Whya can't my laptop figure out what time zone I'm in, like my cell phone does?

["Rob Slade, doting Grandpa of Rayn, Trevor, Devon, and Hannah" <rmslade () shaw ca>]

We got new cell phones (mobiles, for you non-North Americans) recently.  In the time since we last bought phones they 
have added lots of new features, like texting, cameras, email and Google Maps.

This, plus the fact that I am away on a trip right now, and Gloria has to calculate what time it is for me when we 
communicate (exacerbated by the fact that I never change the time zone on the laptops to local time), prompted her to 
ask the question above.  (She knows that I have an NTP client that updates the time on a regular basis.  She's even got 
the associated clocks, on her desktop, in pink.)

Cell phones, of course, have to know where they are (or, at least, the cellular system has to know where they are) very 
precisely, so they can be told, by the nearest cell tower, what time it is (or, at least, what time it is for that 
tower).

Computers, however, have no way of knowing where they are, I explained.  And then realized that I had made an untrue 
statement.

Computers can find out (or somebody can find out) where a specific computer is when they are on the net.  (And you have 
to be on the net to get time updates.)  Some Websites use this (sometimes startlingly accurate) information in a 
variety of amusing (and sometimes annoying or frightening) ways.  So it is quite possible for a laptop to find out what 
time zone it is in, when it updates the time.

Well, if it is possible, then, in these days of open source, surely someone has done it.  Except that a quick couple of 
checks (with AltaVista and Google) didn't find anything like that.  There does seem to be some interest:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8049912/how-can-i-get-the-network-time-from-the-automatic-setting-called-use-netw

and there seems to be an app for an Android phone:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.org.amip.ClockSync&hl=en

(which seems silly since you can already get that from the phone side), but I couldn't find an actual client or system 
for a computer or laptop.

So, any suggestions?

Or, anybody interested in a project?


====================== 
rslade () vcn bc ca     slade () victoria tc ca     rslade () computercrime org
"If you do buy a computer, don't turn it on."     - Richards' 2nd Law
"Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses"              0-387-94663-2
"Viruses Revealed"                                      0-07-213090-3
"Software Forensics"                                    0-07-142804-6
"Dictionary of Information Security" Syngress           1-59749-115-2
============= for back issues:
CISSP refs:     http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/mnbksccd.htm
PC Security:    http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/mnvrrvsc.htm
Security Dict.: http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/secgloss.htm
Security Educ.: http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/comseced.htm
Book reviews:   http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/mnbk.htm
                http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/review.htm
Partial/recent: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/techbooks/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Slade
http://www.infosecbc.org/links   http://twitter.com/rslade
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.