I recieved my Leica news letter today and it had the following announcment for a chat about the R line and its future. If any of you R users are interested, I am posting the information below:

- Leica Chat Friday, March 30th, 2001 the first moderated chat from the Leica Camera AG will finally take place. From 4:00pm-5:30pm CET Stefan Daniel, Head of Product Management, Lothar Koelsch, Head of Research and Development, as well as, Peter Fett, Product Manager of the Leica R-System will be available for the international Leica users. The actual topic is: The future of the Leica R-System. After some speculative reports, this is a chance for all of those interested, to utilize this opportunity to direct their questions to the experts at Leica. The chatroom will open at approx. 3:30pm CET. It can be found under:

http://www.leica-camera.com/markt/forum/chat/index.html

Due to the worldwide interest the chat will be held in English.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), March 16, 2001

Answers

Just being sure of time what does CET means?

-- R. Watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), March 16, 2001.

CET - Central european time. GMT/UTC +1 hour.

-- Mark Wrathall (Wrathall@aon.at), March 16, 2001.

uppps, thank´s...I´ll set my watch to the MPT (Mexican Pacific Time)

-- R. Watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), March 16, 2001.

OK, let's see what time that is in the midwest. Fortunately, I have a globe handy. Now, the Greenwich meridian looks like it runs almost right through London. I count six meridians from there to the midwest. 24 meridians around the world, so each one is worth one hour. Now, if the earth turns 360 degrees in 24 hours, then each meridian represents 360/24 = 15 degrees per hour --do we need to know that? Wait, are the Leica people in Germany or Switzerland? Well, either way, it looks like one more time zone over. Seven hours difference. Of course, that assumes that CET is based on the region where Germany is. I don't know that. So it's a 7 hour difference (maybe), but in which direction? Earth rotates toward the East, otherwise the sun wouldn't come up there. So by the time it rises here, it's already risen there, which makes it later . . . there. So it sounds like the conference will be earlier here than 4PM, by 7 hours. Nine AM? On the same day? Uh Oh, there's something called the international dateline. If you cross it, it changes things by a whole day. Like when Phineas T. Fogg crossed it in Around The World In 80 Days. He got back to London a day early. London. Maybe the Greenwich Meridian is the International Date Line. And you would cross it between Germany and the U.S., if you go the same way the sun does.

I give up. When is it in the Midwestern U.S.?

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), March 16, 2001.

Bob:

Pacific time is GMT+8; so you are probably GMT+6. If Leica is GMT+1, figure 5 hours earlier for you, or 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM -- I think!!!

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), March 16, 2001.

By the way, while GMT goes down through Great Britain, the Int'l Date Line goes down the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Oscar Barnack thought that one up. Or was it the Solms gnomes...?

-- Ken Shipman (kennyshipman@aol.com), March 17, 2001.

OK, one more try, this time from STZ [Solms time zone :-) ]:

New York is 6 hours "before" Solms, Chicago is 7 hours, Colorado etc. are 8 hours, and the Pacific Coast is 9 hours. So the chatroom will open at 9.30h in New York, 6.30h in L.A...

DST will start on April 1st 0200h am in Europe. If it starts earlier in the U.S. ignore this post.

-- Oliver Schrinner (piraya@hispavista.com), March 17, 2001.

Oh, right you are, Ken. Now I see why the Greenwich Meridian extends all the way around the globe. On the other side, it's the IDL. On my globe, the Pacific part of it is marked "Equinoctial Colure" which didn't tell me much. It also says, "Traveling East, subtract a day crossing the date line." Clever, that Barnack. Traveling East from Germany to Chicago or St. Louis, we cross 17 meridians, which adds 17 hours, and we subtract 24 for the IDL. that's a net subtraction of 7 hours, so 4PM there is 9 AM for me. Going west, you just subtract 7 hours for 7 zones and get the same result. No date line. OK. Got it.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), March 17, 2001.

OK. Now what was the original question? Or was there one?

-- Ken Shipman (kennyshipman@aol.com), March 17, 2001.

Is it normal to feel dizzy? hope I get better by the 30th, any way is going to be an interesting topic to start with.

-- R. Watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), March 17, 2001.