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A Standard is a published document which sets out specifications and procedures designed to ensure that a material, product, method or service is fit for its purpose and consistently performs in the way it was intended.Standards establish a common language which defines quality and establishes safety criteria. Standards and conformance are the keys to ensuring the quality and consistency of physical, chemical and biological measurement throughout Australian society and the economy.
Dictionary Definition of Standard (brought to you by Wikipedia):
Nounstandard (plural standards)
- A level of quality or attainment.
- Something used as a measure for comparative evaluations.
- An object supported in an upright position.
- A musical work of established popularity.
- The flag or ensign carried by a cavalry unit.
Why standards matter (brought to you by the International Standards Organisation):
ISO standards contribute to making the development, manufacturing and supply of products and services more efficient, safer and cleaner. They make trade between countries easier and fairer. They provide governments with a technical base for health, safety and environmental legislation. They aid in transferring technology to developing countries. ISO standards also serve to safeguard consumers, and users in general, of products and services - as well as to make their lives simpler.
... and now the big question (drum roll) ...
Of course, I'm referring to Daylight Savings Time and all the zany antics that go along with making a political point... not only by jiggering the time forwards and backwards by an hour, but adding insult to injury by constantly futzing with the start/stop dates.
A few years back we had "Olympic Time". Quite frankly, my interest in the Olympics is next to nil. The management are corrupt, the drugs are taking over, the hype is over-the-top and nauseating and the main interest that it had on my life was that SOCOG came along and claimed half the parking spaces in my street as special "Olympic Parking Spaces" for their vehicles only. The bloody nerve. They had ads on T.V. telling me to be nice to tourists "because it helps the economy". Well was anyone offering me anything? This is a Capitalist country right? You want something done, it costs money... I'm expected to pay my rent, pay my tax, pay my utilities bills. If someone wants me to do their public relations work for them so they can earn a profit then I feel I deserve my share of the payment. I didn't design the system but those are the rules I have to play under and if some Olympic tourist operator wants a free ride on my back they and bugger off.
I don't even believe that the Olympics encourages sport.
Sure, it encourages people to sit home and watch sport on T.V. but that only means and the end of the day a nett decrease in people who actually play sport. The T.V. watching generation gets fatter, dies younger and a small handful of people are trained to perform like animals in a circus. How does this move us forward exactly?
Now we have "Commonwealth Games Time" which is yet another arbitrary fiddle with so called "Standard" time for no useful purpose other than political grandstanding. That one hour of daylight saving has become the new political football and we can expect a special daylight saving hour in honour of some movie star having a baby or some fat, bald, rich guy finally kicking the bucket or the premier's daughter's wedding or whatever other trivial event comes along. Some standard.
The hansard entry of the reading of the Daylight Savings Bill into parliament shows how much interest anyone paid to standards, or making the lives of ordinary people any simpler. It walked through parliament with hardly a murmur and not even a second thought was given to the concept that the measure of time should actually represent some governing universal rhythm by which events on earth unfold. Worse yet, they opened the door to arbitrary fiddling in the future without even requiring parliamentary approval, which can only guarantee that we are facing even frippery in years to come.
Under Linux, the zone for Australian Eastern Time with no Daylight Saving is called "GMT-10". That is also pretty darn stupid when you think about it because we are 10 hours ahead of GMT so it should rightly be called "GMT+10" but there is some historical reason why these timezones are backwards. Obviously not many people use such timezones, if they did then they would have been fixed up by now. Mind you, if no one uses them, why not just go ahead and fix them after the fact? It would seem that there is no refuge from stupidity wherever you go. The only remaining conclusion is to stick to just plain GMT and make that the only timezone you ever use.
Simple, honest, and no one fucks it up.
So for now on, I'm reworking my personal time measurement standard to be based on GMT starting with my laptop which I adjusted this morning.
I feel I'm joining an international movement, a brave new world of people without timezones. A world where everyone measures the time on the same system and self-important bozos who want to mess it up can safely be ignored. It's a small step, but a great symbol of triumph against adversity.
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