Earth's clocks run on one text file, kept updated by one UCLA volunteer; core-js raised just $57/month
CatAstro_Piyush · x · 2026-10-18
Longnow profiles Paul Eggert, a UCLA CS professor who since 2005 has single-handedly maintained the tzdata plain-text file that nearly every phone and computer relies on to know the time — as an unpaid volunteer, updating it whenever countries change DST rules on short notice.
The retweet's image adds a sobering companion case: core-js author Denis Pushkarev raised only $57 a month when he asked for donations to keep the project going. Together the stories highlight how critical digital infrastructure rests on a handful of under-compensated maintainers.
Related event: Billions of Devices Rely on a Volunteer-Maintained Timezone Text File(3 posts)→
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