Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: Zap2It's TV Listings Are Gone
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2025 17:58:27 -0400
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 48
Message-ID: <vs4hm3$se5v$3@dont-email.me>
References: <vs3o3q$f6il$1@dont-email.me> <vs3tua$k9ts$1@dont-email.me>
 <215400181.764797941.124915.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>
 <vs4bf2$se5v$2@dont-email.me> <vs4e8f$13d89$1@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Injection-Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2025 22:58:28 +0100 (CET)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="a87f71a15dd5cc32da27a632395c10bb";
	logging-data="932031"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19vZ3Mse7RTQxpA7LWgnN0dxkNhnvIrMqo="
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:OCUfWLJ2rNdSx/LxXdcdfNwEcho=
X-Antivirus-Status: Clean
Content-Language: en-CA
In-Reply-To: <vs4e8f$13d89$1@dont-email.me>
X-Antivirus: Avast (VPS 250327-8, 3/27/2025), Outbound message
Bytes: 3465

On 2025-03-27 5:00 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>> On 2025-03-27 3:56 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> 
>>>> . . .
> 
>>> I've been peripherally involved with a couple attempts over the years. You
>>> have to understand that everyone involved in cable TV is stupid and
>>> dishonest. Such efforts usually fall apart over in fighting such as them,
>>> insisting that the day starts at 6 AM and not midnight because that's how
>>> TV guide used to do it.
> 
>> Why would they even care about when the day starts?
> 
> You're right. Using GMT with offset for local time doesn't care
> about the day of the week. This goes back to radio days when there was
> no overnight transmission. To this day, certain AM stations are daylight
> only. Who remembers why?
> 
>> In any case, you could let the user set the time when the day starts in
>> their settings and then they could start the day at 6 AM, midnight, or
>> any other time they wanted.
> 
> as long as it didn't screw with the date.
> 

Databases typically make heavy use of a datatype called a Timestamp 
which typically consists of a year, month, day, hour, minute, second, 
and fractional seconds (which could be hundredths, thousandths, 
millionths or even billionths of a second) and a timezone. That 
effectively bonds all of them together as a single big, complicated 
number. That timestamp is normally generated to represent a particular 
moment of significance, like the exact date and time a show will be 
aired on a given TV provider.

It's still possible to alter individual parts of the timestamp, like the 
hour, after the information has been added to the database so this 
doesn't guarantee that the hour won't change (whether because the show 
was rescheduled or because someone hacked the database) but it is 
relatively unlikely. In any case, the system will be designed so that 
the information provider - cable network, for example - is the only one 
that can create or alter the data; the end user (you and me) only get to 
read what's there. So if the hour changes, it's almost certainly because 
the schedule was changed for some reason.


-- 
Rhino