On Tue 2003-12-23T10:13:10 -0500, jcowan_at_reutershealth.com hath writ:
> The whole point of arbitrage is to know (and act on) what other people
> don't know, or or don't know yet. In the 1s-precision regime, people
> who have access to data that comes to them less than 1s faster than
> others don't gain any benefit from it. With more accurate timestamping,
> more accurate reflection of the value of timely data is possible.
And the whole point of selling the Galileo satellite system as a
precision timestamping service is to answer this need. And Galileo
will operate on TAI.
Trying to use local civil time for applications, and then complaining
about the effect of leap seconds, another instance of "Doctor it hurts
when I do this." This is a new application, heretofore unnecessary.
Broad availability of atomic time scales is a new solution.
Neither the problem nor the solution justifies changing the underlying
nature of local civil time. The "doctor" should not prescribe radical
surgery for the entire world, but rather work with Galileo's physical
therapist. What the satellites can and cannot do is going to guide
and constrain all applications of this sort.
--
Steve Allen UCO/Lick Observatory Santa Cruz, CA 95064
sla_at_ucolick.org Voice: +1 831 459 3046 http://www.ucolick.org/~sla
PGP: 1024/E46978C5 F6 78 D1 10 62 94 8F 2E 49 89 0E FE 26 B4 14 93
Received on Tue Dec 23 2003 - 08:39:55 PST