THE VIDEO SHELF · time and timezones in software
The Problem with Time & Timezones - Computerphile
Tom Scott explains for Computerphile why handling time and timezones in code is so hard, walking through a simple web app that computes how long ago something happened. It covers the quirks of timezones and calendars and ends in an exasperated rant.
Why HN readers recommended it
It is the go-to funny, accessible explanation of why you should never implement datetime handling yourself, linked in nearly every timezone thread.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- Computerphile
- Topic
- time and timezones in software
- Format
- explainer
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 12
- HN mentions in dataset
- 20
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2014–2026
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
This will probably resonate with people here[1]. A brilliant video by Tom Scott for Computerphile, where he starts to explain what coding timezones correctly is like and by the end of it is in full polite-mini-rant-mode :D [1] [VIDEO]
tehmaco on Hacker News · 2015-01
In A positive leap second will be introduced at the end of June 2015Obligatory post to Computerphile episode about Timezones - a must watch for developers just starting out with Timezones [VIDEO]
yboris on Hacker News · 2021-02
In Timezone BullshitAn excellent video touching on some of the intractable aspects of our datetime-marking system's personality quirks: [VIDEO]
sk5t on Hacker News · 2014-12
In The Death and Life of the 13-Month Calendar
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.