[LEAPSECS] Toasting Unix timestamp 1234567890

[Rob Seaman]

Magnus Danielson wrote:


> However, celebrating 1234567890 seconds of time_t makes no sense at  

> the time that time_t reads 1234567890 since it is not the number of  

> seconds from the reference epoch, it is a form of "mock seconds" to  

> make the scales fit.


Is that really a good reason not to celebrate a silly milestone on a  
Friday afternoon? :-)

This is like the inane debate about whether the millennium was New  
Year's Eve 1999 or 2000.  The real answer is to celebrate both - as a  
reason to have a most excellent party, that is.  If forced to choose,  
pick the earlier event since that preserves the second opportunity as  
well.


>> I think it's clear that Unix time has the well-established naive  

>> mapping to some form of UT.  You can pick UT1 or UTC, giving  

>> answers that differ by a fraction of a second.  Anything that  

>> secularly counts other than 86400 per UT day isn't Unix time: this  

>> includes counting either UTC or TAI seconds.

>

> It is naive yes...



 From Dictionary.com:

naive -adjective
	1. having or showing unaffected simplicity of nature or absence of  
artificiality; unsophisticated; ingenuous.
	2. having or showing a lack of experience, judgment, or information;  
credulous: She's so naive she believes everything she reads. He has a  
very naive attitude toward politics.
	3. having or marked by a simple, unaffectedly direct style reflecting  
little or no formal training or technique: valuable naive 19th-century  
American portrait paintings.
	4. not having previously been the subject of a scientific experiment,  
as an animal.

The little dig here, of course, is that Zefram means naive with a  
definition something like #1 and Magnus is asserting #2.

However - there is real value in preserving simplicity of design as  
with definition #3.  Zefram's explanation is succinct and accurate.   
UTC is a flavor of universal time.  UT is phase-locked to the Sun.

Meanwhile, while we chat amiably, the ITU is treating the whole world  
like #4.

Rob