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For most civil purposes, it really doesn't matter but we're techies and it's in our nature to obsess over details like this, often to the determent of ourselves

For most civil purposes, it really doesn't matter but we're techies and it's in our nature to obsess over details like this, often to the determent of ourselves and the systems we're trying to maintain. It appears many of those with the most influence over setting the example for such things in the civil realm have indeed discovered the leap second is far more trouble than it is worth and now it is falling out of favor. For astronomical, aeronautical and other scientific purposes, they'll continue to deal with the hassles, but for the rest of us, it appears the era of leap seconds is slowly drawing to a close.

zarzavat 2y ago
Leap seconds are both unnecessary and useless at solving the problem they are intended to solve. If you care about the position of the sun to second precision, then time alone tells you nothing - you need location too. Ironically, most people get their location these days using GPS which is based on TAI, not UTC with leap seconds. If you don’t care about the position of the sun to second precision then leap seconds are a nuisance. There’s zero reason to have leap seconds in the definition of time. It should be a database, like tz, that software that wants Earth rotation updates for calculation of sun position can download and incorporate into its calculations for increased accuracy. The fundamental problem with leap seconds is that you can’t predict what the leap second delta between UTC (legal time) and TAI (absolute time) will be in the future. That’s unacceptable, I should be able to know how many seconds there are between 1 July 2024 and 1 July 2026 without needing to wait for a Time Lord to determine it.
- ralferoo 2y ago
  > without needing to wait for a Time Lord to determine it. They're not to blame - Davros is responsible for the leap seconds.
- zokier 2y ago
  > If you care about the position of the sun to second precision, then time alone tells you nothing - you need location too Unless you are using time and (celestial) observations to determine your location. It's not coincidence that US Naval Observatory (and its peers) is one of the key origins of UTC.
School-Cotton 2y ago
> but we're techies and it's in our nature to obsess over details like this Speak for yourself! Part of good engineering is knowing when over-engineered perfection is useless. The inventors of UTC/leap seconds did not, and made a serious mistake the rest of us have had to live with.

zarzavat 2y ago

Leap seconds are both unnecessary and useless at solving the problem they are intended to solve. If you care about the position of the sun to second precision, then time alone tells you nothing - you need location too. Ironically, most people get their location these days using GPS which is based on TAI, not UTC with leap seconds. If you don’t care about the position of the sun to second precision then leap seconds are a nuisance. There’s zero reason to have leap seconds in the definition of time. It should be a database, like tz, that software that wants Earth rotation updates for calculation of sun position can download and incorporate into its calculations for increased accuracy. The fundamental problem with leap seconds is that you can’t predict what the leap second delta between UTC (legal time) and TAI (absolute time) will be in the future. That’s unacceptable, I should be able to know how many seconds there are between 1 July 2024 and 1 July 2026 without needing to wait for a Time Lord to determine it.

ralferoo 2y ago
> without needing to wait for a Time Lord to determine it. They're not to blame - Davros is responsible for the leap seconds.
zokier 2y ago
> If you care about the position of the sun to second precision, then time alone tells you nothing - you need location too Unless you are using time and (celestial) observations to determine your location. It's not coincidence that US Naval Observatory (and its peers) is one of the key origins of UTC.

School-Cotton 2y ago

> but we're techies and it's in our nature to obsess over details like this Speak for yourself! Part of good engineering is knowing when over-engineered perfection is useless. The inventors of UTC/leap seconds did not, and made a serious mistake the rest of us have had to live with.