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Tool-tip timestamp shows a Z

Okay, I'm sure I'm just missing something obvious... but I've been thinking about it for a day now and I still haven't gotten it!

On the StackOverflow sites, why do some dates have "Z" after them? E.g., on my recent history: http://superuser.com/users/recent/20269 - why does it say "2010-01-11 08:10:54Z to 2010-01-11 23:59:59Z" instead of just "2010-01-11 08:10:54 to 2010-01-11 23:59:59"? Is it supposed to be an indicator of timezone, or of the fact that it's using 24-hour time rather than 12-hour?

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marked as duplicate by random, Ladybug Killer, alex, fretje, LeakyCode Jan 11 '10 at 14:23

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4 Answers 4

Z is for Zulu Time. Also known as Coordinated Universal Time, bizarrely abbreviated to UTC.

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The Z comes from the Nautical Standard Time Zones and is used to represent the Zero Zone (today UTC). The other zones are names A-I and K-M (A-M skipping J)

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The Z in the time refers to the Zero timezone, and the NATO phonetic alphabet converts it to 'Zulu'.

And, of course, UTC+0hours is UTC.

The abbreviation UTC is a compromise between the French and English.

Francophones would prefer TUC (Temps Universel Coordonné), Anglophones would prefer CUT (Coordinated Universal Time),

so a compromise of UTC was chosen.

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Timezone; it just means the dates refer to UTC (roughly GMT), aka Zulu

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