Internet Times... Legal Notes

The Internet has often timed things wrong. By that -- I mean things like forums, blogs, servers, and websites which provide time stamp entries, sessions, or just information -- often seem to get it wrong. Different world times, Daylight Savings Time and forgetfulness all contribute to the problem.

I myself, have forgotten to adjust internal program times on both my Wordpress blog and the News, Software, & Java Forums to accommodate Daylight Savings Time. There are also problems with users setting up their forum profiles to accommodate their local times. Most simply opt not to set the time.

Why this preface? This is one of those business legal notes that I have become accustomed to posting -- to document problems.

I use market bugs on my news service to provide time stamped information and to show the types of tools I develop. The markets I report on -- all use U.S. Eastern Time. I use my server's time stamp -- with strong warnings pertaining to time delays on each of the market bugs (there are two). These warnings are written in a manner that completely decertifies the information. (If you look at market bugs used on Internet sites and pages - you will find similar wording and warnings.) The information is there to provide a flavor for how the markets are doing when open or the last reported stats when closed.

Sometimes my web host does not set the clocks for Daylight Saving Time or resets as an afterthought as was the case last December -- 2004. It may also have been a new installation of the Java framework, not sure. To accommodate these time issues, I maintain two versions of the market bug programs -- swapping them out as needed. My server uses U.S. Pacific Time which the programs convert to U.S. Eastern Time.

Because of the nature of this data I am very conscious of these times and check them often. Last night I realized someone had gained access to my domain and swapped out the program used on the business page -- which took it out of sync with the application on the home page. I did not forget to do one and not the other. Who would do this and why? Not sure. See series of Why Me...? posts on Q's Wire...

Unauthorized access and malicious hacking of data and programs which affect the operation of tools on my domain, sites, and pages are serious mistakes.

Reference Posts: QiSoftware: Serious Infraction..., QiSoftware: Legal Reminder -- No Authorization

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