Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping . . .
As the kind of guy who likes radio-controlled clocks, the leap second promised some excitement. WWVB broadcasts a warning bit for the leap second. Since a full WWVB time signal takes sixty seconds to broadcast, that empty second presents a curiosity. The diagram linked above doesn't explain it.
jwz posted the leap second advisory that got me excited in the first place. Yesterday, when chanceoperation asked if "there was anything good on the Internet," I mentioned "ways to celebrate the leap second." We had a good laugh about that one.
Unfortunately, jwz also told me that I'd missed it by not taking into account that the leap second is not inserted just prior to each time zone's midnight. chanceoperation and I had been on our way to dinner when the leap second came and went. D'oh.
So even though I'd missed the leap second I brought up the Official U.S. Time site to make sure I'd hit midnight on the head. Semagic displays the current time to the second if the "Update time automatically" box is checked. Imagine my horror to note that my computer was ten seconds ahead of U.S. time! Windows is set to automatically sync with NIST, but it hadn't done so since December 27th.
Edited to Add: Damn! Why didn't I think to put on Dave Brubeck's Time Out?
jwz posted the leap second advisory that got me excited in the first place. Yesterday, when chanceoperation asked if "there was anything good on the Internet," I mentioned "ways to celebrate the leap second." We had a good laugh about that one.
Unfortunately, jwz also told me that I'd missed it by not taking into account that the leap second is not inserted just prior to each time zone's midnight. chanceoperation and I had been on our way to dinner when the leap second came and went. D'oh.
So even though I'd missed the leap second I brought up the Official U.S. Time site to make sure I'd hit midnight on the head. Semagic displays the current time to the second if the "Update time automatically" box is checked. Imagine my horror to note that my computer was ten seconds ahead of U.S. time! Windows is set to automatically sync with NIST, but it hadn't done so since December 27th.
Edited to Add: Damn! Why didn't I think to put on Dave Brubeck's Time Out?