Hi there,
On Fri, 7 Jan 2000, Randy Harmon wrote:
> Currently, I'm experiencing the problem with Netscape 4.7, although I seem
> to recall the same problem in earlier releases, in the case where the target
> browser's clock is slow.
>
> [snip] can be corrected by explicitly setting an Expires header that's in
> the past. How far in the past depends on how lenient you wish to be with
> browsers with slow clocks.
>
> Something between 5 and 30 minutes seems reasonable to me, but discussion
> may demonstrate a different approach and/or timeframe.
>
> Thoughts?
Well, quite a lot of computers now fire up with the clock saying some
time around 4 Jan 1980. Just how far do you let this go? My view is
that if he suspects that it may cause a problem, one should tell his
user to make sure the clock is right. Caveat browsor. I feel sure
that deliberately lying about the time is a dangerous path to tread.
Of course we can't (yet) expect everyone to be running ntpd, and five
minutes doesn't initially seem unreasonable, but we could then expect
biennial fun and games when daylight savings time kicks in and out, or
not, as the case often may be. The software industry has a bad enough
reputation as it is, without yet another kind of periodic Y2k bug.
Maybe a Request For Comment?
Or a word in someone's ear at the browser development labs?
73
Ged.
