[110444] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Leap second tonight
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Nick Hilliard)
Mon Jan 5 17:58:07 2009
X-Envelope-To: nanog@nanog.org
Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:57:38 +0000
From: Nick Hilliard <nick@foobar.org>
To: Peter Beckman <beckman@angryox.com>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.00.0901051542040.89930@nog.angryox.com>
Cc: NANOG list <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
Peter Beckman wrote:
> * GMT is used to imply UT1, but sometimes UTC, but really GMT is just
> massively confusing and you shouldn't use it, either in conversation
> or in your servers/routers, because nobody is really sure without
> reading a lot of documentation what GMT means for each
> manufacturer/OS/software.
WET/WEST is a little more precise and less confusing than GMT/BST (or
IST if you're of a more celtic nature, although this confuses people
living on the Indian subcontinent) although in tz-land, GMT has a
specific and pretty consistent definition. But it is generally a bad
idea to use it. People get confused.
> * When writing code regarding dates and times, know that any year may
> have 366 days, and any minute may have 61 seconds.
Or 59 seconds in the case of a negative leap second.
Nick
