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pytz question: GMT vs. UTC

Dan Sommers dan at tombstonezero.net
Sat Feb 1 01:30:43 EST 2014 
On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 17:42:30 +1100, Chris Angelico wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 5:28 PM, Dan Sommers <dan at tombstonezero.net> wrote:
>> ObPython:  My program retrieves temperatures (in Kelvins) from an
>> external device (the details of which I am not at liberty to discuss)
>> and stores them in the cloud (because that's where all the cool kids
>> store data these days), and there's something really weird going on.
>>
>>     $ python ./program.py
>>     temperature1 is -100 K
>>     temperature2 is 100 K
>>     temperature2 is hotter than temperature1
>>
>> But everyone knows that -100K is hotter than 100K.  I tried converting
>> to UTC, but that didn't help.  What am I missing?
> 
> I'm sorry, you have completely misunderstood the problem here. You are
> storing data in the cloud, which means you're representing everything
> with water. It is therefore fundamentally illogical to use any
> temperature outside the range [273.15K, 373.15K], because otherwise
> your cloud will freeze or boil, and either way, it'll crash badly.

I think I found the problem:  it's not a water cloud, it's a potassium
sulfide cloud, and as its temperatures rose, I lost the special Ks.

> Plus, converting to UTC? Puh-leeze. You should be using kilogram
> meters per second.

It was a momentary lapse of reason.  Sorry.

Dan
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