I was talking about this to a colleague, and they pointed out an obvious point 
that perhaps those of us who follow these things might miss.

Between now and 2023 there will be at least two leap seconds, to a high degree 
of probability.  With there now being a lot of focus on leap seconds and their 
effect on computer systems, on the first such leap society as a whole will be 
able to gauge the scale of the problem.  And as there is certainty of at least 
one further leap, people affected by those problems (which personally I hold to 
be wildly over-stated, but I am willing to be convinced) will have every reason 
to fix them.  So come 2023, the discussion will be largely about problems which 
arose and were fixed, because anyone who says “we have this problem which we 
have decided not to fix” is admitting that either the problem is not serious or 
they are not sufficiently bothered by it to fix it.  

So in 2023, there will not be a list of open, unfixed issues to motivate 
change, because everything will either be fixed or deemed trivial (fsvo 
trivial). But there will still an unbounded, uncollected list of unaddressed 
issues surrounding cessation of leapseconds.  That’s because it’s entirely 
reasonable in 2015 to develop systems assuming |ut1-utc|<0.9, and no reason at 
all to alter systems with that assumption.

ian

> On 19 Nov 2015, at 15:58, Kevin Birth <kevin.bi...@qc.cuny.edu> wrote:
> 
> Predictable.
> 
> 
> 
> On 11/19/15, 9:49 AM, "LEAPSECS on behalf of Steve Allen"
> <leapsecs-boun...@leapsecond.com on behalf of s...@ucolick.org> wrote:
> 
>> The news is official.  Leaps until 2023, and more studies.
>> 
>> https://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2015/53.aspx
>> 
>> --
>> Steve Allen                 <s...@ucolick.org>               WGS-84 (GPS)
>> UCO/Lick Observatory--ISB   Natural Sciences II, Room 165   Lat  +36.99855
>> 1156 High Street            Voice: +1 831 459 3046          Lng -122.06015
>> Santa Cruz, CA 95064        http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/    Hgt +250 m
>> _______________________________________________
>> LEAPSECS mailing list
>> LEAPSECS@leapsecond.com
>> https://pairlist6.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
> 
> _______________________________________________
> LEAPSECS mailing list
> LEAPSECS@leapsecond.com
> https://pairlist6.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs

_______________________________________________
LEAPSECS mailing list
LEAPSECS@leapsecond.com
https://pairlist6.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs

Reply via email to