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Your PC!

The time-of-day display on your PC (from at least XP forward) will
synchronize with a "time server" at NIST or other places.

For a very long time the Internet has supported something called NTP
(Network Time Protocol).   It's a way for computers to get highly
accurate time across the Internet (including compensating for network
delays in doing the synchronization).   An accurate sense of time is
pretty important for any number of computer applications (imagine, for
example, that you deposit some money in your bank and then withdraw part
of it -- except that the clock on the computer that handles deposits is
off from the one that handles withdrawals, so it looks as if you're
withdrawing money before it's available in your account -- whoops!)

The time display on your computer automatically syncronizes to a server
you specify.  Best ones to use (for us in the USA at least) are the ones
run by NIST.   The toolbar clock in Vista includes a list of time
servers, pick a convenient one (I tend to use timeb.nist.gov, only
because it's last on the list and so I suspect few choose it).  And, oh,
I've had trouble with Microsoft's time server.

The biggest problem I've observed with "PC Time" is that Vista does not
allow you to choose how frequently to synchronize.  I believe it's on
the order of once only every two weeks.   My computer's clock gets
fairly far off between synchronizations, so if you're going to set a
watch or chronometer before taking sights (or going on a long voyage :-)
), be sure to do a "synchronize now"   I just did a synchronization and
my computer's clock is showing exactly the same time as my WWVB clock.

Sorry, Mac fans I'm not sure if a similar function exists on your
machines (but I rather suspect it does).



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