[LEAPSECS] Meeting with Wayne Whyte

[Steve Allen]

On Mon 2011-01-31T12:40:27 -0700, Warner Losh hath writ:

> However, given the tolerance of DUT1 is .9 and not .5, I'm sure that an

> extra last leap second could be tossed in to give vendors more time to

> cope...


In that is the nugget of how leap seconds are no different
announcements that the daylight/summer time zones transition will
happen at some date other than the previous schedule.
(e.g., due to some sports event like the 2000 Olypmics and the 2006
Commonwealth Games in Australia, or any of the other excuses that
bureaucrats have used when they say you'll have to update your
zoneinfo files.)

Leap seconds are just conventional adjustments (to an underlying
presumed-adequately-uniform time scale) which are decreed by human
authorities to be implemented at times which are deemed most
convenient.  They are entirely compatible with the POSIX rules as
implemented by the zoneinfo scheme.

--
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