My phones, watch, mp3 player, wall clocks and bedside alarm clock all keep near perfect time (+-1 minute a month) with little or no brain. Computers, with their comparatively limitless power seem unable to maintain anything even vaguely resembling accurate time without connecting to an atomic clock on a daily basis (It's not uncommon for my desktop PC to lose 10 minutes when left switched on overnight). Why are computers so bad at keeping time, and why does no-one improve them?
posted by twine42 on Aug 6, 2008 - 17 answers