[LEAPSECS] Notation for transmitted vs. paper time scales

Poul-Henning Kamp phk at phk.freebsd.dk
Wed Nov 5 18:43:40 EST 2014


--------
In message <001601cff930$51f99010$f5ecb030$@comcast.net>, "Gerard Ashton" write
s:

>There was some discussion of transmitted vs. paper time scales.

This is another outdated notion.

Paper time-scales only exist because we couldn't do any better when
we had to wait for the astronomers to mail a letter to Paris with
their observations.

Today with realtime global clock comparisons available, both GPS
phase and point-to-point via sat/fiber, the only contribution in
the "paper" version provides, is that it allows us to use a non-causal
weighing algorithm (ie: one which reduces a clocks weight earlier
in time for something it did later.)

For all practical purposes we could dismiss with paper clocks
and go real time, but I'm sure astronomers will tell us that
would do things to the cows milk or something...

-- 
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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