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How the Government Shutdown Warps Time Itself

typesandtimes.net

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Re: How the Government Shutdown Warps Time Itself

#21

Post by gizmo686 »

SiempreViernes wrote: post #16
dvh wrote: post #3

Leap seconds are the most stupidest thing ever. It's time to abandon UTC and start using what professional astronomers use: UT1

Leap seconds is just the time abstraction being leaky: the Earth simply doesn’t have a constant rotation speed. Certainly seems more practical to correct for this once in a while rather than having a variable length second.

We could easily define a time system that is simply "number of seconds since 00:00:00 January 1, 1970" (other than epoch being different, we have this with GPS and TAI time, but the network effects for UTC are strong) and used that as our base time system. Leap seconds could then be added at higher layers simmilar to how leap hours are. Instead evryone has to deal with leap seconds weather they care about the orientation of Earth or not.

Also, at least for computer applications, a variable lenfth second is easier to deal with than a leap second.

Re: How the Government Shutdown Warps Time Itself

#22

Post by bayesian_horse »

tertius wrote: post #20
bayesian_horse wrote: post #14

In my opinion it's possible the Democrats will cave. The strategic situation is that Democrats care about the country, and Trump does not. However, not enough Americans are convinced of the latter fact. Once they are, the only rational decision is to cave - and then remove him from office as quickly as possible.

> The strategic situation is that Democrats care about the country, and Trump does not. However, not enough Americans are convinced of the latter fact. I'm not an American, just an immigrant. Historically this isn't about caring, it's just about politics.

Normally it really isn't about caring for the overall good of country. Politicians competing for voters all care about their country, or at the very least have to act as if.

In this case, it is different, because Trump cares more about his "win" in this issue than about the country. Or even about winning reelection, because everything is pointing to public opinion being strongly against what he is doing right now.

However, the nation is hurting badly under the shutdown, and it is going to get worse. Even so Trump is blamed by a majority, and thus "politically" losing more, at some point the democrats will have to concede that the only way to stop the damage is to give in.

But by then, there will be no doubt in most voters' minds that Trump fundamentally doesn't care. And this makes him unelectable for a larger majority and may even pierce his senate-armor against impeachment.

Re: How the Government Shutdown Warps Time Itself

#24

Post by dooglius »

paulie_a wrote: post #12
dvh wrote: post #3

Leap seconds are the most stupidest thing ever. It's time to abandon UTC and start using what professional astronomers use: UT1

I beg to differ, Dst is the stupidest time related thing ever. From a software development perspective it is a tremendous pain in the ass and is stupid. From the non software aspect it is just stupid and annoying.

Leap seconds are a lot worse for software development, because Unix time does not include DST adjustments, but does include leap second adjustments. This means that if you use unix time in an application, you can just use a library at the input/output edge and not worry about it, but leap seconds can screw up anywhere that you use a timestamp.

Re: How the Government Shutdown Warps Time Itself

#25

Post by reidjs »

tertius wrote: post #18
paulie_a wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I beg to differ, Dst is the stupidest time related thing ever. From a software development perspective it is a tremendous pain in the ass and is stupid. From the non software aspect it is just stupid and annoying.

From a non-software perspective it kills people. Also, if you're a parent, it's not great for sleep training children. It just messes with everyone.

Can you elaborate on how it kills people??

Re: How the Government Shutdown Warps Time Itself

#26

Post by dooglius »

I have to wonder, if something like VLC can exist, which blatantly flies in the face of copywright law unchallenged, why do so many open-source projects get ridiculously anal about license issues? The problem here appears to be that the license (CC-BY 4.0) is only specified in the README file, not in the timezone data file itself. Like, do they really think that it only applies to the README, and if they use the data they're going to get sued? I get that it's important to cover one's ass, but if it gets to the point where software breaks as a result, it's gone much too far.

I wonder if the right solution here is to have some kind of body provide insurance against frivolous litigation over licensing issues for open-source projects, so that this kind of stupidity doesn't arise.

Edit: It appears I was mistaken about the legal status of VLC: it is about software patent licenses, not software copywright licenses.

Re: How the Government Shutdown Warps Time Itself

#28

Post by Klover »

dooglius wrote: post #26

I have to wonder, if something like VLC can exist, which blatantly flies in the face of copywright law unchallenged, why do so many open-source projects get ridiculously anal about license issues? The problem here appears to be that the license (CC-BY 4.0) is only specified in the README file, not in the timezone data file itself. Like, do they really think that it only applies to the README, and if they use the data…

VLC is not American so doesn’t have to care about American software patents. Licenses are different from patents.

Re: How the Government Shutdown Warps Time Itself

#29

Post by striking »

dooglius wrote: post #26

I have to wonder, if something like VLC can exist, which blatantly flies in the face of copywright law unchallenged, why do so many open-source projects get ridiculously anal about license issues? The problem here appears to be that the license (CC-BY 4.0) is only specified in the README file, not in the timezone data file itself. Like, do they really think that it only applies to the README, and if they use the data…

>which blatantly flies in the face of copywright law unchallenged

How do you figure? Patent law isn't copyright law, and doesn't apply equally around the world.

>why do so many open-source projects get ridiculously anal about license issues

Because it's their code and people are using it without compensation and in ways not amenable to them? I think you'd be pretty "anal", too, if someone took your software that you worked hard on, without wanting to contribute their improvements and without any other form of compensation.

x264 basically funds VLC. Don't steal other people's code.

Re: How the Government Shutdown Warps Time Itself

#30

Post by evan_ »

reidjs wrote: post #25
tertius wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a non-software perspective it kills people. Also, if you're a parent, it's not great for sleep training children. It just messes with everyone.

Can you elaborate on how it kills people??

Traffic deaths spike following the DST starting (and to a lesser extent, ending) date- thought to be due to disrupted sleep schedules.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/11152980/

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