What is the Correct Time? The Development of Time Scales From GMT to UTC and NTP Servers

Asking somebody the time may be one of today's most common questions but have you ever wondered where the time on our watches comes from?

Accurate clocks have only been around since the mid 17th century, before then, time was completely subjective. People The Dark Knight Curse use the celestial bodies as a time reference such as noon (when the sun was highest) and midnight (when the moon is at its highest) and also dawn and dusk. Often lengths of time were referred to in comparison such as the time it would take a man to walk a mile.

Standard timescales did not exist until the 1840's when it became necessary during the height of the railway's popularity when a railway standard time for all England, Wales and Scotland replaced all the local timescales.

A few years later the Royal Observatory in Greenwich developed its own time scale. This was based on the sun and moon, with 12 o'clock (noon) being when the sun was over the Greenwich Meridian, they began transmitting this timescale using the telegraph and by 1855 most of Britain used GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and it soon became a recognized time reference throughout the world.

However, it became apparent with the invention of atomic clocks that basing a time reference on the movement of the Earth was not accurate enough. In 1967 the second was defined by the oscillations of the caesium -133 atom (as used in atomic clocks) and provided the most accurate reference for time yet but attempts to couple GMT with this new definition proved unsatisfactory when it was discovered that the Earth slows (and speeds up) on its axis.

This variations in the rotation of the Earth meant a new timescale UTC, (Coordinated Universal Time) which made adjustments for this slowing adding (or subtracting) a second when ever necessary (failure to do so would mean eventually day would become night as time would slip, albeit in many millennia). This addition is known as a Leap Second.

UTC has become vital in allowing the global community to communicate with each other. UTC allows the world to synchronise to one time scale regardless of the time zone (UTC handles timezones with a + or minus such as UTC +5 or UTC -2)

UTC enables computers to synchronise together all over the world using NTP (Network Time Protocol). Without NTP it would be impossible to conduct time sensitive transactions such as buying an airline ticket or bidding on eBay.

Most NTP time servers receive UTC time atomic clocks from either a broadcasted signal from a large physics laboratory or via the GPS network.

Richard N Williams is a technical author and a specialist in the telecommunications and network time synchronisation industry helping to develop dedicated time server products. Please visit us for more information about a galsys.co.uk/ntp-gps-windows-2000.htmGPS time server or other galsys.co.uk/categories/ntp-server.htmNTP server products.

Confidence - Having it Makes All the Difference!

Confidence is a powerful word...

Confidence is faith in your own ability... and confidence can Banana Splits whether or not you will succeed in achieving your goal.

One of the major stumbling blocks Matthew Hopkins achieving your goal, living your dream, doing anything you want to do in your life... is a lack of confidence!

When people have confidence, they consistently take action and make necessary changes, they get results and achieve their goals.

When people lack confidence, however, they get stuck and they remain stuck. They may have the same ability and skills as a person with confidence, but because they lack confidence they don't easily take action towards their goals.

Having confidence is essential to achieving your goals and living your dreams.

You may have the knowledge and skills to do something, you may have all your goals and action steps written out, you may have everything in place to go ahead and achieve your goal... live your dream... start doing the things that you want to do in your life.

You may have everything right ready to put into action... but without confidence, without confidence in your ability to do this and to achieve it... you won't get very far.

People who lack confidence typically:

-- are very shy

-- have difficulties relating to other people

-- have difficulties in communicating with people they don't know very well

-- rely on alcohol to give them "dutch courage" to do something

-- don't get very far in their career

-- don't take many risks

-- settle for the sameness rather than different experiences

I don't know about you, but Poppedout have a problem with my confidence. I know I lack confidence in some areas of my life... and it is in these areas I'm not achieving the kind of results I would like. I'm a whole lot better than I used to be when I was younger... but I know I have quite a way to go yet before I have a strong confidence in me.

Lacking confidence now in your life, doesn't mean that you will always lack confidence. Your confidence is something you can work on. You can learn techniques that will not only develop your confidence but strengthen it... and when your confidence is strengthened, you begin to achieve more in your life. You can confidently go for opportunities that come your way... and not only go for them, but enjoy them and achieve them.

Jeanne May of aspirationsplus.com/Aspirations Plus, works with spiritually minded people providing them information, inspiration, guidance and support to achieve their dreams and goals.

Could your confidence do with a boost? I invite you to learn easy to use techniques to develop and strengthen your confidence in all areas of your life by going to confidencepower.comconfidencepower.com