An Enormous Waste of Time

July 13, 2013 2:19 PM

Clocks By Time: for when you absolutely, positively need to find multiple photos of clocks from around the world displaying every conceivable time.

And from the talk page:

"Err... And what is the use of all these categories? It only seems to be an enormous waste of time..."
Gertjan R. (talk) 08:38, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

posted by showbiz_liz (18 comments total)

It's 5:23 where I am right now...
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:22 PM on July 13, 2013

1431 here...
posted by Canageek at 2:31 PM on July 13, 2013

Surely there must be an app for this? One that chooses an appropriate photo at random to display the current time every time you open it?
posted by jacquilynne at 2:31 PM on July 13, 2013 [8 favorites]

HOUR: ELITE

23:36
posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:35 PM on July 13, 2013

Bet Christian Marclay's assistants wish they'd had this for video.
posted by nathancaswell at 2:51 PM on July 13, 2013 [3 favorites]

Surely there must be an app for this? One that chooses an appropriate photo at random to display the current time every time you open it?

It'd be very easy to write a web app that does not just this, but maintains the correct time as you leave it running. Formatting for handhelds and tablets as well is just a detail.

I'd be sort of amazed if it hasn't been done already, but finding a suitable set of search terms that are not hopelessly generic is eluding me.
posted by George_Spiggott at 3:26 PM on July 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

Surely there must be an app for this? One that chooses an appropriate photo at random to display the current time every time you open it?

I used to use a Chumby widget called clockr that would display the time by using randomly selected images from flickr's onedigit group, fetching data with the flickr api. A variant that used these would be cool.

The only problem is that many of the images are big tower clocks, seen from a distance. It would be hard to easily see the actual time from many of them.
posted by zachlipton at 3:26 PM on July 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

If this part of the internet were a tangible thing I would be taking it to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
posted by kiltedtaco at 3:30 PM on July 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

10:10 is the standard setting for watches and clocks in advertisements.
posted by stbalbach at 4:13 PM on July 13, 2013

Most of these photos are right twice a day; some, once.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 4:32 PM on July 13, 2013

I bet I know what radio station the author of this collection listens to.
posted by tservo at 4:39 PM on July 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

This could be really useful for creating codes or puzzles.
posted by painquale at 4:52 PM on July 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

It's 11:59, and I want to stay alive...
posted by trip and a half at 5:25 PM on July 13, 2013 [3 favorites]

Also of note on Wiki Commons, Sundials without Sun and Clocks with undefined time, or as I like to call it, "Ain't nobody got time for dat".

I'll show myself out.
posted by a halcyon day at 5:37 PM on July 13, 2013

It's always 4:20 in my house.
posted by Monkeymoo at 5:45 PM on July 13, 2013

It's 11:59, and I want to stay alive...

I didn't realize Pac Man was based on a historical reference.
posted by tservo at 5:45 PM on July 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

Surely there must be an app for this? One that chooses an appropriate photo at random to display the current time every time you open it?

Here's one (save it as HTML and then open it).
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 11:53 PM on July 13, 2013 [6 favorites]

Did you write that just for this thread? Because that's kind of awesome if you did.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:00 AM on July 14, 2013