[LEAPSECS] Coming of age in the solar system

Poul-Henning Kamp phk at phk.freebsd.dk
Sat Sep 4 03:11:06 EDT 2010


In message <6C773408-836C-4D2A-9D37-0A8B7111E675 at noao.edu>, Rob Seaman writes:

>The flip side of timekeeping on a spinning pebble skipping through the cosmos is that nothing prevents *also* benefitting from an atomic timescale devoid of the dreaded irregular radix.

>

> Civil time = mean solar time

> Techie time = atomic clock ensemble


Absolutely, and that is what people are advocating in various forms.

The issue that you in particular, and some astronomers along with you,
refuse to acknowledge, is that "techie time" extends all the way to
peoples telephones, internet connections, flight safety, medicine
production and so on.

Civil time these days would be more correctly called "ornamental time",
because it starts at the VCR, fridge, oven, grandfather clock and other
off-line time displays.

Poul-Henning

--
Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
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Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.


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