JUNE 30, 2015 , Tuesday has one extra second and that could be dangerous for the internet
On June 30, time will stand still.
Just for a second -- a leap second.
Since 1967, when clocks went atomic, human timekeeping has been independent of the earth’s rotation. The problem is, the planet is slowing down and clocks are not. So every few years, to get everything back in sync, scientists add a second. They’ve done it 25 times since 1972. A leap second was last added to the clock in 2012, during a weekend, which wreaked havoc online. It caused Reddit, Foursquare, Yelp, LinkedIn, Gawker and StumbleUpon to be knocked offline entirely, as well as hundreds of flights to be delayed in Australia.
It’s scheduled for 8 p.m. in New York, just when markets in Asia are opening, and exchanges around the world are taking no chances. U.S. stock markets are ending some after-hours trading early and others from Sydney to Tokyo are recalibrating their clocks ahead of time. Trading firms also have to be prepared, said Greg Wood, president of the Futures Industry Association’s division that oversees market technology.
This time around it’s critical that businesses are ready, with the leap second being added during a time when trading on stock markets is open.
Some businesses are ready for the leap second to be added, like Google and Amazon, which adjust server clocks gradually over a number of weeks so that it’s not a sudden change.
Others that rely on time-critical systems — like stock markets and utilities — are nervous about it going wrong. A single second of downtime for a stock market means up to $4.6 million could be lost.
Linux systems shouldn’t break tomorrow — the bug that affected them last time has since been resolved, along with other issues found in Java and other operating systems.
The leap second is mostly a headache for system administrators who need to ensure their services are highly available and need to plan how to handle the change. Hardware providers such as Cisco now provide detailed advice on how their hardware handles the leap second, but the side effects are unpredictable.
Leap seconds might not be around for much longer with the International Telecommunications Union planning to vote on a proposal to eliminate the leap second in November 2015.
Impending doom aside, you can enjoy your extra second tomorrow by burning it on John Oliver’s site that shows you a random one-second video.
ARTICLE SOURCES:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-28/with-61-seconds-in-a-minute-markets-brace-for-trouble
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/06/29/tuesday-has-one-extra-second-and-that-could-be-dangerous-for-the-internet/
Just for a second -- a leap second.
Since 1967, when clocks went atomic, human timekeeping has been independent of the earth’s rotation. The problem is, the planet is slowing down and clocks are not. So every few years, to get everything back in sync, scientists add a second. They’ve done it 25 times since 1972. A leap second was last added to the clock in 2012, during a weekend, which wreaked havoc online. It caused Reddit, Foursquare, Yelp, LinkedIn, Gawker and StumbleUpon to be knocked offline entirely, as well as hundreds of flights to be delayed in Australia.
It’s scheduled for 8 p.m. in New York, just when markets in Asia are opening, and exchanges around the world are taking no chances. U.S. stock markets are ending some after-hours trading early and others from Sydney to Tokyo are recalibrating their clocks ahead of time. Trading firms also have to be prepared, said Greg Wood, president of the Futures Industry Association’s division that oversees market technology.
In one second
1.4 million - Order messages sent to U.S. equity-trading venues
$4.6 million - Amount of stocks traded every second all day around the world
$3.7 billion - Amount of stocks changing hands at the bell in Korea, Japan and Australia
Sources: Financial Information Forum, World Federation of Exchanges
s market technology.
“The system is only as strong as its weakest link,” Wood said. “There are going to be issues.”
The wider world, too, has to be ready. In 2012, Qantas Airways Ltd. and Reddit Inc., among others, suffered glitches on their websites. As modern life has become more and more digital, the potential for snags when clocks go from 11:59:59 to 11:59:60, instead of straight to 12:00:00, has risen. The time warp has the potential of making mischief with law enforcement, voice and data services, utilities and weapons systems.
“With the leap second, you count 61 seconds in a minute, and that’s where the problems lie,” Chester said.
Earthlings have to make sure NTP, or Network Time Protocol, used by computer systems, meshes with Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, which is determined by the oscillations of cesium-133 in atomic clocks. UTC is currently one hour behind London time. There are, generally, three ways to do that, said Dave Sohn, senior product manager at Spectracom Corp., which helps companies integrate global positioning, navigation and timing.
1. Clocks can stop for a second.
2. Clocks can take a tick backward.
3. Clocks can slice up the leap second and spread it around in fractions. This is a practice known as dilution or, more colorfully, the “leap smear.” Google Inc. used the method during past leap seconds and Amazon.com Inc. said it’s planning to add time to all 86,400 seconds of the day before the event so at midnight its systems will be caught up.
“The system is only as strong as its weakest link,” Wood said. “There are going to be issues.”
