSEA WEST GLAM GB
      </td>
      
      <td nowrap="nowrap">
        Departure Scan
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</td>
Date

 

Now either they picked up the package at 10:30 PM last night, drove around and around the block all night and then returned it to it’s original location at 4:30 this morning, or someone messed up with time zones. Either way it renders the tracking capabilities completely useless. Funnily enough, it’s only a 2-3 hour drive from Swansea to here so if they hadn’t wasted all that time driving round the block I’d have my monitor by now.