Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Surviving Leap Second


The world stood still for a second last evening at 8PM EDT. 

Leap Second happened.

Dire outcomes had been postulated had the computers of the world not synched properly. 

But this morning I hear aircraft flying and my computer seems to be working without any lingering after effects. I assess that leap second came and went largely unnoticed by the overwhelming majority of the people on the planet. 

That the leap second passed largely unnoticed means that many other people were successful in doing their jobs to ensure that our computer-based society could survive the threat of widespread computer shutdowns that in a worst case scenario could have shut down everything from traffic lights to power generation to every form of navigation--even our trusty handheld GPS.


I spent my leap second watching the Orioles lose their second game in a row to the Texas Rangers. 

I was more disappointed about not being able to view the once every two thousand year conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in the evening sky due to cloud cover.

And then it was over. Probably not to be remembered until the next time a leap second is added to the clocks to keep everything aligned.

Thank you to everyone who made the leap second a non-event. Let's keep it that way.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

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