[ntp:questions] Re: ntp client over satellite and no CMOS battery

David L. Mills mills at udel.edu
Fri Oct 7 05:03:09 UTC 2005


Danny,

Thrupence, I hadn't heard that for 33 years when I was a young lecturer 
at the University of Edinburgh. That was a really enjoyable experience 
for a young postdoc. Now everything is decimal.

Dave

Danny Mayer wrote:

> David L. Mills wrote:
>
>> Tim,
>> A good deal of quality design time went into the statistical analysis 
>> of errors and the manner in which statistics are presented to the 
>> application, in this case via ntp_gettime(). You don't want to know 
>> anything other than the carefully maintained maximum error and 
>> estimated error statistics. Neither the stratum of the server nor the 
>> poll interval nor the precision nor any other statistic is necessary 
>> to evaluate the quality of time. The maximum error and estimated 
>> error already take those factors into account. You really don't want 
>> to second guess what the server is doing, just that it and the local 
>> client are providing dependable statistics.
>>
>> As I said in my last, your clock is Big Ben and NTP is manipulating 
>> the number of farthings, h'apennies, pence, shillings, pounds and 
>> guineas on the pendulum. [Gawd, after 33 years since decimalization, 
>> I'm not sure I remember how to spell all that coinage.]
>>
>> Dave
>>
>
> You did forget the threepence, half-crowns, crowns, and florins, all 
> of which I have in my collection.
>
> I seems to remember reading somewhere that Big Ben actually uses NTP 
> to stay accurate.
>
> Danny





More information about the questions mailing list