This year's Y2K: 'Leap second' threatens to break the Internet

[Kari]

Last week, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (yup, that exists) declared that we're all living about a second ahead of where we should be -- the Earth's rotation has slowed, and we'll need an extra second for the planet to catch up. The IERS announced that the leap second will take place on June 30.

The problem is that the computer software controlling much of the Web doesn't play nicely with leap seconds. The previous leap second, which took place in 2012, brought down Reddit, Yelp (YELP), LinkedIn (LNKD, Tech30), FourSquare, Gawker and StumbleUpon, among other sites and apps. Qantas' entire computer system went down for hours, forcing employees to check in passengers by hand.

More: This year's Y2K: 'Leap second' threatens to break the Internet - Jan. 13, 2015

Original IERS bulletin:

INTERNATIONAL EARTH ROTATION AND REFERENCE SYSTEMS SERVICE (IERS)

SERVICE INTERNATIONAL DE LA ROTATION TERRESTRE ET DES SYSTEMES DE REFERENCE

SERVICE DE LA ROTATION TERRESTRE DE L'IERS
OBSERVATOIRE DE PARIS
61, Av. de l'Observatoire 75014 PARIS (France)
Tel. : 33 (0) 1 40 51 22 26
FAX : 33 (0) 1 40 51 22 91
e-mail : [email protected]
http://hpiers.obspm.fr/eop-pc

Paris, 5 January 2015

Bulletin C 49

To authorities responsible for the measurement and distribution of time


UTC TIME STEP
on the 1st of July 2015


A positive leap second will be introduced at the end of June 2015.
The sequence of dates of the UTC second markers will be:

2015 June 30, 23h 59m 59s
2015 June 30, 23h 59m 60s
2015 July 1, 0h 0m 0s

The difference between UTC and the International Atomic Time TAI is:

from 2012 July 1, 0h UTC, to 2015 July 1 0h UTC : UTC-TAI = - 35s
from 2015 July 1, 0h UTC, until further notice : UTC-TAI = - 36s



Leap seconds can be introduced in UTC at the end of the months of December
or June, depending on the evolution of UT1-TAI. Bulletin C is mailed every
six months, either to announce a time step in UTC or to confirm that there
will be no time step at the next possible date.


Daniel Gambis
Head
Earth Orientation Center of IERS
Observatoire de Paris, France

 

[ThrashZone]

I blame daylight saving time

 

[Kari]

I blame daylight saving time

You are not often right but this time you are wrong . UTC does not care about DST, it does not have DST.

 

[Layback Bear]

How about the earths rotational speed has been changing sense the earth has existed. Now we just have a way of measuring the time difference.

 

[groze]

I agree just get rid of leap seconds. Wouldn't a simple solution be to skip the auto update time check for that day that has a leap second adjustment?

 

[Jonguy30]

Wow, another stupid joke. People thought computers would break when the switch from 1999-2000 happened. Well, guess what, the computers didn't break, so I don't think the Internet will break either.

 

[Kari]

This is not a joke. Last time the leap second was added to universal time in 2012 it crashed some really major global sites. The reason for this is still valid and explained in article. Read the article, link in first post.

 

[Barman58]

I started updating & upgrading non Y2K compatible systems in late 1998, and was fully employed on this task until November 1999 - The reason that the computer systems did not have major issues due to the use of two digit systems for year recognition was due to the work performed to correct the issue before it happened.

Hopefully due to the issues with the last leap second the required software updates will be in-place before the event

 

[TVeblen]

Agreed.

The procedure is not complicated:

1. Be aware that a problem exists
2. Take steps to avoid the problem.

We do this driving a car instinctually. But when it comes to conceptual problems everyone bumps into walls.


Thanks for the heads up Kari!

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

Yet another SCAM designed for "Consultancy firms" to charge mega huge fees for doing non existent work for a non existent problem. Remember some "consultants" back in 1999 were getting paid over 2000 USD A DAY in money of that time --probably worth around 3,000 USD a day in today's money for simply eyeballing some lines of "COBOL" code (if anybody can still remember what that was) for some Banks.

Some IBM mainframe OS'es had to be designed to cope with a 4 digit year -- the old easy way in IBM systems to ensure that things like tapes couldn't be overwritten was to label them with an expiry date of 99.360. A fairly neat and easy get around was to assume dates 00 - 25 say were 2000 onwards and 26 - 99 were 1900. This quick fix was OK for most things - of course insurance policies etc needed to be reviewed but the work was essentially very tedious and not complicated at all. I remember some consultants who made enough in a few months to BUY their homes outright and often a second one. Afraid nothing like that around these days especially where stuff gets off shored / Out sourced to the cheapest markets regardless of quality.

Nothing crashed and the changes were fairly trivial to implement. Made a packet for some I.T people who would have to do a lot more complex things today at MUCH LOWER rates - probably lucky if an average I.T contractor could get about 700 USD a day now,

The only possible issue might be that your Sat Nav works incorrectly for a millisec or so or a rapacious BANK will charge you a days overdraft fee if the date changes 1 millisec before your money arrives.

