Time zones

[Dale Harris]

Last night (actually morning) I received a call on my POS phone at about 3:00am which woke me up. Unfortunatly due to darkness and my zombie like state I was not able to navigate through the obstacle course of my house (pillow, footstool, stack of books, one really pissed off cat) in time to get to my office to answer the phone in time to receive the call.

This probably means that there is some POS user out there who's question I was not able to answer and is now roaming the streets of his home town in abject despair.

Well tough. Don't call at 3:00 in the morning because even if I get to the phone in time the odds of finding a coherent answer in my brain at that time to even a simple question, like my name, are slim.

Let me explain the concept. Due to the fact that there is not a big honking mirror on the side of Earth opposite the sun, and about 10,000 miles out, the light from the sun only shines on one side of the earth at a time. This means that if you are on the side of the earth approximately 180 degrees from the U.S., and there is daylight there, that there is a wholly wonderful possibiliy that it is dark here and I am asleep. Even 90 degrees is iffy if it is early in the morning or late at night there. If you are in North or South America look outside, dark there, dark here. (Well mostly)

For those of you who want to point out that the mirror opposite the earth would be in earth's shadow and therefore would not relect the light from the sun think of a concave mirror about 25% wider than the earth.

While I have no problem taking POS calls as late as 10:00pm (since I am on chat anyway at that time) much after that you will be taking your chances.