Non-motoring > Clocks go back Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Iffy Replies: 61

 Clocks go back - Iffy
I find the clocks going back mildly disruptive.

The extra hour in bed is not much of an advantage on a Sunday, and each year I seem to have ever more clocks to adjust.

There's the clocks in the caravan, one in the car, the mobile, more clocks in Iffy Towers, and a couple in the office.

Nor am I certain what the advantage is.

Yes, it's lighter in the morning, but it's darker at night.

What do you think of the time change?

 Clocks go back - swiss tony
total waste of time (sic)

for most, if not all farmers it does nothing.
there is still the same hours of light, in fact for those farming livestock, the animals don't read clocks so they still need feeding / milking etc, at the same time, no matter what the farmers clock says......

personally I find that the change makes me more tired, thus putting me at more risk of making misjudgements.

 Clocks go back - CGNorwich
Just started changing the clocks - have 23 of them to alter. Reallly musn't buy any more!
 Clocks go back - Cpt. Flack
Cuckoo!
 Clocks go back - Phil I
>>What do you think of the time change?

Not an issue that troubles me . I do however, every year, find there is always one timepiece which I have forgotten to alter. Not always the same one. not so many to alter now that a fair proportion of the clocks are r/c and are no problem.

Roll on 27/03/2011

Happy Motoring.
Phil I
 Clocks go back - Zero
You have to change the mobile? wow how quaint.

TV - changes itself - network attached.
Lounge clock? radio controlled - changes itself.
4 house PCs - change themselves.
Humax PVR? changes itself.
Bedroom clock radio - changes itself.
Phone - changes itself.


Oven clock, manual
Central heating time - manual
Car Clock - manual
Three watches - all manual.

 Clocks go back - CGNorwich

Proper clocks have pendulums and strike the hours. No radio controlled gimickry here.
 Clocks go back - Bromptonaut
Already been round and changed all those that can't look after themselves. But like Phil I know there's one somewhere I've missed.
 Clocks go back - Zero
The sat nav. For a device that is critically time dependent, it cant be rsed to tell you the right time.
 Clocks go back - ....
It takes me a few days to remember if meeting requests were set up in Europe or elsewhere. Conference calls appear earlier than expected for the first day or so with reminders set.
 Clocks go back - Runfer D'Hills
I've long held the view ( even when I lived in Scotland ) that we should stick with BST all year round.

When do children play out ? After school. When are motorists tired ? At the end of a day. When do people attend to things outside their homes ? After work.

All these examples and many more would benefit far more from an extra hour of daylight at the end of a day than one at the beginning.

As for the "Scottish" question. In December and January it doesn't really get properly light until 10.00 anyway in the North and it's going dark again by 3.00. It would make little difference if those times were 11.00 and 4.00.

 Clocks go back - ....
What would you call it though Humph ? BST is a bit ironic in Dec.
How about CET or German time ? :-)
 Clocks go back - Zero
Why don't we stick to GMT all the year round?
 Clocks go back - Runfer D'Hills
>> Why don't we stick to GMT all the year round?

Good question, but for the reasons given above It's my opinion that greater social advantages are gained from extra daylight at the end of the working / school day than are afforded by extra daylight in the mornings. For example, if you are going to drive in the dark, better to do it when fresh and rested than when tired after work. Of course in the deepest of winter it doesn't make a great deal of difference but certainly November and February would benefit in my view.

As for what to call it, how about UK time ? Easy enough to understand.
 Clocks go back - ....
>> As for what to call it, how about UK time ? Easy enough to understand.
>>
Some little empire builder in Bruxelles or Luxembourg would notice and insist it be renaimed CET or simplified to EZ (Europäische Zeit).
 Clocks go back - Pat
Why not just call it UTC time?

Pat
 Clocks go back - Stuartli
>>You have to change the mobile? wow how quaint.>>

You've forgotten Windows in your first list..:-)
Last edited by: Stuartli on Sat 30 Oct 10 at 22:22
 Clocks go back - movilogo
We should keep one time throughout the year; be it BST or GMT.
 Clocks go back - bathtub tom
I'd be quite happy for an experiment or two to decide, as long as there was sufficient evidence, to prove a change was, primarily in the interests of safety and secondly a benefit to the finances of the country.
 Clocks go back - VxFan
>> Car Clock - manual

Mine updates automatically via the RDS signal.
 Clocks go back - Zero
Yeah but, I am not going to drive a Vectra just to get an updating clock, its preferable to finger poke twice a year.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 30 Oct 10 at 23:49
 Clocks go back - VxFan
Not just Vectras. All Vauxhall clocks have auto updated themselves via the stereo since 1993 or 1994.

