On Tue 2007-01-02T01:48:26 -0500, John Cowan hath writ:
> Well, okay. Does the rubberiness go down all the way? Is a civil
> nanosecond one-billionth of a civil second, then? If so, how do we
> build clocks that measure these intervals?
Let's not.
Let's continue the valid and agreeable notion of transmitting seconds
and frequencies based on a coordinate time scale tied to the ITRS at a
specified depth in the gravitational+rotational+tidal potential. The
best practical implementation of such is undeniably the estimation
given by TAI.
Then let's improve the infrastructure for communicating the best
estimation of earth orientation parameters. Then in a world of
ubiquitous computing anyone who wants to estimate the current
rubber-second-time is free to evaluate the splines or polynomials
(or whatever is used) and come up with output devices to display that.
And let's create an interface better than POSIX time_t which allows
those applications which need precise time to do a good job at it.
--
Steve Allen <sla_at_ucolick.org> WGS-84 (GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory Natural Sciences II, Room 165 Lat +36.99858
University of California Voice: +1 831 459 3046 Lng -122.06014
Santa Cruz, CA 95064 http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/ Hgt +250 m
Received on Mon Jan 01 2007 - 22:56:40 PST