Decimal time - a correct proposal (Was Ada Doc .... )

[davidm@rational.com (David Moore)]

R_Tim_Coslet@cup.portal.com writes:

>>And Mats, if metric units are so wonderful, how come there are still
>>60 minutes in an hour, even in Germany? I guess it's pretty hard to
>>really bury those Babalonians!

>Maybe we should be using Kilo-seconds... lets see, 86.4 Ks per day...

>Or would milli-days be an easier unit :-)

>                                        R. Tim Coslet

Lets get real here. A rational system of measurement of time would be
planet independent.

1 New Sec = 0.126 old sec (approx)
1 New Day = 1 Megasecond  =  1.46 old days (approx)
1 New Year= 1 Gigasecond. =  4 old years (ie 1461 old days)

Look at the advantages of this new system:

i) No need for time zones. Once the anachronism of relating time to
the position of the sun is eliminated, there is no need for different
times in different places. Modern watches are much better time-keepers
than the solar position in any case, so this relationship is obsolete.

No more missing someone on the East coast because they have left already
or being woken up in the middle of the night because they are at work
and their compiler won't run.

No more jet lag. (although turbines will now need around 48 sec to spool up)

ii) No need for leap years.  

iii) We can all feel a lot younger. 40 will be really really old.
     Drinking, driving and smoking will vanish almost over-(new)-night.

Given the huge number of old programs that cannot handle the century
roll-over, we should start working to get this introduced now - we can
then relax as we will have another 75 or so new years (300 old years)
before we have to fix our software.

Many of the un-enlightened, whose intellect has never been sharpened
by writing software, although they may be able to get sentences to 
agree in number, will undoubtably oppose this fine new initiative,
despite its clearcut advantages over the archaic system currently
in use, so the sooner we start lobbying the better. 

Politicians, I am sure, will immediately grasp the advantages of 
this new system, especially at a time when term limits have become 
so popular.