Hong Kong handover honored by leap second?

Rohit Khare (khare@w3.org)
Tue, 1 Jul 1997 15:54:31 -0400 (EDT)


=======================
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 14:31:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: George Mitchell <george@mvp.com>
Subject: Re: Hong Kong handover

And, especially in honor of the takeover, there will be a leap second
at 23:59:60 GMT tonight.

(Just kidding about the honor, but there will be a leap second.)
-- George Mitchell (george@mvp.com)

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> > George -- how, precisely, would you become aware of a fine piece of
> > trivia like that? Inquiring minds...

> By asking my local Network Time Protocol server! There's an NTP client,
> xntpdc, which will get all sorts of stats out of an NTP server. In
> particular, the "leapinfo" command tells what the server knows about
> any upcoming leap seconds.
>
> I believe it is the Bureau Internationale de l'Heure who determines
> when a leap second will occur. They've become more frequent of late.
> Still, they won't schedule them other than on December 31 or June 30.
> -- George Mitchell (george@mvp.com)
>

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Thanks -- at least they're just twice a year; I was worried they were more
randomly placed, and thus, there was some international mailing list, nay,
worse *discussion* list over when and how to do this :-)

Thanks,
Rohit