In message <20050805142103.GA10177_at_ucolick.org>, Steve Allen writes:
>On Fri 2005-08-05T15:45:56 +0200, Poul-Henning Kamp hath writ:
>> >Whether rubber seconds are usable or not depends on
>> >what problem you intend them to be a solution to.
>>
>> Rubber seconds are _never_ usable, just like
>> rubber meters, rubber kilos and rubber unit charges
>> are never usable.
>
>> We could label everything on TAI and be happy ever after.
>
>But all systems have rubber seconds, including systems which
>purport to be using TAI, including TAI itself.
The crucial difference being that the rubber is below the 10e-12
range where nobody but the most dedicated timekeepers notice it.
And more importantly: TAI is the best defined seconds we can
agree on.
--
Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk_at_FreeBSD.ORG | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
Received on Fri Aug 05 2005 - 07:39:24 PDT