'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

Re:Poor solution

[mrnobo1024]

So let the length of the day change, and let the second change with it.

Physicists can continue to use the constant cesium-133-defined second, let's call it the "SI second", for measurements when they need precision. But why does the SI second need to exactly equal the time_t second? I can't think of any reason.

Unreliable

[Khyber]

"The leap second added on to the end of 2008, for instance, caused Oracle cluster software to reboot unexpectedly in some cases."

And people wonder why I tell them to avoid Oracle at all costs.

They don't have the team to debug-test this crap, they *ONLY* test for running functionality.

I got hit by this bug - it cost me half a million dollars.

If you use Oracle software, you're a total fool.

Re:Poor solution

[jez9999]

choosing to standardize the internet on UTC and then complaining it is too hard to do the programming right is a little like buying a house next door to a turkey farm and complaining about the smell.

Or complaining about Sarah Palin interviews.

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

[amorsen]

You can't get leap seconds right, in general. They shift future events unpredictably, and even getting updates on to all computers within the couple of months warning of a leap second is a challenge.