On Mon 2003-12-08T10:36:58 -0500, Seeds, Glen hath writ: > Of course, we still have this massive legacy of systems that don't follow > these rules...
The legacy systems unfortunately have to exert a lot of the force in choosing the ultimate decision. But the results of the conference in Torino imply that the legacy systems have already lost. Because the plan from Torino says that name UTC is not going to be carried forward, almost every legacy system is broken at least in the name specified by its documentation. Maybe some folks found that the Australian market systems provided opportunities for arbitrage during June 30/July 1 leap seconds, but without a detailed description of what problems are being experienced when leap seconds happen it is still hard to tell what is going on. Leap seconds are apparently unlike the old joke. "Doctor it hurts when I do this" seems not to be followed by "Well, don't do that." A good doctor would refer a patient to a physical therapist who would explore the problem and find ways to work with and around it. The option of discontinuing leap seconds is more like surgery. Perhaps the threat of surgery is necessary in order to motivate the patients to work with the physical therapists. If a drastic change is scheduled for 2022, it would be a real shame not to take advantage of that to once and for all replace legacy systems (which currently have a single confused time scale) with new systems (that understand the distinction between earth rotation and time). If that replacement is not done as part of a 2022 makeover then it will surely be even more difficult later. -- Steve Allen UCO/Lick Observatory Santa Cruz, CA 95064 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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