迎來閏秒：全球計算機陷入恐慌
The year 2015 will have an extra second — which could wreak havoc on the infrastructure powering the internet.
2015年將會多一秒鐘——這會對網絡基礎設施造成嚴重破壞。
At 11.59 on June 30, clocks will count up all the way to 60 seconds. That will allow the Earth’s spin to catch up with atomic time.
6月30日11點59分，時鐘會一直走到60秒，那會使得地球自轉趕上原子時間。
The Earth’s spin is gradually slowing down, by about two thousandths of a second per day, but atomic clocks are constant. That means that occasionally years have to be lengthened slightly, to allow the slowing Earth to catch up with the constant clock.
地球自轉逐步減速，每天減少2/1000秒，但是原子鐘是不變的。那意味着偶爾有年份會稍稍長一些，來減緩地球趕上恆速計時器。
But last time it happened, in 2012, it took down much of the internet. Reddit, Foursquare, Yelp and LinkedIn all reported problems, and so did the Linux operating system and programmes using Java.
但是上一次閏秒是發生在2012年，衝擊了一大片互聯網。Reddit，Foursquare，Yelp還有LinkedIn（領英），還有Linux操作系統和使用Java的程序都報錯了。
The reset has happened 25 times since they were introduced in 1972, but the computer problems are getting more serious as increasing numbers of computers sync up with atomic clocks. Those computers and servers are then shown the same second twice in a row — throwing them into a panic.
自從1972年引進閏秒這個概念以來，重置發生了25次，但是隨着電腦（和原子鐘同步）數量的增長，電腦的問題變得越來越嚴重。那些電腦和服務器隨後連續顯示相同的兩秒鐘——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.
舉個例子，如果一臺電腦當時接到的操作命令操作重複了，電腦就不確定該怎麼做了。或者如果那時收到了一封郵件，服務器就會發現報錯了。
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，谷歌預料到了這個問題，並巧妙搭建了更新，稱作“leap smear”。它更改服務器使得每回在更新時都會增加一點額外的時間，如此到閏秒的時候，他們已經趕上了新時間。它說當2011年出臺了這個方案時，新閏秒到來之際的未來也能用到同樣的技術。
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.
閏秒起先一年至少增加一次，但是自從1979年來就放慢了。美國希望徹徹底底擺脫它們，並聲稱它們引起了太多破壞，但是其他人反對此改變。
Britain, for example, has said that the leap second should stay. Getting rid of it would mean the end of Greenwich Mean Time, which is measured by the sun and would no longer be accurate.
舉個例子，英國就表示閏秒應該保留。擺脫了閏秒就意味着由太陽測出的格林威治標準時間的消亡，GMT也不再精準了。
