Big Ben's Silence Baffles Engineers

Associated Press ^ | May 28, 2005 | THOMAS WAGNER

[Calvin Locke]

More like the guy that was suppose to grease the thing was down at a local pub.

Or, he swiped the pennies that are used to adjust the pendulum.

[sourcery]

How should computer record-keeping systems handle them, especially if they count fractional seconds?

Now you've gone and done it. You've asked The Question.

Let's just say that there are many different opinions on this matter, and to some extent it's a "religious issue," if you know what I mean. I have my own preferences for a general purpose solution, but the best solution is always tailored to the specific requirements of a particular case.

My date/time library keeps time in nanoseconds, and uses the natural epoch of the Gregorian calendar (Monday, January 1, 1 AD Gregorian--which is January 3, 1 AD Julian.) My library's date/time objects represent time as 1) the number of days since the epoch, 2) as a number of seconds since the start of day, and 3) as a number of nanoseconds since the second. One reason for this is that, except for intra-day time-of-day, the time/date representation is neutral with respect to the number of seconds in a day (invariantly 86400 (UT2,) 86400 +/- some fraction that varies day by day (TAI,) or one of {86399, 86400, 86401}, depending on the date (UTC.)

My recommendation is to avoid leap seconds unless you really need them. Note that most clocks do not account for leap seconds. Neither POSIX nor Windows deal with leap seconds. POSIX actually forbids it.

For further information, I recommend reading The Future of Leap Seconds.

[SAJ]

Frederick Forsythe (Day of the Jackal, Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God), for one, would disagree with you. In The Fourth Protocol, he gave a moderately detailed account of the tower (first chapter, btw), and stated the clock was 'Big Ben', while the bell is properly known as 'Great Tom'.

Don't know if he's correct or not, but 1) He is, after all, a Londoner and a very bright chap, 2) His research in all his books has been very meticulous, even Clancy-esque in many cases, and 3) What could he possibly gain by fabricating such information?

I think I'll go with Forsythe on this one.

[Conservative Infidel]

It's Bush's fault!!

[sourcery]

It's Bush's fault!!

I think we should demand a second opinion!

[rustbucket]

Did Hillary walk by?

[infocats]

Big Ben, the landmark London clock renowned for its accuracy and chimes, stopped ticking for 90 minutes, an engineer said Saturday.

Oh oh...looks like Y2K finally hit London ;-)

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

Now you've gone and done it.

How long have you been waiting for THAT question?

Regards,
GtG

[sourcery]

How long have you been waiting for THAT question?

Actually, it's not the question I've been waiting for, but the definitive answer--especially one that engenders a wide consensus that it's the right one. The current situation is a disaster.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Yep, I thought Big Ben was the bell as well....

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

The current situation is a disaster.

So it would seem. But like most things of subtle nature, you will certainly be able to count on our political leadership to wait until the last second...

Oh well, never mind (I think you see)

Regards,
GtG

PS Love your tag line, a most noble vocation.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Here in the valley of the sun, that is a cool day...

[Cvengr]

And Thunderball was played on TBS today,...must be a unified coalition of goverments answering a threat from SPECTRE again...

[muawiyah]

The key, man, give him the key!

[yarddog]

I was just trying to remember what SPECTRE stood for. Is it Special executive for terror, revenge and extortion?

[Babu]

English Dudes! -- Just take Old Ben down to the Mall and have the Watch bloke put a new batt in it and you're good to go!

What would you English do without us Americans?

[Dr.Zoidberg]

The England that witnessed the creation of Big Ben is no more.

Perhaps he was observing a moment of silence in respect for the passing of a once great nation.

[Loyal Buckeye]

I wonder if they checked these.

[Erasmus]

The changed the clocks operating system to Windows XP and someone set it to automatically update when there are new patches. It will be fine once Microsoft send them the next upgrade, or maybe the next on, or the next one, or the.....

Somebody forgot to hook up the fan on the friggin' heat sink.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Perhaps The Government have agreed to pay Spectre for the return of the two atomic bombs.