🚀 go-pugleaf

This is not really related to NTP as such, but since there is no other
group where postings regarding time services fit, as far as I can
tell...

There were a few television programs broadcast during the Christmas
holidays that I wanted to see.  Since I prefer to watch TV at my own
convenience, I programmed my VCR to record them for me, so that I
could watch them when I pleased.  However, we had a couple of power
outages, and each time I had to set my VCR clock manually, and
reprogram the darn thing to record those programs.  Stupid!

Of course, one could argue that the VCR ought to have a battery backup
for its clock, but I've got one of the cheaper models, and of course
this is a feature that they reserve for people who can shell out
bigger bucks for the thing than I can.

However, I got to thinking about this: Why the heck doesn't my VCR
automatically find out what the current time is?  Why doesn't my clock
radio and other appliances that have clocks do the same thing?  It
seems to me that something essential is missing here...  There are
radio stations and TV stations all over the place, transmitting a lot
of stuff on different channels at the same time, so why don't we
already have a standard for time information transmittal that these
appliances can utilize?

And even without a general time broadcast system, the following could
be done: Since a VCR has a TV receiver, there ought to be info
contained within the normal TV broadcast signal telling the current
time (probably specified as UTC, with the local time zone switch
settable on the VCR), so that the VCR can keep its internal clock
running correctly.

Does anyone know anything about standardization work for such
services?  I can hardly believe that it's not being worked on...?

-tih
--
Tom Ivar Helbekkmo, NHH, Bergen, Norway.  Telephone: +47-5-959205
Postmaster for domain nhh.no.   Internet mail: tih@barsoom.nhh.no