Web Find: World Time Server

I seem to have something of a passion for clocks and other time pieces, for proof you can see my other web find here. Today’s webfind is the father of all time references: Time zones.

http://www.worldtimeserver.com/index.aspx

As an example, if you are curious about the time in Singapore, click here. Change the location to Singapore, and voila, the conversion down to the minute.

The website also comes with an international meeting/conference call planner. This tool allows the user to choose the date for the meeting and the locations of the people attending. The world meeting planner results allow the user to see the relationship each location has in regards to daytime hours with proper adjustments for any locations observing daylight saving time, so you can quickly target a time that works for everyone. No more conference calls at 3 am in the morning if you can help it!

World Time Server even offers synchronization with an atomic clock with the freeware Atomic Clock Sync. The Atomic Clock Sync utility works by optimizing how often Windows references an atomic clock server, such as the atomic clock servers operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States.

The concept of measuring the time of day is a fascinating topic. It is an issue that is part science, part navigation, part geography, part economics, part history and part politics. This is especially true as time zones  evolved over the years. The matter of determining time zones is actually a major political and economic issue since it impacts upon stock exchange opening hours as compared to other stock exchanges in the region.

Anyway, further reading below, these are the most informative and entertaining ones I could find. The Singapore article is particularly informative since it sheds light on the volatility of  time zones: Within Singapore’s brief history of 48 years there have been 7 changes in the time zone for Singapore. Add to it a witty author and the article is prize read.

Further Reading:
NUS Math web article on Singapore’s Time Zone

Wikipedia Article on Time Zones