Even ignoring my usual rabidly drooling support for all aspects of
mean solar time, I don't find the distinction pedantic at all.
Previously the U.S. had legal timescale A, realized by timescale B.
Now (assuming any of us really understand the legal issues) we have
legal timescale B, which (for the time being) implements an
approximation to timescale A. (I'll resist speculating on motivations.)
The point being, that the nature of those delegated responsibilities
referred to by Warner changes depending on whether B implements an
interface versus an abstract class. (Object analogy very loosely
ascribed, feel free to improve upon it :-) There are likely to be
functional side effects, not just issues of interpretation.
Such side effects might even be desirable, but one could wish that
system engineering had been the driving force behind the change, not
politics.
Rob
--
On Nov 5, 2008, at 7:57 PM, Steve Allen wrote:
On Wed 2008-11-05T10:46:04 -0700, M. Warner Losh hath writ:
It is the first leap second that's been encountered since the US
officially adopted UTC. Until recently, the official time of the US
was mean solar time. However, it isn't quite that simple, since it
was mean solar time, as interpreted by the Secretary of Commerce,
which delegated it to NIST/NRO/etc who realized it with UTC since the
1980s at least...
I admit that I am pedantic.
The point is that no epoch-based time scale can retrospectively agree
with the times in actual use. They're all a fiction.
also, Tom Van Baak pointed out that Internet Explorer did not like
the initial javascript. The counts should now update with
any browser that's still reasonably safe to use on the web
http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/leapsecs/epochtime.html
--
Steve Allen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> WGS-84
(GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory Natural Sciences II, Room 165 Lat
+36.99855
University of California Voice: +1 831 459 3046 Lng
-122.06015
Santa Cruz, CA 95064 http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/ Hgt
+250 m
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