>Probably a stupid question but I was wondering if someone could explain
the
>heading for me. On the end of email time stamps you see various
numbers like
>the ones below.
>
>-0500
>-0700
>-0800
>+0000
>+0100
>
>Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2000 01:27:44 -0500
>
>Is this referring to the time zone the person is in?
There are no stupid questions. You're almost correct. It's the offset
from UTC, which is related to the time zone, but isn't really the time
zone if you're one to split hairs. If you're not worried about being
technically correct then, yea, it's the time zone.
For example, the -0500 is probably US Eastern on Standard time (EST),
but not necessarily. It could also be the time in Panama or Peru.
The -0700 and -0800 are almost definitely US Mountain on Standard time
(MST) and US Pacific on Standard time (PST), and the +0100 is in Europe
somewhere. (The +0000 is on the meridian.)
For the hair splitters, at other times of the year the US Eastern zone
also has, drum roll here, EDT or Eastern Daylight Time! When the offset
is -0400, but it's still the US Eastern Zone! One time zone, two
offsets.
Michael
