Just trying to drum up some support for this idea.....




Request: If you have a timestamp of some event (in any timezone) on a page then please also put the current time (in that same timezone) on the page so we can do the maths and work out the time diff.

(edit to make this more clear: old request was) <strike>Request: put the local linode time in the footer on all manager & status pages</strike>

That seems like a simple think to make pages more helpful.

Problem: goto status.linode.com and work out how long ago the last update was (within about 10 mins accuracy).

Problem: goto your dns manager page and work out how long ago your dns domain was regenerated


Both of these list the date/time of the last action, but the pages do not list what the current date/time is (in linode local time).

So... you have to take your local time, add/subtract timezones to get to edt, oh and what about daylight savings time? Is it daylight savings time in both zones? +1 chicken if it is. Is it a full moon? Am I left handed? Carry the 4, rotate the chicken to point north, plus 12 hours to convert to.... *Arrrrg* Head explodes.

Solution: put the current local (for linode) date/time on the footer of *all* linode status and manager pages. Then we can work backwards from the local linode time to the times listed on the page.

(A nicer solution for the dns page would be to have relative times, eg "433h 32m 12s". For dns, I dont think we care when it happened, just how long ago things happened.)

(An even nicer solution would be to color code the dns page table so that if modified is more recent than last generated, color the row red, so you could immediately see which domains are yet to regenerate. That would be... .)

(For the status page, maybe we *DO* care when things happened, so maybe the currently used system of full date/time is ok, but we still need a 'localtime' reference on the page. I would not object to having both full date/time and relative 'time since'.)

(For the status page, maybe we could just have the first line be "last update was hr:mm:ss ago"? Usually when i hit the status page, my first question is 'how long ago was the last status update'.)

Anyway, enough putting things in ()'s and ranting,
cam

Hmm? Does setting your preferred timezone in the linode manager user profile (profile link is next to log out) keep showing the DNS timestamps in Eastern Time?

Your problem is that you're using a chicken and pointing it north. A south-pointing goat should fix it.

But seriously, I have the timezone in my LPM profile set to UTC+1 and the times for Linodes and DNS are displayed in my local time (Netherlands) -- with daylight saving time accounted for.

For Linode to figure out what timezone your VM is using, they would have to poke around inside the VM. I for one am happy for them not to do that.

For status.linode.com, you don't have to be logged in -- they have no idea what your local/VM time is.

_________________
/ Peter

I propose we move everyone over to the brand new time system I just invented. It's called "Skippy's One Time System to Rule Them All".

I'll wear a really accurate watch (a good one too - like a $26 Timex) and that will be the "One Time", all other people will either add or subtract hours to match their geographic location in reference to me (not sure what to do when I travel around - NOTE TO SELF - look into getting a TWITTER account). Once you know how many hours ahead or behind you are from me - it's easy peesy.

We'll call it SOT. Maybe someone clever in graphics could make a really neat logo with timey stuff and a wicked looking ring in it - cause that would be really cool (plus we could make tee shirts).

What do you guys think?

If we just fly you to England and chain you to the front door of the Royal Observatory, then that will work quite well

Any modern system should be able to do timezone conversions, taking into account all the different rules for DST. After all, there's a package for that:

apt-get install tzdata

As an alternative, what about UNIX timestamps? That'll work for at least another 27 years.

I consider myself soundly spanked by the replies

How about I reword my request to be a bit clearer:

If you have a timestamp of some event (in any timezone) on a page then please also put the current time (in that same timezone) on the page so we can do the maths and work out the time diff.


That seems like a simple thing to make pages more helpful.




Im down under, so the goat has to be upside down (which is when the chicken lands on it and points north).

I have mine set for Australia/Melbourne and apparently my DNS was last modified +1 hour in the future. Yay. (The dns ones are less important as mostly you just care if modified<generated.)

The problem still exists with status.linode.com messages.

Oh well, maybe its just me with the broken timezone and who wants to know when the last status update was.



I said put the local linode time and i ment the local time for the server generating the page, I can see that people might have thought I was asking for the weirdly impossible (convert to my local time).

Im not that stupid (close, but not quite

How about posting event times in GMT, in addition to America/New_York? At least with that, folks could do "date -u" and get the current time. TypePad may or may not have the ability to put the current time on a rendered page, so they may be stuck with what they have.

In a pinch, http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=current+time+in+absecon%2C+nj answers the question too, albeit only on request. But it's easier than adding/subtracting hours...

I would be happy if my local time at least was right in the Linode Manager. The Linode Manager lets me set my local time. Except it doesn't.

It doesn't list my real time zone (Arizona/US time). And it always applies DST.

In Arizona, except for the Navajo tribe, we do not believe in saving daylight. (In Southern Arizona we have much more than our share of it, thank you.) We never change our clocks. Our time is always UTC-0700. That is NOT the same as the time in London -0700.

Alas, I am left with either changing my zone twice a year (set California time in summer, Mountain time in winter), or be off by one hour for half the year.

Really, as pointed out above in the thread, the code to get it right is readily available. Why a home-grown half-solution? If that isn't possible, at least provide a checkbox as to whether to apply a summer adjustment, that I can uncheck.

JAT