[ale] OT ntp - leap second - how many knew what this was 3 weeks ago

[Jay Lozier]

On 07/04/2012 10:39 AM, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Around the beginning of this year, I was doing quite a bit of research 
> into ntp and gps and eventually set up my own gps based ntp time 
> server in both Linux and Windows. At the end of June, a leap second 
> was inserted into the time sequences of the clocks on Earth. For those 
> that may not know what that is, the atomic clocks are coordinated with 
> the earth's rotation, so, for example, when the clock says noon, the 
> sun is always roughly overhead. However, the earth's rotation speeds 
> up and slows down at times. So,sometimes, we have to tweak the clocks 
> to match the earth again. At the end of June, an extra second was 
> inserted. Normally, the seconds go 58 ... 59 ... 00. This time, they 
> went 58 ... 59 ... 60 ... 00. As it turns out, this crashed a number 
> of servers.
>
> I find this very interesting, and somewhat scary as a potential 
> programmer. Since I'm thinking of learning programming again, and 
> since I have an interest in timekeeping, I have considered writing a 
> world clock program etc., to show the time in different parts of the 
> world. However, prior to my NTP research, I never knew about the leap 
> second. So, there would have been a good possibility, had I written 
> the program prior to this year, that my program would have crashed as 
> well.
>
> So, my question is, how many of you knew about leap seconds prior to 
> this incidence of it and prior to my describing it. If you were 
> writing a clock program, would you have known to account for this?
I did not know adding a leap second was occurring until later. I was 
aware that Earth's rotation is slowing and periodically leap time must 
be added to account for it. I am not sure from a purely practical matter 
if it is important to add leap seconds instead of leap hours by doing 
something similar to EDT/EST time change but making it permanent.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>
>
> --
>
> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 
> Mail.
> Please excuse my potential brevity.
>
> (To whom it may concern. My email address has changed. Replying to former
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>
> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
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>
> Ron Frazier
> 770-205-9422 (O) Leave a message.
> linuxdude AT techstarship.com <http://techstarship.com>
>
>
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-- 
Jay Lozier
jslozier at gmail.com

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