[time-nuts] Accurate timestamping on computers (previously: For mywhole life timezones have been weird)

[Sarah White]

On 11/3/2012 11:31 AM, David J Taylor wrote:
> -----Original Message----- From: Sarah White
> Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2012 9:49 AM
> 
> Thanks so much David...
> 
> Really. Thanks. I feel alot better now.
> 
> Regardless of documented issues on:
> http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/mswish/ut-rtc.html
> 
> (quote) The numerous past malfunctions of Microsoft operating systems
> caused by keeping local time in the RTC and trying to cleverly perform
> the RTC adjustment semi-automatically have been repeatedly the subject
> of concerned public discussion: RISKS 16.54.1 RISKS 18.96.3 RISKS
> 19.11.16, RISKS 19.12.14 RISKS 19.43.13, RISKS 19.43.14, RISKS
> 22.34.3... (multiple links)
> 
> Not sure what timezone you're in...
> 
> ... So I don't know which day your summer time ends this year. I'd love
> to see the your loopstats file for as many of your windows boxes as
> possible (with refclock, or without. Either is fine.) for the day of the
> DST update this fall (and maybe any other loopstats data from when the
> realtime clock got updated due to summer time / DST updates)
> 
> According to: http://www.satsignal.eu/mrtg/daily_ntp.html
> (section: Hardware and OS configuration)
> 
> I'm assuming the relevant list is:
> 
> feenix, stamsund, bacchus, narvik, alta, molde, ystad, puffin, and any
> other NT-5.x / NT 6.x based kernel (windows machines) I missed. Wow
> that's a wonderfully diverse list :)
> 
> I actually thought about it a bit, and in hindsight I'm realizing that
> internally, NTP uses a synthetic timebase anyway. Perhaps I was being
> paranoid after all.
> 
> Thanks for the reply,
> Sarah White
> 
> P.S. Your site has always had great documentation about NTP
> configurations with a GPS-type reflock since I first saw it a couple
> years ago. I've found it very useful.
> ================================================
> 
> Sarah,
> 
> There's really no issue over the hour change as NTP and Windows work in
> UTC internally, nevertheless, for your interest some loopstats are here:
> 
>  http://www.satsignal.eu/ntp/2012-10-28-loopstats.zip
> 
> I'm in UTC here, colloquially GMT/BST and we swap on the last Sunday of
> October.  My PCs all run with "wall clock" time displayed, and UTC
> internally (just the normal Windows default).  The RTC is only consulted
> at system boot time, so with systems running 24 x 7 there's no issue. 
> None of my systems multi-boot normally, just possibly the odd test PC
> may have Win-7 and Win-8 installed.
> 
> I'm delighted that you find the site useful!
> 
> Cheers,
> David

Great, thanks for the loopstats.

For the included loopstats, I believe "Alta" was among the ones on which
you were running windows 7 + NTP... Would you mind confirming which
setting you have for your timezone? (since I'm reasonably certain I know
what the timezone menus would look like)

http://inkushi.freeshell.org/bst.png
http://inkushi.freeshell.org/utc.png

Windows has more than one entry for most UTC offsets (DST schedule
varies by hemisphere, country, some don't have summer time at all, etc.)
... so the timezone I personally have selected is the UTC option without
a summer time adjustment (never set to UTC+01 / BST)

... Also, curious what you mean when you say you have "wall clock" time
displayed (UTC internally) ... ?

--Sarah