[LEAPSECS] No leapseconds on trains

[Rob Seaman]

On Nov 17, 2011, at 8:29 AM, Warner Losh wrote:


> That's the problem with leap seconds in a nutshell, btw. 

> 

> Nobody but extreme time geeks thinks about them.  Nobody thinks they are important.  Nobody thinks that they matter.


They don't matter but civilization will topple if they exist?  Cue the chorus:

Leap seconds are a means to an end.  The issue is redefining the meaning of Coordinated Universal Time.  By all means debate alternate ways to meet the engineering requirements.


> Lots of people have a "well, it's just a second, things will mostly self correct if I screw it up, so why bother."  It hasn't been until the last decade that computers have been connected enough for it to start to matter and all the "it doesn't matter to me, so screw everybody else" attitude is getting in the way.


The "screw everybody else" attitude is coming from the folks who can't be bothered to call a leap-less timescale "TI" as was decided in 2003.


> The marketplace is voting with their feet that this standard is lame and not worth doing right.


The marketplace isn't voting at all.  Ultimately physical reality wins all tie-breakers.

And of course the ITU process has spurned the participation of railroads as it has everybody else.

Rob