[aprssig] Time stamps on FINDU pages?

[Robert Bruninga]

>>> Steve Dimse <steve at dimse.com> 4/26/05 10:38:32 AM >>>

>> I still wish FINDU pages had a date/time stamp on them
>
>If there were a timestamp, the user must convert from 
>UTC to local time zone, and then compare to his current time.
> and then he knows the data is x minutes/seconds old.

Ham radio operators have always been comfortable with UTC 
and are quite familiar with it.  They dont have to "convert", 
because those that care about it enough to want to analyze 
the data already read UTC as second nature...

>On the other hand, a click of a button or command-r is 
>less effort, and  yields data no more than a second or two old.

No, it does not take seconds.  It takes MANY seconds on
a dial up line and is extremely frustrating to have to do
something as wasteful as refreshing an entire  100K byte
page to get a few bits of information (date/time) that should 
have been on the page in the first place.

Even then, without the time stamp, yes, I get a "refresh",
but there is no proof anywhere on the page that it is
really current, or if it is pure fiction...  Any data printed in 
any medium should have a date/time stamp or it is 
basically useless for any real analysis.  

>Mental gymnastics and old data, or a button click and 
>fresh data. To me  the choice is OBVIOUS!

To me it is obviously wrong.
1) There is no mental gymnastics, HAMS can handle UTC.

2) "click and fresh" data is a missnomer for the information 
    age because the term "fresh" is totally ambiguous

3) presentation of time-relevant data keyed to real time, but 
    then without the time stamp of when that "time" was, is 
    completely ambiguouus the instant it is presented.

>If you have any reason to need the current data, just reload.
> Get over  it Bob!

No, I want to analyze the current data and so it is just silly
that in this modern age, that I have to look at the clock,
and write down on a  sheet of paper each time I hit the 
refresh key, to know what time the AGE data is based on!  
Computers are supposed to help us, not hinder us...

All I ask is to just put the UTC time at the top of the page, 
It is just one line of code and so valuable to the end user...  
I dont understand why you so adamantly resist this simple 
reasonable user request to time-stamp real-time pages.
This simple request has been around for years...

Bob