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Every Tuesday at 12pm Mountain Time

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A casual weekly virtual chat mostly focused on web and software development.

Weekly Dev Chat is a place to ask questions, hear different viewpoints, and get to know your fellow developers. Every week there is an initial topic posted to get the discussion started. Sometimes we discuss the initial topic the entire chat, and other times the topic changes several times through the natural flow of the conversation.

Everyone and anyone are welcome to join as long as you are kind, supportive, and respectful of others.

It's Five/Four/Six O'Clock Somewhere in Western Canada?

The initial topic for today's (Nov 3, 2026) chat: What time is it? A simple question that was complicated in Alberta and other western Canadian provinces this week as they stopped observing daylight saving time last weekend (Nov 1st).

I've spent the last couple days double checking the time on my operating systems and various calendars. Not all providers have added the new Alberta Time (ABT) time zone yet, or if they did I needed to manually set it, move existing events, etc. I also have an older Synology NAS that I don't think will ever get the new time zone.

Let's chat about time, time zones, and how you deal with it in software and databases. We can also chat about how you would "fix time" if you were supreme ruler of Earth.

Everyone and anyone is welcome to join as long as you are kind, supportive, and respectful of others.

P.S. - The image was created by ChatGPT. For some reason Alberta is to the right and both Saskatchewan and B.C. are to the left.

Cartoon of a clock above a sign reading "It's Five/Four/Six O'Clock Somewhere in Western Canada?", with signposts for Alberta (ABT), Saskatchewan (SST), and British Columbia (PST) and a Nov 1 calendar marking the end of daylight saving time

Thanks for Joining the General Magic Watch Party

Thanks to everyone who braved rain/sleet/snow and joined us for the General Magic Watch Party last night (Oct 27th). It was great to watch and discuss the documentary with fellow developers.

What was your takeaway from the documentary? For me it was don't try to implement everything at once. That is very risky. Start with a solid base product that does one thing well and gradually add to it.

Special thanks to the Edmonton Public Library - Strathcona for providing the comfy chairs and the new TV.

See you at our next in-real-life (IRL) event in November, date to be decided, or online every Tuesday at 12pm Alberta Time.

People in armchairs watching the General Magic documentary on a wall-mounted TV at the https://www.epl.ca/locations/eplstr/ library.

Bring Your Own Topic

Today's chat initial topic is whatever you bring. Inspired by me running out of time to come up with a topic. If you have a topic for a future chat let us know at chris@weeklydevchat.com.

Everyone and anyone are welcome to join as long as you are kind, supportive, and respectful of others.

Four people gathered around an open box overflowing with colorful lightbulb idea cards