Re: Whya can't my laptop figure out what time zone I'm in, like my cell phone does?

[Jeffrey Walton <noloader () gmail com>]

On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 11:27 PM,  <Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu> wrote:
> On Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:47:12 -0700, "Rob Slade, doting Grandpa of Rayn, Trevor, Devon, and Hannah" said:
> > Computers can find out (or somebody can find out) where a specific computer
> > is when they are on the net.  (And you have to be on the net to get time
> > updates.)  Some Websites use this (sometimes startlingly accurate) information
> > in a variety of amusing (and sometimes annoying or frightening) ways.  So it is
> > quite possible for a laptop to find out what time zone it is in, when it
> > updates the time.
>
> Well, sure - *if* you're willing to accept the fact that if geolocation gets it
> wrong, you just missed your meeting.  And it's not perfect.  Don't believe me,
> wander over to the NANOG archives and search for all the postings where people
> have gotten screwed over because they're in New Jersey but somebody's
> geolocation thinks they are in France...
I saw similar when I was in Maine a couple of winters. For some
reason, the geolocation database thought I was in Canada (it did not
muck with time zone data, though).

Perhaps laptops need a GPS?

Jeff
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