Ancestors

Toot

Written by Dave Anderson on 2025-02-02 at 01:49

Random TIL: the press headline is "The 27th meeting of the BIPM resolved to discontinue leap seconds by 2035", but the actual resolution doesn't say that.

What it says specifically is that BIPM will, by 2035, vote to increase the allowed offset between UT1 and UTC. Currently UTC is defined as remaining within 0.9s of UT1, with leap seconds inserted or removed as needed to stay within that delta.

The resolution that was passed is that the CIPM propose a new maximum value for the UT1-UTC delta, with the only established constraint so far being that the new value should make leap seconds unnecessary for at least a century.

So, leap seconds are staying, sort of. We're just going to relax the rule that currently triggers their use, in such a way that nobody currently alive will ever have to deal with leap seconds again. And then revisit once the committee is composed entirely of people who've never experienced a leap second, and will presumably go "that's stupid why would we do that" and actually delete them for good.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from danderson@hachyderm.io

Descendants

Written by Dave Anderson on 2025-02-02 at 04:46

@danderson lol 100 years from now they will say "uh, all timekeeping is legacy code, let's not add or remove a second"

And if they know not the fear of legacy code, then, good luck to them lol 🤣

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from mrdaveanderson@infosec.exchange

Written by Conor O'Neill on 2025-02-02 at 10:53

@danderson

I always thought that leap seconds in 'normal' clocks are/were a bad idea.

For 99.99% of us, our clocks drift around enough that being "within a few seconds" is perfectly acceptable.

For the situations which need precision, they (mostly?) need relative precision, ie are we 10 microseconds ahead/behind another timestamp.

I assume (though this is just an assumption) that for rocket science, and astronomy, that your needs are so specialised that you can't rely on Posix clocks anyway.

And, as a programmer who's dealt with time libraries, I absolutely hate the fact that the leap seconds are/were added unpredictably. I can have a timestamp in the past, add exactly 10 years to it to get a timestamp in the future. When I get there, and take exactly 10 years off, I do not get the same timestamp. Ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh!.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from tpuddle@mastodonapp.uk