The wider world, too, has to be ready. In 2012, Qantas Airways Ltd. and Reddit Inc., among others, suffered glitches on their websites. As modern life has become more and more digital, the potential for snags when clocks go from 11:59:59 to 11:59:60, instead of straight to 12:00:00, has risen. The time warp has the potential of making mischief with law enforcement, voice and data services, utilities and weapons systems.
61 Seconds
About 10 percent of large-scale computer networks will encounter hiccups due to the leap second, said Geoff Chester, public affairs officer for the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, which keeps time for the world’s biggest military.“With the leap second, you count 61 seconds in a minute, and that’s where the problems lie,” Chester said.
Earthlings have to make sure NTP, or Network Time Protocol, used by computer systems, meshes with Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, which is determined by the oscillations of cesium-133 in atomic clocks. UTC is currently one hour behind London time. There are, generally, three ways to do that, said Dave Sohn, senior product manager at Spectracom Corp., which helps companies integrate global positioning, navigation and timing.
1. Clocks can stop for a second.
2. Clocks can take a tick backward.
3. Clocks can slice up the leap second and spread it around in fractions. This is a practice known as dilution or, more colorfully, the “leap smear.” Google Inc. used the method during past leap seconds and Amazon.com Inc. said it’s planning to add time to all 86,400 seconds of the day before the event so at midnight its systems will be caught up.
“The system is only as strong as its weakest link,” Wood said. “There are going to be issues.”
The wider world, too, has to be ready. In 2012, Qantas Airways Ltd. and Reddit Inc., among others, suffered glitches on their websites. As modern life has become more and more digital, the potential for snags when clocks go from 11:59:59 to 11:59:60, instead of straight to 12:00:00, has risen. The time warp has the potential of making mischief with law enforcement, voice and data services, utilities and weapons systems.
“With the leap second, you count 61 seconds in a minute, and that’s where the problems lie,” Chester said.
Earthlings have to make sure NTP, or Network Time Protocol, used by computer systems, meshes with Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, which is determined by the oscillations of cesium-133 in atomic clocks. UTC is currently one hour behind London time. There are, generally, three ways to do that, said Dave Sohn, senior product manager at Spectracom Corp., which helps companies integrate global positioning, navigation and timing.
1. Clocks can stop for a second.
2. Clocks can take a tick backward.
3. Clocks can slice up the leap second and spread it around in fractions. This is a practice known as dilution or, more colorfully, the “leap smear.” Google Inc. used the method during past leap seconds and Amazon.com Inc. said it’s planning to add time to all 86,400 seconds of the day before the event so at midnight its systems will be caught up.
To lessen any possible impact of the leap second, NYSE Arca Equities said evening trading will close five minutes early; Nasdaq will stop trading at 7:48 p.m. New York time and shut down at 7:55 p.m.; Intercontinental Exchange Inc. said it’s delaying all market transitions; CME Group Inc. said any data files submitted between five minutes before and after the leap second will be held for processing till five minutes after.
The extra second is coming amid a critical week for global investors, with Greece’s debt crisis worsening. June 30 is the day when the nation’s current bailout is set to expire and when a payment to the International Monetary Fund is due.
Futures exchanges in Australia, Singapore, South Korea and Japan will smear the leap second after the event, according to FIA. The Japanese stock exchange will smear the leap second over a period of two hours beforehand, so when the leap second comes just before the market opens, the exchange will be synchronized.
That
means traders have to adjust their software for each exchange. There’s a
lot at stake. Trading in Japan, South Korea and Australia starts
exactly one second after the leap and about $3.7 billion will change
hands at the bell on the countries’ stock markets, according to
calculations by Bloomberg based on World Federation of Exchanges data.
“As systems continue to be more and more connected, it’s becoming harder and harder to predict just what the impact could be and how big,” said Hiroki Kawai, the head of trading systems at the Japan Exchange Group Inc.
In November, members of the International Telecommunication Union will meet like they do every three years and vote whether to retain the leap second.
If they get rid of it, time as measured by global positioning systems and Coordinated Universal Time will drift apart. That means that sometime a few million years from now, humans or their descendants will sleep till noon.
“We need to stop having this fire drill every few years,” said Wood, who compared the leap second to Y2K, the anticipated computer catastrophes related to the calendar turning to 2000 from 1999, which were ultimately minor. At the very least, he said, “I’m in favor of it not occurring midweek.”
The wider world, too, has to be ready. In 2012, Qantas Airways Ltd. and Reddit Inc., among others, suffered glitches on their websites. As modern life has become more and more digital, the potential for snags when clocks go from 11:59:59 to 11:59:60, instead of straight to 12:00:00, has risen. The time warp has the potential of making mischief with law enforcement, voice and data services, utilities and weapons systems.
