Am using mIRC 7.1, am in the -0800 (PDT) time zone, and have noticed that the following:
$asctime(1281835119,zzz)
$gmt(1281835119,zzz)
$time(1281835119,zzz)
$date(1281835119,zzz)
all return "-0800 GMT".
Something seems wrong here.

Not sure about $time and $date, but shouldn't at least $asctime be returning "-0800 PDT", and $gmt, "+0000 GMT"?