10....10...10...10...

[enteirah]

Random (Za would say pedantic >.>) thought, but how do you all decide when New Year actually is in this day and age (and going forward)? Traditionally people have used a live feed of Big Ben on the television as it counts down to midnight (unless you're at a central organised event where hopefully they have a properly synced up clock). This will always have been a second or so behind what is actually happening, due to the delays in the broadcast chain though.

With the enforced move to Digital Television, this adds in an extra 2-3 seconds of delay (the 'digital delay' as it's called). So the live feed of Big Ben you're watching could be up to 5 or 6 seconds out, and given that people watching it via Satellite will get different delays to those watching via digital terrestrial, who'll get a much longer delay than those watching analogue (or listening on FM). You could find your neighbours cheering when you're still in the middle of a countdown.

I might start listening to FM coverage, as it's probably the closest (which won't be switched off for Digital for another 10-20 years), but really how is one supposed to actually know when to celebrate these things anymore? =:P

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

How did one actually know before we had radio and TV at all? Using the church clock in the village!

Happy New Year, whenever you decide the big moment is :)

[enteirah]

Assuming the clock didn't break (like in the Simpsons.. 8...8...8...). I think the communal traditions still work, provided someone keeps the clocks in sync. If only there was some faster way to link them up so we could all see a snippet of each other hitting midnight at the exact same time. >.>

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

I'll be spending time in SL today, and seeing 2009 in multiple times. =:D

For precise time, though, just make sure you're all set up with NTP properly, and you'll be accurate to a high degree. ^_^ (Do GSM networks send out accurate time as well? I know my coal-fired Nokia used to require manually setting the time, but the iPhone just runs on telepathy)

[enteirah]

Yeah, I think having a computer synced to a timeserver is ultimately going to end up being the way forward. Just a shame we can't get an extravagent celebration from the computer too. =;)

[barberio.livejournal.com]

Technically, NTP doesn't handle leap-seconds, it just stops the clock when there is one, so you would have been a second early this year.

[tungro.livejournal.com]

NTP on a computer :)

[azron.livejournal.com]

I think the Radio 4 pips are probably a fairly reliable way - and don't forget there's a leap second at the end of this year too, just to make it even more fun :P

[enteirah]

Yeah, but they'll fall under the same problem once it's all DAB too. Unless they start playing out sounds 4 seconds early to compensate, though I'd imagine they'd probably just use the delay as an excuse to get rid of them altogether as was rumoured to have happened to clocks before the news.

[darac.livejournal.com]

Dial 123 and a nice woman will tell you the time (including, I believe, the additional leap-second). This is probably your best bet, short of generating it yourself based on NTP. There's very little delay on a phone line, certainly much less than a second.

Though, as people say, NTP will correct for even that miniscule delay. If you need to be really correct, get a good network connection, a few NTP sources and perhaps a GPS receiver. Then generate your own 1kHz pips from that.