Free Clock Democratizes Atomic Accuracy 178
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the free-time dept.
from the free-time dept.
schliz writes "A new, trial network of software-based clocks could give data centers and networks the accuracy of an atomic clock for free. The so-called RADclock analyses information from multiple computers across the internet by collecting the time from each machine's internal quartz clock, the time it takes for this information to be transmitted across the network, and comparing all the information collected to determine a time that is most likely to be accurate, so machines are calibrated across the network with up to microsecond accuracy — as good as that provided by a $50,000 atomic clock, researchers say."
Most probable time... (Score:5, Funny)
I can imagine the speaking clock:
"At the third stroke, it will be, most likely, sixish"
Favorite Quote (Score:4, Funny)
One of my favorite quotes relates to this;
Credit goes to Mark Twain (IIRC).
"When you have a watch/clock you always know what time it is. When you have 2 you are never quite sure."
Re:What about the other scientists? (Score:3, Funny)
You know what they say. When life gives you unclaimed nuclear material, you get busy creating superheroes.
Re:Uhmmmm (Score:5, Funny)
This reminds me of an old joke about a retired Admiral who is responsible for sounding the morning cannon at the naval base, walking past a watchmaker's shop every morning and setting his pocketwatch to the correct time from a reliable old grandfather clock in the store window.
One day, on the walk in, he happens to see the watchmaker cleaning the store windows and mentions how he finds it amazing that the old grandfather clock keeps such flawless time.
"Oh, that old thing?" says the watchmaker. "It drifts horribly, and I have to reset it almost daily."
The Admiral then asks, "Since I've always noticed that it's reliable, from where do you get the time to set it?"
The watchmaker replied, "I use the report from the morning cannon at the naval base. It's always right on time."
Re:First post (Score:3, Funny)
That reminds me, just where exactly did you get that sarcasm detector?
Re:A new low in editorial savvy (Score:3, Funny)
Damn 2 years?? I suspect the time is somewhere between 2009 and 2011...
Re:A solution in need of a problem? (Score:4, Funny)
You probably missed the point that the project is based in Australia. NTP doesn't work down there, because the Coriolis effect makes Australian clocks turn the opposite way of clocks in the Northern Hemisphere, just like their toilets swirl the other direction. This creates a problem, since many distros have NTP enabled by default, which causes the system clock to run backwards on Australian computers - really makes a mess of the logs, screensavers activate an hour before the computer is turned on, all sorts of odd things. If you start looking at the RADclock code, you'll find that it's surprisingly simple and elegant - they simply reverse the byte order of the NTP messages, and - voila! - their clocks can now run forwards while remaining synchronized.
This explanation brought to you by a six-pack of Fosters.