The problem with this article is that it implies software regularly uses human datetimes, or that programmers regularly write their own code to convert to and fro.
Programmers do not regularly write their own code to do so (and due to the hairy and brain numbing nature of it, plus that Java, Perl, Python, and Ruby all have good libraries to handle this anyways, no one wants to), and code almost always uses UNIX epoch time (number of seconds since the beginning of Jan 1st 1970 GMT) and does not observe leap seconds (as it is a linear progression of seconds, and does not have any concept of minutes or higher).
"And, more seriously, computer booking systems used by Qantas Airlines all struggled, delaying flights by hours .... Matsakis spoke of a Switzerland power company whose backup systems only turn on when needed—otherwise, they sit disconnected from the network. When they were activated in a test after the last leap second, they crashed."
Perhaps the fragility of these systems is more of a problem than the leap-second?
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[ 1.5 ms ] story [ 20.6 ms ] threadProgrammers do not regularly write their own code to do so (and due to the hairy and brain numbing nature of it, plus that Java, Perl, Python, and Ruby all have good libraries to handle this anyways, no one wants to), and code almost always uses UNIX epoch time (number of seconds since the beginning of Jan 1st 1970 GMT) and does not observe leap seconds (as it is a linear progression of seconds, and does not have any concept of minutes or higher).
Perhaps the fragility of these systems is more of a problem than the leap-second?