'Leap Seconds' May Be Eliminated From UTC

angry tapir writes "Sparking a fresh round of debate over an ongoing issue in time-keeping circles, the International Telecommunications Union is considering eliminating leap seconds from the time scale used by most computer systems, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Since their introduction in 1971, leap seconds have proved problematic for at least a few software programs. The leap second added on to the end of 2008, for instance, caused Oracle cluster software to reboot unexpectedly in some cases."

Comments

Hmmm

[HappyClown]

Now waaaaaait just one second! Oh, scratch that...

The root of the problem

[Joosy]

The original article has a quote from one person who sees through the mess to the root of the problem:

The revision "doesn't resolve the underlying geophysical issue"

Simply resolve the "underlying geophysical issue" and the problem will be solved.

Re:The problem with leap seconds...

[joe_frisch]

We could fix this tricky programming issue by regularly adjusting the earth's orbit....

Re:Poor solution

[dcollins]

I nominate you to write the interface between the physicists' Geiger-counter measuring "SI-seconds" in an experiment, and the computer software that works in "time-t-seconds", accounting for all the past & future history of changed time-t-seconds. Sounds so simple.

Re:The problem with leap seconds...

[omidaladini]

try
{
adjustEarthsOrbit();
}catch(...)
{
//TODO Ask Larry.
reboot();
}

Re:Let's see if I've got this right

[Chrisq]

Careful ... bitching about Oracle's patented.

Quite obvious

[kthreadd]

Well obviously the Oracle software worked properly and noticed that the customer had not payed their license to include the extra unlicensed second of operation.

Re:Well I'd say

[JustOK]

I'll second that. Make sure the minutes reflect that.

Re:Let's see if I've got this right

[stdarg]

Eh, let a future generation fix Oracle's code.

Re:Let's see if I've got this right

[somersault]

So now Oracle have bought God too? Damn.

Re:Let's see if I've got this right

[cizoozic]

Leap seconds, in contrast, are completely pointless. They exist because the SI day is slightly shorter than the solar day, by a tiny fraction of a second. This means that, after a few years, the sun will not quite be at its apex precisely at midday. How much is the variation? We've had 24 leap seconds since they were introduced in 1972, but a lot of these were to slowly correct the already-wrong time. In the last decade, we've had two. At that rate, it will take 300 years for the sun to be a minute off. It will take 18,000 years for it to be an hour off. These numbers are slightly wrong. The solar day becomes a bit under 2ms longer every hundred years, so we'd need leap seconds more often later.

Well in that case it's probably easier for Oracle to just buy the Sun.

Re:Let's see if I've got this right

[SeNtM]

News Flash: Oracle Buys Moon!

Analysts predict that Oracle's poor management will cause the Moon's gravity to disband, causing it to fracture and the smaller particles to fly into space. This brilliant move will undoubtly solve Oracle's inability to handle its leap-second delema.