Q: Why won't Preferences won't allow me to set the time zone?
A: It should. The reason an ordinary user might not be able to set the time is if Preferences has had the SetUID bit turned off, or if the owner of the Preferences application is not root. (Note that Preferences is shipped with an owner of root, with group wheel, and with both the SetUID and the SetGID bits turned on.)
In 1.0 also check to see that /etc/zoneinfo/localtime exists. If it doesn't, su to root and make /etc/zoneinfo/localtime a copy of /etc/zoneinfo/US/Pacific, or of whatever the appropriate file is for your time zone (see the contents of the zoneinfo directory).
Turning off Preferences's time-setting privileges is frequently done in insecure environments, such as a public lab. REGARDLESS of Preferences's privileges, though, root should be able to set the time.
Q: When I set the time with Preferences, Unix seems to have a different idea of what the time is. For example, mail from me lists the wrong delivery date and time, or if I type "date" in a shell, it's different from what Preferences says.
A: This can happen if the time zone information is incorrect. See the answer to the first question.
