Jan 2, 2009
SingNet service disrupted
By Serene Luo
Though SingTel did not give more details on the reason for the disruption, one user from technology forum Hardwarezone said he was told a circuit server had gone down. -- ST PHOTO: ALBERT SIM
MANY users at home and in the office were left without Internet access for about an hour on Friday as SingTel's fixed line broadband service went down.
Customers reported that their Internet outage had started as early as 12.25pm, with the problem reaching many corners islandwide.
The problem has since been 'resolved', a SingTel spokesman said at 4.15pm on Friday.
There was 'intermittent disruption for less than an hour', she said.
'We would like to apologise to affected customers for the inconvenience caused.'
Though SingTel did not give more details on the reason for the disruption, one user from technology forum Hardwarezone said he was told a circuit server had gone down.
Another affected user, Mr G. Ganesh, 24, who owns his own web design and video conversion business, told The Straits Times that a SingTel customer service officer had told him the outage might have been caused by lightning or thunder.
'Luckily the outage was during lunchtime, and so my business was not really affected,' he said.
Another affected user, who declined to be named, said he kept getting an engaged tone when calling SingTel for help.
He had this suggestion for future disruptions: 'They could at least put up a voice recording message on their hotline, telling us that the connection is down, instead of letting us just hear an engaged tone.'
- wong chee tat :)
Friday, January 2, 2009
New Year on hold: leap second makes time stand still
New Year on hold: leap second makes time stand still
December 29th, 2008
The world's official timekeeper has decided to prolong the year -- by one full second, to be precise.
Eager to see the back end of 2008? Be forewarned: the world's official timekeeper has decided to prolong the year -- by one full second, to be precise.
Which means a Champagne-soaked countdown to 2009 something like this: "...THREE, TWO, ONE-AND-A-HALF, ONE... Happy New Year!"
The extra second was mandated by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) in Paris, and is not to be taken lightly.
Satellites that orbit at speeds calculated in kilometres (miles) per second, the Internet, global positioning systems -- all depend on knowing exactly what time it is.
IERS head Daniel Gambis announced the time-stretching measure in July in a letter addressed to "authorities responsible for the measurement and distribution of time".
That would be the white-robed guardians of the 200-odd ultra-accurate atomic clocks scattered in national time temples around the globe.
"The last adjustment dates to 2005, and the next could happen in 2012 or 2013," Gambis told AFP.
Leap days occur once every four years because it takes 365 days plus six hours for our planet to complete an orbit around the Sun.
But leap seconds are added strictly on a case-by-case basis, depending on need. This year's will be the 24th bonus second since the practice was initiated in 1972.
The sleight-of-clock is necessary to reconcile two different time scales.
One is established by the atomic time pieces, which are accurate to billionth of a second per day.
The other is based on Earth's imperfect rotation on its own axis.
The two get out of sync because the planet's spin is affected by a host of slightly fluctuating variables, including solar and lunar gravity, the movement of the tides, solar wind, space dust and magnetic storms.
Even global warming has gotten into the act because melting ice caps have an impact too.
And so, at exactly 23:59:59 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) -- or Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), to the scientifically literate -- on December 31, the world's clocks will add a beat to their metronomic tick tick tock.
© 2008 AFP
Sorry for posting this late.
Okay, Happy New Year to all !
Wish everyone all the best in 2009!
- wong chee tat :)
December 29th, 2008
The world's official timekeeper has decided to prolong the year -- by one full second, to be precise.
Eager to see the back end of 2008? Be forewarned: the world's official timekeeper has decided to prolong the year -- by one full second, to be precise.
Which means a Champagne-soaked countdown to 2009 something like this: "...THREE, TWO, ONE-AND-A-HALF, ONE... Happy New Year!"
The extra second was mandated by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) in Paris, and is not to be taken lightly.
Satellites that orbit at speeds calculated in kilometres (miles) per second, the Internet, global positioning systems -- all depend on knowing exactly what time it is.
IERS head Daniel Gambis announced the time-stretching measure in July in a letter addressed to "authorities responsible for the measurement and distribution of time".
That would be the white-robed guardians of the 200-odd ultra-accurate atomic clocks scattered in national time temples around the globe.
"The last adjustment dates to 2005, and the next could happen in 2012 or 2013," Gambis told AFP.
Leap days occur once every four years because it takes 365 days plus six hours for our planet to complete an orbit around the Sun.
But leap seconds are added strictly on a case-by-case basis, depending on need. This year's will be the 24th bonus second since the practice was initiated in 1972.
The sleight-of-clock is necessary to reconcile two different time scales.
One is established by the atomic time pieces, which are accurate to billionth of a second per day.
The other is based on Earth's imperfect rotation on its own axis.
The two get out of sync because the planet's spin is affected by a host of slightly fluctuating variables, including solar and lunar gravity, the movement of the tides, solar wind, space dust and magnetic storms.
Even global warming has gotten into the act because melting ice caps have an impact too.
And so, at exactly 23:59:59 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) -- or Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), to the scientifically literate -- on December 31, the world's clocks will add a beat to their metronomic tick tick tock.
© 2008 AFP
Sorry for posting this late.
Okay, Happy New Year to all !
Wish everyone all the best in 2009!
- wong chee tat :)
Joke
There was a party for mathematical functions. The function exp(x) or e^x was stood alone by the wall looking miserable.
A well-wisher walks over:
Well-wisher: It's no good being so shy. You need to integrate.
exp: It wouldn't make any difference.
Can you think of any other functions that is the same as exp?
- wong chee tat :)
A well-wisher walks over:
Well-wisher: It's no good being so shy. You need to integrate.
exp: It wouldn't make any difference.
Can you think of any other functions that is the same as exp?
- wong chee tat :)
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