[LEAPSECS] Trying a different angle

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

In message <7B7E1BCE-5A8B-4E84-A8BC-A4AEE434E571 at noao.edu>, Rob Seaman writes:


>Um - might I just point out that GPS already exists and it is possible  

>that more people know the brand name "GPS" than "UTC"?


It's not a matter of brand recognition, it's a matter of national
laws defining civil time in terms of UTC (or one of it's many aliases)
and a timezone offset.


>Also, I wouldn't have thought it possible, but your description of the  

>parliamentary process almost makes the bicameral legislative model  

>seem preferable :-)


Well, the bad news is that we had a bicmeral system back in 1893 when
the civil danish time was fixes as "the mean solar time at 15 east long."
and despite several revisions to our constitution and the abolishment
of the upper chamber, it is still not seen as important enough to
fix it.

I've considered suing the citycouncil of Copenhagen for having a
tower clock that shows illegal time, just for fun, but the fun sort
of disappeared when it transpired that the danish government informed
me that they cannot run a NTP server because it violates danish
law.



>Don't underestimate the power of a brand name.


Don't underestimate the combined inertia of all the worlds governmental
bureaucrats having to find all the laws that this might affect.

Poul-Henning

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