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Meet the Guy Whose Software Keeps the World's Digital Clocks In Sync (ieee.org)

Posted by msmash on from the perfect-timing dept.

New submitter Wave723 quotes a story on IEEE: In many cases, the internal clock that ticks away in a laptop or desktop computer is synchronized to an official time service maintained by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This free service shares Coordinated Universal Time with personal devices, web browsers, financial trading software and e-mail programs throughout the world. The service receives 150,000 requests per second (roughly 16 billion a day) from systems that repeatedly ask, 'What time is it?' "If you have a PC, it's probably synchronized to the time service," says Judah Levine, the man who originally built servers and programmed software to send time over the Internet for NIST back in 1993.

4 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. i'd like to keep the World in Sync by turkeydance · · Score: 3, Funny

    with my technology

    1. Re:i'd like to keep the World in Sync by suutar · · Score: 3, Funny

      you'd like to buy the world a clock
      and always wind the key?

  2. Time is a social construct by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Funny

    I no longer believe in time. I think it's pretty much junk science, and the daylight savings time thing is just an Illuminati plot to keep us subservient to the elite.

    You all can do what you want, and spring forward or what not if you need to bend your will to The Man, but I ain't changed my clocks since 2007 and haven't noticed one thing. In fact, I couldn't change them since I threw out my wristwatch, Easy Rider-style, in 2006. Right now, if I look down at the time display on my screen, it's flashing 00:00:00, just like my DVD player and microwave.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  3. Road Trip... by pr0fessor · · Score: 4, Funny

    "What time is it?" 6 Billions times a day...

    Sounds like a long road trip with my kids... Are we there yet, How much farther, When will we be there, What time is it