Frontal Lobe

If you work on open source projects or within distributed work environments, and meetings are scheduled and publicized in UTC, you’ll find yourself doing the time zone conversion repeatedly.

If you run OS/X, you can use the World Clock Widget to keep track easily.  The problem is that the World Clock does not come with UTC as a default option.  Fortunately, it is easy to add.

I used this article to make the modifications, and wasn’t sure if the method would work on OS/X 10.6, but it didn’t give me a single issue.  There is some iffy information in the comments of that article, so here is how I proceeded successfully:

1.)  Crack Open the WorldClock widget

Applications & widgets in OS/X are not just one file, as they initially appear, but special container objects that hold other files (essentially a special-case folder).

• Navigate to /Library/Widgets
• Right-click (or command-click) on the WorldClock.wdgt file
• Click Show Package Contents

This will open a new Finder window displaying the contents of the World Clock widget.

2.)  Edit the WorldClock.js file

If you’re not used to doing these things, this isn’t as intimidating as it might seem.  (Make a backup copy if you’re disaster-prone.)

• Find the line with the text:  “var Europe = ["
• Find the bottom of this block of text, terminated by "];“
• On the line before this, add “{city:’UTC’, offsett:0, timezone:’UTC’}“
• Be sure to add a comma to the end of the previous line, since it is no longer the last item.
• Save the file.  (You may have to authenticate in order to do this, since it is technically a system file.)

Modified "WorldClock.js"

3.)  Edit the localizedStrings.js file

There is a language localization file for all strings that appear in the widget’s interface.

• Find the directory that matches the language you are using (I modified English.lproj/localizedStrings.js)
• At the bottom of the file, add the line:  “localizedCityNames['UTC'] = ‘UTC’;“
• Save the file.

Modified localizedStrings.js

4.)  Add the World Clock widget to your Dashboard & Configure

The widget will have to be initialized with the new changes, so…

• If you have an old one, remove it.
• Add the widget to your Dashboard again.
• Click the “i” in the bottom-right corner to configure it.
• Choose Country:  Europe, City:  UTC

And there you go, a clock reading the UTC time…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 at 9:12 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.