Wirt Atmar wrote

> People sometimes speak of despair and despondency when they speak of
> the HP3000 and its long-term future, but it might be worthy of note
> that there are at least two vendors on the HP3000 who have
> sufficient optimism and faith in the HP3000's future to stave off
> any real panic about dates until the beginning of the first
> decamillenium.
>

Ah, I think that we are already in the first decamillenium, and the
first hecto, and mega, etc. ad nauseum.  You mean perhaps, the
beginning of the SECOND decamillenium.

>  I thought about mentioning the leap second but wasn't sure enough
> of my explanation to put it in.  As I understand it, that is a bit
> of a different story and results actually from a slowing of the
> earth's travel through space, not to the year being a non-integer
> number of days long. Can anyone out ther confirm or deny that?

Ted Ashton ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

The leap second was needed due to the gradual slowing of the earth's
rotational velocity.  We needed it to put the day back in sync with
the UTC prime meridian.   The sun absolutely has to be at its
highest point in the sky for 0 degrees longitude every day at
exactly noon.  (Of course this means that the sideral second is
getting shorter which has interesting implications for time keeping
in general, even wih atomic clocks. But I digress...)

Regards, Jim

---
James B. Byrne                 mailto:[log in to unmask]
Harte & Lyne Limited           http://www.harte-lyne.ca
Hamilton, Ontario              905-561-1241