3 ms·

I can't interpret this as anything other than nitpicky. Are you suggesting that every programmer should know about relativistic effects of time dilation in con

I can't interpret this as anything other than nitpicky. Are you suggesting that every programmer should know about relativistic effects of time dilation in controlled scientific experiments? I don't doubt that you have valuable experience and information to lend to the discussion, but your frame seems aggressively negative towards the OP with no discernible reason.

masklinn 14y ago
> Are you suggesting that every programmer should know about relativistic effects of time dilation in controlled scientific experiments? No, he's declaring that not every programmer can afford to ignore these.
defrost 14y ago
I posted shortly before midnight my time so excuse the delay in replying. The OP article suggests that UnixTime is the answer for every programmer. My take home message to every programmer that uses UnixTime is to be aware that it's non linear and has hiccups that will bite them every few years if not taken into account. This is not so much aggressively negative as it is a simple statement of fact garnered from years of experience. My message to every programmer that works in a distributed system is that they should read "Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System" (Lamport 1978) which uses observations and arguments from relativity to comment on the manner in which events propagate outwards from sources. As for limiting awareness to "controlled scientific experiments", no, I'm not advocating that at all as time slip (something that has many causes outside of dilation) pops up all over the place these days, for example many things rely on GPS time which is something else that is non linear and periodically updated. I'd suggest that anyone writing software that relies on second / sub second granularity should be aware of where their fiducial time marks come from and what hiccups there are in that system.

masklinn 14y ago

> Are you suggesting that every programmer should know about relativistic effects of time dilation in controlled scientific experiments? No, he's declaring that not every programmer can afford to ignore these.

defrost 14y ago

I posted shortly before midnight my time so excuse the delay in replying. The OP article suggests that UnixTime is the answer for every programmer. My take home message to every programmer that uses UnixTime is to be aware that it's non linear and has hiccups that will bite them every few years if not taken into account. This is not so much aggressively negative as it is a simple statement of fact garnered from years of experience. My message to every programmer that works in a distributed system is that they should read "Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System" (Lamport 1978) which uses observations and arguments from relativity to comment on the manner in which events propagate outwards from sources. As for limiting awareness to "controlled scientific experiments", no, I'm not advocating that at all as time slip (something that has many causes outside of dilation) pops up all over the place these days, for example many things rely on GPS time which is something else that is non linear and periodically updated. I'd suggest that anyone writing software that relies on second / sub second granularity should be aware of where their fiducial time marks come from and what hiccups there are in that system.