I can't see why other car manufacturers can't do the same, unless Vx have exclusive rights to it.
 Clocks go back - Cpt. Flack
Leave the clocks. If Scotland wants to keep the system, give them their own time zone.
 Clocks go back - Roger.
Well, they already have their own Parliament. (Doesn't stop them sending loads of dodgy politicians to make laws for the English, though.)
 Clocks go back - Ted

Done all mine about 2200 hrs...Cooker, carriage clock in the parlour, my watch and digi bedside light that takes me about 30 mins to figure out how. Spent 6 months last year just mentally adding an hour on.
Bums...forgot the heating, have to wait 'til morning......watching Night of the Living Dead !

Just the bike to do...don't bother with the Vitara and Erin Dors can do her own...and the Note.

Ted
 Clocks go back - Dog
I don't like dark mornings one bit so I welcome putting the clocks back - and keep em there.

I am young enough to remember double brrritish summertime, stayed light during school hols until quite late.
 Clocks go back - Dog
Eh ... Double British Summertime was brought in during WW11 (I'm not that young!)

What I actually remember is the British Standard Time scheme trialled between 27 October 1968 and 31 October 1971, when Britain remained on GMT+1 all year.
 Clocks go back - hawkeye
>>
>> What do you think of the time change?
>>

It's a nuisance for no good reason.

Got round all the inside clocks last night and this morning intrigued to find Mrs H's new £5 Nokia has adjusted itself. Just the caravan, cars and bike to do. My old XDA pda was asking if it's OK to change and the house laptops have just done it.

Just realised I haven't done the microwave.
 Clocks go back - Iffy
...intrigued to find Mrs H's new £5 Nokia has adjusted itself...

Found a command on my cheapie Nokia which enables the network to set the time.

It was disabled - factory default setting - but I've enabled it now.

 Clocks go back - movilogo
>> when Britain remained on GMT+1 all year

Why it was abandoned there after?
 Clocks go back - Bromptonaut
>> Why it was abandoned there after?

I can remember the experiment. The dark playground at school ceased to be fun after about a week. Don't recall the lighter evenings making any difference; we were watching TV anyway. I think the official reports picked up a significant increase in morning accidents and made less of the decrease in the evening. Agriculture didn't like it and of course there were far more small farms in those days. Either cows to be milked and churns collected in the dark, or the supply chain needed to adapt to things being done later. Factory workforces would also find their day affected.

The British public never like change and doubtless grumbled mightily. It must have been an issue in the 1970 election and I think the incoming Tories were committed to abandoning the experiment.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 31 Oct 10 at 10:52
 Clocks go back - Iffy
...Agriculture didn't like it...

A farming uncle of mine ignored the clocks going forwards or backwards, mostly because of milking.

Not sure which time he worked to, but it didn't change.
 Clocks go back - Zero
Cows cant read the time.
 Clocks go back - Iffy
...Cows cant read the time...

Not much gets past you Zero, is there?

Cows may not be clock watchers, but they do respond well to what we know as a timed routine.

 Clocks go back - Zero
they do more than respond to a timed routine, they more or less demand it.
 Clocks go back - Iffy
...they more or less demand it...

It may be no more than learned behaviour.

I saw a documentary about two large milking herds in which the animals wander in to the milking parlour when they want to.

Some come in twice a day, others three or four.

It wasn't clear if each cow was coming in at the same times each day, but might well have been.

Both farmers seemed pleased with the yields produced by the system.

It looks as if Daisy likes a routine, but she can also adapt to a new one.
 Clocks go back - Zero
The problem is that not all of them can adopt a new routine twice a year, certainly not in the space of 24 hours.

The cows will all gather at the gate leading to the milking parlour at a certain time, the time they are used to, you certainly don't want to have to go out and gather them an hour earlier.

> Some come in twice a day, others three or four.

Unless you can develop a robot milker (I think someone has actually*) you cant afford to man the milking parlour all day.


* I think the cow wanders into an empty stall when it wants to, and a robot guides the milking cups onto the teats by a laser and computer. Its a kind of facial recognition for udders.
 Clocks go back - Ted

>> a kind of facial recognition for udders.

I have that skill down at the swimming pool.

Ted
>>
 Clocks go back - Iffy
...I have that skill down at the swimming pool...

Until your goggles steam up.

 Clocks go back - Zero
Are you allowed back at the local pool yet Ted?
 Clocks go back - Ted
>> Are you allowed back at the local pool yet Ted?

Not since that unpleasant and embarrassing incident when the water turned pink around where I was floating.

Ted
>>
 Clocks go back - Robin O'Reliant
>> I think the official reports picked up a significant increase in morning accidents and
>> made less of the decrease in the evening.
>>
Not according to ROSPA -

www.rospa.com/roadsafety/adviceandinformation/general/british-summertime-factsheet.aspx
 Clocks go back - Dog
>>Why it was abandoned there after?<<

I got the info from here movilogo ~

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Summer_Time
 Clocks go back - bathtub tom
>>Found a command on my cheapie Nokia which enables the network to set the time.

Both SWMBO's and my Nokia apparently have that facility. It's never worked for me. I've tried making and receiving calls to no avail. My land-line has to receive a call before the time displayed on the handsets resets.
 Clocks go back - Iffy
...Found a command on my cheapie Nokia which enables the network to set the time...

