Wednesday, November 05, 2014

'The beginning of the long dash' indicates 75 years of official time on CBC - Newfoundland & Labrador - CBC News

I didn't know that the CBC was involved in the telephone talking clock or the Network Time Protocol!

I used the telephone talking clock at least once a week before the advent of the internet.  Working in a round-the-clock shift worker household and with aviation's precision time-keeping, it was important to me that our household clocks reflected the "real time".

Then the internet replaced the phone calls to the NRC clock.  I always was mildly curious about who ran the internet clock.

It's taken me years of retirement to let go of my obsession keeping all the clocks in this rural home "on time".  I always expected our electricity to be somewhat less than perfect when we were living up north.  I was surprised, though I don't know why, to discover rural electricity "down south" can be just as variable.

Last weekend when the fall time change happened I realized how lax I've become.  The clocks from one end of the house were out by as much as 10 minutes from the other end!  I can imagine what it will be like when Himself retires as well.

With no one at work and no one in school, with the "farm time" beating in weeks and months, I imagine our non-computer clocks will suffer even more from lack of attention.

At least there's always the CBC radio on in the background of the craft room.  The hourly long dash keeping me at least peripherally aware of the passage of time.

'The beginning of the long dash' indicates 75 years of official time on CBC - Newfoundland & Labrador - CBC News: "The control room contains the systems used to disseminate official time to the public, including the telephone talking clock, the CBC daily time broadcasts, computer time clocks, and the internet servers for Network Time Protocol (NTP). (NRC)"

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