An upcoming International Telecommunication Union (ITU) conference is about to become an international battleground over whether or not to retain the leap second – the periodic adjustment of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) so it stays in agreement with atomic clocks.
The debate's expected to be so intense it will continue throughout the World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRC), which have an agenda spanning more than three weeks starting November 2.
In spite of frequent predictions of a leap second apocalypse, the last leap second passed pretty much without incident. Still, factions in the world of international standards keep the issue ticking over.
That wasn't the case in 2012, when Australian airlines Qantas and Virgin Australia both staggered when the Amadeus booking system crashed, and servers run by Mozilla, Reddit, Yelp, and FourSquare struggled. By contrast, 2015 was so unremarkable that some people argue we've worked out how to deal with leap seconds, so we may as well keep them.
(Score: 1) by kazzie on Sunday November 01 2015, @01:10PM
The Doctor and The Master fighting over who gets to set the pocket-watch to the correct time, while Romana rolls her eyes and wanders off...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2015, @01:32PM
Then the daleks, having time-travelled from the future, turn up and exterminate everyone. This causes a time paradox and the damage it does to causality causes the universe to implode. Suddenly leap seconds or internet server problems didn't seem important any more.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday November 01 2015, @01:42PM
"Jelly baby?"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday November 01 2015, @08:03PM
Yes, please. *noms*
Meanwhile, Captain Jack Harkness has been getting to the BAD WOLF bottom of this nonsense (ok, he's probably a top). Anyway, I hear it's rather BAD WOLF complicated plot involving Blaidd Drwg, Inc out of Cardiff.
Oh shi— the key of Rassilon! Trenzalore! Time paradox!
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday November 01 2015, @08:12PM
Just give me a moment here… but whatever you do, DO NOT BLINK!
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday November 01 2015, @08:55PM
...for if you do, "YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED! EXXXXXTERMINATED!!!!!"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02 2015, @12:20AM
Or bother mentioning the good episodes of a poor reboot!