Clocks to read 11:59:60 as time lords add leap second

telegraph.co.uk ^

[BenLurkin]

When the last leap second was added in 2012 Mozilla, Reddit, Foursquare, Yelp, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon all reported crashes and there were problems with the Linux operating system and programmes written in Java.

In Australia, more than 400 flights were grounded as the Qantas check-in system crashed.

Experts at Britain’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) who will officially add the second to UK time, warned that markets which are already jittery from Greece could suffer transaction delays if their software was not prepared.

“There are consequences of tinkering with time,” said Peter Whibberley, Senior Research Scientist in the Time and Frequency group at NPL, who is known to colleagues as ‘The Time Lord.’

“Because leap seconds are only introduced sporadically it is difficult to implement them in computers and mistakes can cause systems to fail temporarily.”

[BenLurkin]

The Time Lords of Remulac

[Fresh Wind]

I always thought “Remulac” was something you took for constipation.

[QBFimi]

You, Sir, are a silly person. We all know they are French!

[deoetdoctrinae]

[Fresh Wind]

European markets including London are largely closed when the event is scheduled to occur, but the change will hit trading floors in the US, Japan, Australia, South Korea and Singapore.

I know it's a dumb question, but why don't they just do it on a weekend?

[for-q-clinton]

Woohoo! More sleep tonight! And boy do I need it.

[Vaquero]

I remember it’s an ingredient of a cough syrup “With Remulac “ but no google search could find it. Anyone have a link?

[Revel]

It would be much better if they could subtract 50 years.