On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 1:54 PM Tim Parenti via tz <[email protected]> wrote:
> I noticed the poor quality of the article, too. In particular, these two > statements stood out as most jarring to me: > > "Any system that uses elapsed-time calculations to rate-limit operations, > generate sequence numbers, or verify audit logs built on the assumption > that time only moves in one direction — and only stops momentarily, never > jumps." > > This feels backwards, at best. Any system that can handle the positive > leap seconds we've already had can, in fact, deal with the fact that "time" > either slows, stops, or repeats, depending on the implementation. The > negative leap second is arguably the easier case, because time *does* only > end up moving in one direction — the discontinuity is the hard part, yes, > but no harder than the positive ones. Either speed up a bit or skip, but > time is always moving forward. > > "At the rate Earth's rotation currently varies, a one-hour threshold would > not be reached for somewhere between 50 and 100 years, effectively making > both positive and negative leap seconds a concern for the distant future." > > We managed with only 27 in the last ~half-century, and now 0 in a decade, > but somehow there's an imminent threat that we might need another 3600 so > quickly that we'd literally run out of months to put them in one by one? > The math isn't mathing here. It's not even remotely close. > I noticed that too. And, as has already been mentioned, I can understand waiting until a minute of offset has accumulated before taking action, but waiting until an hour of offset has accumulated seems like a really bad idea. In addition to the significant errors that have already pointed out, the sentence "For most of history, Earth's rotation has been gradually slowing — tidal friction from the moon drags on Earth's oceans, braking the planet's spin by roughly two milliseconds per century." should really say "For most of history, Earth's rotation has been gradually slowing — tidal friction from the moon drags on Earth's oceans, braking the planet's spin by roughly two milliseconds*/day* per century."
