by default, a mac syncs its time and date with time.apple.com (located system prefs->Date&Time). Is there a way in unix to change it to another address?

my attempts to use ntpdate and ntpd have failed.

What is the error that you've received ?
Example - I use this command : to set the time via ntpdate. Otherwise you may use the global server : ntp.pool.org

this is what i get

so then i kill running process "ntpd"

Have you tried editing (or creating) an /etc/ntp.conf file?

contents of that file should look something like this:
There are of course lots of things you can specify in that file, but the string above should work if it's a valid time server.

For more info, Google ntp.conf

Also, ntpdate sets the date under two conditions. Greater than 5 seconds, or less than 5 seconds. What it does in either case is spelled out in the man page for ntpdate.
The man page also seems to imply you can specify a time server on the command line as an option only if ntpdate can find a reference to "a" time server that ntpd uses in netinfo.
Seems sorta silly...

Anyway, use the ntp.conf file and ntpd for most time syncing. It works pretty well.

thanks man, making my own ntp.conf file works great. I tried using ntpdate, but just couldn't get it to work right