[LEAPSECS] Leap Sec vs Y2K

[Steve Allen]

On Sat 2010-12-11T08:18:54 +0000, Poul-Henning Kamp hath writ:

> >I have a script that dumps the timestamps of each of a number of

> >servers where I work; this is a recent result:


Those clocks span about 10 seconds.


> Why are you not running NTP properly ?


That question is not fair without further investigation.

If those are Windows boxes then even wikipedia says that's normal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol#Microsoft_Windows
(Note that this is not a deficiency of Windows per se, but rather
an indication that Windows runs on almost anything, including some
motherboards with piece-of-crap designs for the system clock.)

I have a Windows XP box which drifts by about 3000 ppm, but only when
the guide camera application is running.
W32Time is utterly incapable of keeping this system on time, so I
tried one of the implementations of the current NTP code.
Given that the maximum drift allowed by NTP is 500 ppm it is also not
capable of keeping the system clock any closer than a nasty sawtooth
waveform with an amplitude of around a second.

--
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