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[Zscoundrel]

On my Red Hat system, I selected Main Menu, System Settings, Date & Time 
and enabled network time protocol.  This causes the system to stay in 
sync with a time server. 

I have one of those atomic clock thingys that listen to the WWIV 
broadcast and the computer and the atomic clock always stay within a 
couple of seconds of each other all the time. 

Tim Reid wrote:

> Richard A. Franklin wrote:
>
>> Jonathan Hutchins wrote:
>>
>>> On Tuesday 18 November 2003 08:09 am, Dave Hull wrote:
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>> Why are computer clocks so good at gaining/losing time?
>>>>   
>>>
>>>
>>> There's gotta be a FAQ on that somewhere, but basically it's because 
>>> they were never designed to keep absolute time, just "relative" 
>>> time.  They provide the metronome beat that the system runs by and 
>>> make it possible to tell a "new" file from an "older" file.  The 
>>> original P's didn't even store time when you shut them off, you had 
>>> to set it at each startup.  There were piggyback chips you could put 
>>> over the BIOS that had an internal clock and battery, and that's 
>>> when people started expecting their PC to know what time it really was.
>>>  
>>>
>> http://www.linux.se/doc/HOWTO/mini/Clock-1.html
>>
>> The info on this page seemed relevant.
>
>
>
> IIRC ( I can't find the webpage).  I read something about the 
> processor clock drifting because of the various different timings 
> needed for different tasks.  Then, when the computer halts, most OS's 
> sync the BIOS clock to the processor clock.  Then the BIOS time is 
> off.  Have you noticed that a computer that is up 24/7 without time 
> correction has usually drifted much further than a computer that is 
> usually down/off most of the time?  This is my experiance with PC's 
> anyway.  The place where I work uses a DOS based system to keep track 
> of employee shifts, and I've been a few minutes late because the 
> system is sometimes as much as 10 minutes fast.
>
>
>
>
>

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