61 Seconds
About 10 percent of large-scale computer networks will encounter hiccups due to the leap second, said Geoff Chester, public affairs officer for the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, which keeps time for the world’s biggest military.“With the leap second, you count 61 seconds in a minute, and that’s where the problems lie,” Chester said.
Earthlings have to make sure NTP, or Network Time Protocol, used by computer systems, meshes with Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, which is determined by the oscillations of cesium-133 in atomic clocks. UTC is currently one hour behind London time. There are, generally, three ways to do that, said Dave Sohn, senior product manager at Spectracom Corp., which helps companies integrate global positioning, navigation and timing.
1. Clocks can stop for a second.
2. Clocks can take a tick backward.
3. Clocks can slice up the leap second and spread it around in fractions. This is a practice known as dilution or, more colorfully, the “leap smear.” Google Inc. used the method during past leap seconds and Amazon.com Inc. said it’s planning to add time to all 86,400 seconds of the day before the event so at midnight its systems will be caught up.
Trading Speeds
Hundreds, if not thousands, of firms around the world now trade everything from stocks to junk bonds to interest-rate derivatives electronically. The fastest of them has the ability to react in millionths of a second.To lessen any possible impact of the leap second, NYSE Arca Equities said evening trading will close five minutes early; Nasdaq will stop trading at 7:48 p.m. New York time and shut down at 7:55 p.m.; Intercontinental Exchange Inc. said it’s delaying all market transitions; CME Group Inc. said any data files submitted between five minutes before and after the leap second will be held for processing till five minutes after.
The extra second is coming amid a critical week for global investors, with Greece’s debt crisis worsening. June 30 is the day when the nation’s current bailout is set to expire and when a payment to the International Monetary Fund is due.
Futures exchanges in Australia, Singapore, South Korea and Japan will smear the leap second after the event, according to FIA. The Japanese stock exchange will smear the leap second over a period of two hours beforehand, so when the leap second comes just before the market opens, the exchange will be synchronized.
Adjust Software
“As systems continue to be more and more connected, it’s becoming harder and harder to predict just what the impact could be and how big,” said Hiroki Kawai, the head of trading systems at the Japan Exchange Group Inc.
In November, members of the International Telecommunication Union will meet like they do every three years and vote whether to retain the leap second.
If they get rid of it, time as measured by global positioning systems and Coordinated Universal Time will drift apart. That means that sometime a few million years from now, humans or their descendants will sleep till noon.
Moon Drag
In the meantime, the Paris-based International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service will keep track of the gradual slowing of the planet, caused in part by drag created by the Moon. Millions of years ago days were 22 hours long.“We need to stop having this fire drill every few years,” said Wood, who compared the leap second to Y2K, the anticipated computer catastrophes related to the calendar turning to 2000 from 1999, which were ultimately minor. At the very least, he said, “I’m in favor of it not occurring midweek.”
Many issues were caused by a bug in the Network Time Protocol used to
keep Linux system clocks in sync. The flaw caused NTP to lock up some
systems entirely, requiring a reboot before they could recover.
When the leap second comes around, it means the system clock sees an additional figure, like so:2011-12-31 23.59.57The second will be inserted into network time services at the exact same moment worldwide, on June 30 at 23:59:60 UTC.
2011-12-31 23.59.58
2011-12-31 23.59.59
2011-12-31 23.59.60 <– leap second
2012-01-01 00.00.00
2012-01-01 00.00.01
2012-01-01 00.00.02
This time around it’s critical that businesses are ready, with the leap second being added during a time when trading on stock markets is open.
Some businesses are ready for the leap second to be added, like Google and Amazon, which adjust server clocks gradually over a number of weeks so that it’s not a sudden change.
Others that rely on time-critical systems — like stock markets and utilities — are nervous about it going wrong. A single second of downtime for a stock market means up to $4.6 million could be lost.
Linux systems shouldn’t break tomorrow — the bug that affected them last time has since been resolved, along with other issues found in Java and other operating systems.
The leap second is mostly a headache for system administrators who need to ensure their services are highly available and need to plan how to handle the change. Hardware providers such as Cisco now provide detailed advice on how their hardware handles the leap second, but the side effects are unpredictable.
Leap seconds might not be around for much longer with the International Telecommunications Union planning to vote on a proposal to eliminate the leap second in November 2015.
Impending doom aside, you can enjoy your extra second tomorrow by burning it on John Oliver’s site that shows you a random one-second video.
ARTICLE SOURCES:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-28/with-61-seconds-in-a-minute-markets-brace-for-trouble
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/06/29/tuesday-has-one-extra-second-and-that-could-be-dangerous-for-the-internet/
No comments:
Post a Comment
Share your thoughts for unusual discoveries.
- GetStunned -