Satnavs and GPS need accurate time measurements but this will all be adjusted without anybody even noticing it. Satellite time and GPS are regularly updated to compensate for orbit variations etc etc.

In any case the rotation of the planet is not a constant unvarying value - so basically if we want to use a time system which works as we expect it to do (i.e Daylight is in the morning and afternoon, evening and night are in the dark) we will have to make micro adjustments from time to time.

Perhaps we should resort to "Galactic Core Time" then there's no argument.

The current system based on frequency of Caesium atom emission frequencies might be changed as our understanding of Quantum Physics changes a lot of perceptions we had about the nature of the Universe.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[eatup]

Is this article for real? There is no clock (except atomic) that runs at the exact time. They either run a few secs ahead/slower each month and need to be readjusted accordingly. I'm pretty sure banking system and major web site clocks aren't atomic either.

 

[Kari]

It is very real, no hoax. Of course no single, normal clock is atomic. Not in computers or websites, not in corporations or banks. But the UTC, base for all time and how it is measured in the world is based on exact atomic clock and rotation of the earth.

Read more:

• UTC – The World's Time Standard
• Coordinated Universal Time - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[eatup]

Yeah, okay. So how exactly do those non-atomic clocks resync every now and then? Oh wait, the article suggests that they don't, and when this leap second (which is nothing compared to the tens of seconds gained/loss by the clocks) happens this summer, the world is going to end... d'oh!

 

[groze]

Yeah, okay. So how exactly do those non-atomic clocks resync every now and then? Oh wait, the article suggests that they don't, and when this leap second (which is nothing compared to the tens of seconds gained/loss by the clocks) happens this summer, the world is going to end... d'oh!

:roflmao:

 

[Kari]

Yeah, okay. So how exactly do those non-atomic clocks resync every now and then? Oh wait, the article suggests that they don't, and when this leap second (which is nothing compared to the tens of seconds gained/loss by the clocks) happens this summer, the world is going to end... d'oh!

OK, let's see if I got this correct: you do not understand the concept of universal time and atomic clocks, therefore it must be bullshit.

I would like to say something more about your comments but in compliance with forum rules it's better I do not post what I'd want to.

 

[groze]

Kari,
I agree with hirobo2. That why I gave him a thumps up. No clock keeps exact time except for one. Even my computer clock is about 5 minutes off. My computer still is running without any issues. I still don't see why adding a leap second could crash a computer? The simplest way to fix would be to turn off the auto clock adjustment for that day. All systems and clocks lose time. Some computers are adjusted for Daylight Saving Time world-wide, that doesn't seem to foul up computers

 

[ThrashZone]

The issue is not about computers it's with Servers
I was joking about blaming DST

 

[Kari]

Kari,
I agree with hirobo2. That why I gave him a thumps up. No clock keeps exact time except for one. Even my computer clock is about 5 minutes off. My computer still is running without any issues. I still don't see why adding a leap second could crash a computer? The simplest way to fix would be to turn off the auto clock adjustment for that day. All systems and clocks lose time. Some computers are adjusted for Daylight Saving Time world-wide, that doesn't seem to foul up computers

OK. Should we agree that if any of us does not understand a certain thing or principle, it is thereafter collectively considered as not true? Truth being only something everyone understands?

The simplest way to fix would be to turn off the auto clock adjustment for that day. All systems and clocks lose time. Some computers are adjusted for Daylight Saving Time world-wide, that doesn't seem to foul up computers

What on earth has adjusting a clock or DST to do with universal time and leap second? UTC is not a timezone.

 

[Slartybart]

It's about the rotational speed of the Earth, which has slowed and is not longer 24 hours.

We can't speed up the Earth to correct time measurement, so the only thing to do is add time to our measuring system.

I had to think about this, at first glance I said "Wait, we're a second ahead and we're adding a second ... wouldn't that make us 2 seconds ahead?"

No, the second is being added to make up for the time already lost by the slower rotational speed.

Too much weight on the planet? More gravitational pull from the Sun? A killer comet close by? An invisible dark hole?
Someone probably knows why the Earth is spinning slower, I won't start calling the mother ship until it's spinning slower by minutes.

Major sites ?? Reddit, Yelp, LinkedIn (LNKD, Tech30), FourSquare, Gawker and StumbleUpon ???
My definition of major is different from the author's definition of major.

There have been 25 leap seconds since they were introduced in 1972. But some groups have been looking to get rid of leap seconds. At the next meeting of the standards-setting International Telecommunication Union, nations' representatives will vote on abolishing the practice.

Spoiler alert: there is a fix in the linked article.

 

[groze]

Computers check in from time to time with the IERS' network to make sure that they are telling the time correctly (like wristwatches, they have to be "rewound" every now and then). When leap seconds happen, IERS tells computers that the last minute of that day will have 61 seconds. That makes Unix-based software go haywire.

Don't have IERS network tell computers the last minute of the day will have 61 seconds. Then computers should adjust with the next check-in on the following day really simple.


What happens if the IERS network time servers goes down? Does Unix crash?