Doesn't seem to work on my Orange Nokia.

And the stupid thing won't let you change the time manually while 'auto set' is enabled.

That's the sort of nonsense I expect to find in Windows.

 Clocks go back - VxFan
>> ...Found a command on my cheapie Nokia which enables the network to set the time...
>>
>> Doesn't seem to work on my Orange Nokia.

This option has never worked on any of my Nokia phones on the 02 network either.
 Clocks go back - FotheringtonTomas
It's fine. No problem.
 Clocks go back - Tooslow
I intensely dislike being plunged into darkness an hour earlier. It's also a pain having to adjust all of the clocks (damn - just remembered the camera). I make an effort to buy radio controlled clocks if I can. All of this talk of "double BST" and so forth is daft. Set at BST and forget.

Just remembered the central heating clock :-(

John
Last edited by: Tooslow on Sun 31 Oct 10 at 11:58
 Clocks go back - Robin O'Reliant
I always take the sundial indoors for an hour to let it catch up, but apparently the new ones are self adjusting.

Maybe I should upgrade?
 Clocks go back - Tooslow
Just get Slartibartfast to build you a planet which accomodates the sundial. Much easier.

John
 Clocks go back - Zero
>> I always take the sundial indoors for an hour to let it catch up, but
>> apparently the new ones are self adjusting.
>>

Mines not working at all today, do you think the battery has gone?
 Clocks go back - Tooslow
Get one of the new solar powered ones.

John
 Clocks go back - Zero
Of course

DOH
 Clocks go back - Tooslow
The central heating clock updated itself! Whoo!

Of course it does beg the question what happens to all of these clocks that adjust themselves but which are not receiving a radio time signal....?

John
 Clocks go back - Bromptonaut
>> Of course it does beg the question what happens to all of these clocks that
>> adjust themselves but which are not receiving a radio time signal....?


They either don't catch up or go haywire. Didn't used to be a problem here; could see the masts at Rugby from the end of the road.

Since they moved the transmitter to Cumbria alarm clocks can struggle to sync in daylight (e.g. after a battery change). They do catch up after nightfall when the propagation improves. As the GMT/BST change always takes place at night ours have been OK.
 Clocks go back - Armel Coussine
My wife asked if I had readjusted the kitchen clock in our borrowed house. I hadn't. Perhaps it had been wrong since last timeshift, I suggested. She said we would have noticed, and I agreed.

I went o look at the clock closely for the first time. It had cobwebs on it. But instead of the cheapo kitchen clock it resembled, it was more along the lines of minimalist-expensive. Its face claimed discreetly that it was radio-controlled.

Chapeau! The thing had adjusted itself. Whether by radio from some world clock HQ cavern or by simple pre-progamming I don't know.
 Clocks go back - WillDeBeest
Windows adjusts itself not by synchronizing by radio or over a network but simply by following a programmed rule about daylight-saving adjustments in its defined locality. In other words, you set up your home country and it adjusts itself accordingly. Other devices could be similarly programmed.
Years ago, I had a laptop with two different versions of Windows on different partitions, and each would adjust the system clock (and proudly pop up an announcement that it had done so) so it would end up over-corrected by an hour and I'd have to re-do it myself.

I'm with those who dislike the dark evenings and would prefer to keep the darkness in the morning. What we call it is a lesser concern - the British masses and almost all foreigners think we use GMT all the time anyway, and most have never heard of BST. Lotus Notes that I use at work sends me meeting invitations in 'GDT', whatever that is.

Incidentally, I once read that France used the same time as the UK until, would you believe, 1940. The occupying Germans imposed their own rules and France never went back. Can anyone (Mike?) authenticate this?
Certainly on the Atlantic coast - mostly west of the Greenwich meridian - in June and July it stays light absurdly late and is surprisingly dark in the early mornings for Brits used to a 4am sunrise, so it does seem odd that France is part of a time zone centred naturally on Vienna.

 Clocks go back - devonite
Why bother changing clocks that don`t control anything? tis easier to make the adjustment in your head as you look at them! - you know they`ve changed +/= hour as required!
 Clocks go back - L'escargot
Many years ago a colleague had a spring driven watch which didn't keep exact time, and he never used to correct it. He just checked what it read at the pips of the morning 6 o'clock news and from that calculated in his head what time it was during that day. Anyone seeing his watch was amazed to see that it might be, for example, showing 9 hours and 37 minutes fast and couldn't understand why he didn't reset it.
 Clocks go back - L'escargot
We could comprise and split the difference between GMT and BST and keep it the same all the year round.
 Clocks go back - Fullchat
Crikey its been a long evening and it's only half 8!

Ah well Spooks is on soon :-)
 Clocks go back - Armel Coussine
You should have watched Andrew Neill's piece on the tea party. That would have woken you up and made your blood run cold Fc.
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