KEY POINTS:
How do organisations such as police and other emergency services cope with the change from New Zealand daylight saving time to NZ standard time when the clocks go back one hour at 3am and the hour 2.00-3.00 is repeated? The police need to record the time of events
accurately and unambiguously.
The simplest solution I can think of is to record times before the changeover as belonging to the previous day, and extend the 24-hour clock to 25.59. Is this what happens?
Of course, not only the emergency services have trouble. There are many other organisations, such as hospitals, taxis and airlines that have to deal with these issues. Computer systems and electronic calendars also have to cope with the changeover.
Bruce Hutton, Ponsonby.
Inspector Brent Holmes of Auckland City Police says that this might sound a bit glib, but the answer is that it doesn't really matter.
When daylight saving times come and go the police computers either change over automatically, or it is done manually. This has to be the case because there can only be one time measure in use.
Everyone in New Zealand has to change, and everyone that the police deal with all around the world has put their New Zealand clocks forward or back as the case may be.
Having said that, and although it does not cause much of a problem at the actual time it happens, it can be a trap when police are checking historical records.
Mr Holmes also says that while the changes happen at what are supposed to be the quietest times of the week, the records can look as though the police were either very busy, or else did nothing at all for an hour.
And one of the Herald IT boffins tells me that computers, including servers, laptops and PCs, normally synchronise with worldwide time sources. Each computer will have a setting to determine which country it's in and will adjust the local country time against one of the main time synchronisation servers.
Electronic clocks, calendars and endless other gadgets will depend on their own technology for synchronising time. This can be done through the internet, if the gadget is connected, or by using a GPS (global positioning system) device.
As you come from Birkenhead on Onewa Rd, to get on to the motorway, you have a choice of going left to Whangarei or right into Auckland City and south.
There is a sign saying Northern Motorway on the left as you start the curve to get on to the motorway, which is correct, but on the start of the curve to Auckland there is also a sign saying Northern Motorway on the right. Surely this should be on the onramp heading towards Whangarei, and a sign saying Southern Motorway be on the onramp towards Auckland?
Cherie Black, Auckland.
I'm afraid not. It's absolutely correct as it is. When you are heading towards Auckland from Onewa Rd, you are still on the Northern Motorway. For reasons that are lost in the mists of time, the Southern Motorway doesn't start until you reach the Wellington St overpass.