Development

Time, the final frontier

Explores the history and complexities of timekeeping. Focuses on challenges in JavaScript and C# for developers.

Inge Halvorsen

Inge Halvorsen

Inge Halvorsen is a historian, philosopher, teacher, and developer. With a genuine interest in quirky and esoteric knowledge, and a penchant for diving into rabbit holes, Inge is a fountain of footnotes and fun facts. He also writes code and enjoys reading fantasy books.

Time is strange.

We live by it, measure it, code against it — and yet, we barely understand it. For developers, time isn't just philosophical; it's practical, messy, and full of traps: calendars that drift, time zones that lie, and APIs that pretend it's all simple.

In this talk, we’ll trace the winding history of timekeeping — from Roman emperors and papal edits to spreadsheet bugs and legacy code. Along the way, we’ll look at how programming languages like JavaScript and C# inherited the chaos, and how we try (and fail) to tame it.

Whether you love history, hate time zones, or just want your app to handle daylight saving without breaking, this session includes history, bugs, regrets, and just enough practical advice to get you safely to the future.