2017迎来闰秒：全球计算机陷入恐慌_BEC初级作文

2017迎来闰秒：全球计算机陷入恐慌

自从1972年引进闰秒这个概念以来，重置发生了25次，但是随着电脑（和原子钟同步）数量的增长，电脑的问题变得越来越严重。那些电脑和服务器随后连续显示相同的两秒钟——而引起了恐慌。

If a computer is told to do an operation at the time that is repeated, for instance, the computer is unsure what to do. Or if an email is received in that moment, it could find its way in the wrong bit of the server.

举个例子，如果一台电脑当时接到的操作命令操作重复了，电脑就不确定该怎么做了。或者如果那时收到了一封邮件，服务器就会发现报错了。

Last time, Google anticipated the problem and built a smart update, which it called “leap smear”. It modified its servers so that they would add a little bit of extra time every time they were updated, so that by the time of the leap second they were already caught up with the new time. It said when it laid out the plan in 2011 that it would use the same technique in the future, when new leap seconds are announced.

上一次，谷歌预料到了这个问题，并巧妙搭建了更新，称作“leap smear”。它更改服务器使得每回在更新时都会增加一点额外的时间，如此到闰秒的时候，他们已经赶上了新时间。它说当2011年出台了这个方案时，新闰秒到来之际的未来也能用到同样的技术。

Leap seconds were initially added at least once a year, but have slowed since 1979. The US wants to get rid of them entirely, arguing that they cause too much disruption, but others have opposed the change.