[LEAPSECS] Leapin' on the Merry-go-round

Poul-Henning Kamp phk at phk.freebsd.dk
Wed Jan 2 18:44:25 EST 2008


In message <1C0DE509-27FF-46BA-85B3-095B9A3B0D46 at noao.edu>, Rob Seaman writes:


>The accumulation of a leap deficit is thus roughly linear over the

>next couple of centuries, [...]


Lets see, a couple of centuries ago the Napoleonic wars where in
full swing, I wonder how many of the rules and regulations laid
down back then we still follow to the word, without having refined,
reconsidered or replaced the with more modern approaches.

The metre convention from 1875 has barely ever managed to get the
ink to dry before somebody fiddles something in it.

Any rulemaking we may propose, that our grandchildren or later will
have to implement, is at best a pointless waste of time, they're going
to do it their own way anyway.

All we have to do is to leave them a clear notice what the issue
is, then they can decide if it is a problem and how they want to
fix it.

--
Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk at FreeBSD.ORG | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.


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