Time

July 30, 2004 10:37 PM

The exact time.
posted by semmi (17 comments total)

Likely a double post. This is from years ago.
posted by banished at 10:48 PM on July 30, 2004

I think this one's been here several times actually, but damned if I'll bother looking it up.
posted by jonson at 11:12 PM on July 30, 2004

double post be damned, I haven't seen it before, and I thought it was pretty cool. Thanks semmi.
posted by efalk at 11:39 PM on July 30, 2004

aint no exact time neither, since my system clock's all to fuck
posted by bonaldi at 12:28 AM on July 31, 2004

For the nonenlightened, Windows XP includes a way to sync your clock over the net (double click on the time)

For the Windows non-XP crowd, there's Atomic Clock Sync from worldtimeserver.com. Freeware, No spyware.
posted by ALongDecember at 12:33 AM on July 31, 2004

the actual website is here and it has neat stuff besides clocks.
posted by juv3nal at 1:45 AM on July 31, 2004

Bah. MacOS had time sync since somwhere in the late 90s. And Unix has had it since just about forever. Sad that MS couldn't get their crap together until XP. (ok, I know it could be done under 2k, but IIRC it was a relative PITA, involving a registry edit or something equally un-gui, which is sad for a GUI os)
posted by ehintz at 2:08 AM on July 31, 2004

damned if I'll bother looking it up.

Maybe this place needs to hire an archivist. Historically speaking, this was one of the first 5000 posts at MeFi, back at the end of 2000, courtesy of jkottke. Then Miguel double-posted it, about two and a half years ago. (You'd think that person's hand would be getting tired of writing out the time by now.)
posted by lelilo at 2:56 AM on July 31, 2004

Never seen it before. Thanks semmi:-)
posted by invisible ink at 3:04 AM on July 31, 2004

The National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U. S. Naval Observatory are busy timing their atoms as well. Plus, they were nice enough to include the parts of the US that believe that Daylight Saving Time is evil. Plus plus, Cecil Adams explains DST to the unbelievers.
posted by dakotadusk at 5:38 AM on July 31, 2004

Maybe this place needs to hire an archivist.

Lelilo, I nominate you.
posted by Busithoth at 6:14 AM on July 31, 2004

Double posts that go back more than a year are OK by me. I remember the clock from Miguel's post but I'd forgotten the other links in that thread -- and this has sort of churned them up again.
posted by coelecanth at 10:16 AM on July 31, 2004

It's not the same time as in Miguel's post.
posted by semmi at 5:30 PM on July 31, 2004

The one thing I've never understood about time servers is why bother using atomic clocks? the precision is not limited by the clock but by the latency uncertainty in the roundtrip time between you and the server. I guess 'atomic clock' sounds cool.
posted by vacapinta at 6:18 PM on July 31, 2004

"Goat clock" would also sound cool, but I'd question its accuracy.
posted by dakotadusk at 7:00 PM on July 31, 2004

Vacapinta: the Network Time Protocol accounts for the latency. That's why.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 10:34 PM on July 31, 2004

Lelilo, I nominate you.

Thanks for the thought, busithoth, but ”If nominated” . . . .
posted by lelilo at 2:28 PM on August 2, 2004