From: pvs9@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de (Praktikum Verteilte Systeme)
Subject: Re: Binary clock for X Windows.
Reply-To: pvs9@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de (Praktikum Verteilte Systeme)
Organization: TU Braunschweig, Informatik (Bueltenweg), Germany
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 12:36:55 GMT

In article <BzrKA8.77I@NeoSoft.com> peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>In article <1992Dec23.170810.24300@src.honeywell.com> englehar@src.honeywell.com (Matt Englehart) writes:
>> In article <TPAQUETTE.92Dec23093654@gumby.ita.lgc.com> tpaquette@ita.lgc.com (Trevor Paquette) writes:
>> >In article 9806@aio.jsc.nasa.gov, mccoy@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (Daniel J. McCoy) writes:
>> >>bill@solaria (Bill Neisius) writes:
>> >>|>Douglas W O'Neal (doug@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu) wrote:
>> >>|>:norm@bnr.ca writes:
>> >>|>:->bret@muppet.bt.co.uk (Bret Giddings) writes:
>> >>|>:->|> What! another clock for wimps. I use a real clock, one that displays the number
>> >>|>:->|> of seconds since Jan 1st 1970.
>> >>|>:->This is starting to sound like the "We were *so* poor..." skit from Monty
>> >>|>:->Python.  BTW, (let's see what I can come up with), *I* use the number of seconds
>> >>|>:->since Jan 1, 1970 but in Greenwich Mean Time :-)
>> >>|>:*I* use the number of seconds since Nov 17, 1858.  (I can't help it, I was
>> >>|>:raised on VMS and UN*X time doesn't come naturally to me.)
>> >>|>Oh yeah? MY clock counts from January 1, 4713 B.C. (start of the 
>> >>|>astronomical Julian calendar)
>> >>>OH YEAH???  My clock counts seconds backwards from Star Date 938943.1299,
>> >>>the second coming of Jesus.
>> >> Pah! Child's play.  *My* clock sends pulses direct to a composite screen on my
>> >>retina via electrodes crimped into my skull which receive sync from a transmitter
>> >>on my Moulinex food processor.
>> >  HA! My clock actually displays the current astronomical sky and I have to 
>> > figure out the time from the star patterns and placements!
>> 
>> HA! My clock actually displays the current astronomical sky from a random
>> location in the galaxy, and I have to figure out the time from the star
>> patterns and placements!
>
>Well, I started to make a clock from one of those "build a working paper
>clock" books, but I got carried away. It's now a complete working paper
>Analytical Engine, and I run an 80386 simulator on that. I'm booting 386BSD
>now, and in a couple of years when it comes up I'll have Xclock running.
>I don't think it's going to keep very good time, though... I keep getting
>silo overflows reading WWV at 110 baud. I guess I'll need to build a paper
>16550 to fix that.
>
>Which Xclock should I use?
>-- 
>Peter da Silva.  <peter@sugar.neosoft.com>.

       [.sig deleted]

Say, are you kidding, or did you just pop out of a time machine from a far
distant past ?  Wake up, we have 1993 now and the newest development in 
computer science is :  BACK TO NATURE !  Scrap all the artificial hardware,
no matter what materials built of.  I am running Mach in my head !  It was a
nasty hard job to figure out the human brain's machine code, but now the
system works !  No need any more for a clumsy paper Analytical Engine !
To get back to the clock issue :  I use a self-written Xclock which receives
the time signals from the reference atomic clock at PTB, Braunschweig and 
subtracts the running time of the signals to get the time right.  For this
purpose, it measures the distance between me and the PTB clock telepathically.
But I regret this program is probably too large to be run on a paper Analytical
Engine with a 80386 simulator running, and according to what you write your
machine is too slow anyway.  Poor Peter.

May Elbereth protect you...... Joerg Rhiemeier.

(Note : PTB = Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt.  This is a federal
institution, which is, among other stuff, in charge of the time standard in
Germany.)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers