Time Keeps on Slippin' Into the Future

June 6, 2007 1:50 AM

Polar Clock Time and Date in a nifty roundabout of time.
posted by dhammond (31 comments total)

This is almost as bad as those Tokyo Flash watches.
posted by public at 1:52 AM on June 6, 2007

(By which I mean fairly cool looking but totally impractical.)
posted by public at 1:52 AM on June 6, 2007

Oh, oh.
posted by strawberryviagra at 1:56 AM on June 6, 2007

Why no year?
posted by mexican at 1:57 AM on June 6, 2007

Why no year? Because it'd have no point at which it should loop around at (unless you're Mayan or something).

Not a fan of having the day of the week at the outside. Seems to me it should work inwards as the period gets smaller, putting day of the week inside the day of the month.
posted by edd at 2:04 AM on June 6, 2007

The day of the week is on the outside because none of the other values depend on it, at lease not the way the other values depend on each other. Putting it somewhere in the middle doesn't really make sense because nothing else advances based on the completion of a week. For that reason, I'd like the see the week move counter clockwise. Who can make this happen for me?

I think the clock is cool
posted by mexican at 2:31 AM on June 6, 2007

I found a downloadable one here. It's called "RingClock.swf"
posted by redteam at 2:58 AM on June 6, 2007

interesting...but to find further fault, 'cuz we do that sometimes, the second hand defaults to showing about 10 seconds when it starts, in order to show the text, I'm betting the other hands do the same... sort of ruins the effect of starting from 0.
posted by HuronBob at 3:25 AM on June 6, 2007

"The day of the week is on the outside because none of the other values depend on it, at lease not the way the other values depend on each other."

I'm pretty sure it's where it is because it's meant to be read outside-in. "Wednesday, June 6th at 7 hours, 4 minutes, 43 seconds."
posted by Eideteker at 4:04 AM on June 6, 2007

Well yes, that's what I expected Eideteker. But I still don't like it (but then I think Americans are mad for using mm/dd/yy instead of dd/mm/yy or yyyy-mm-dd).
posted by edd at 4:28 AM on June 6, 2007

I'm pretty sure it's where it is because it's meant to be read outside-in.

Oh, is it meant to be read? Why are all the words upside down?

(The labels should be at the beginning of the arcs.)
posted by pracowity at 4:29 AM on June 6, 2007

I like the timeline one at redteam's link better.
posted by MtDewd at 5:02 AM on June 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

I think Americans are mad for using mm/dd/yy instead of dd/mm/yy or yyyy-mm-dd,

Hey, not all of us do that. I prefer to go biggest-to-smallest with dates (today is 070606) or smallest-biggest (6 June 2007), since they make more sense. The biggest-to-smallest grew out of my annoyance with computer directory ordering - July should not come before June and so I naturally changed it to 06 and 07. From there, you can see how I got there. Everything I mark with a date since then has a YYMMDD.HHMM timestamp I've provided.

Don't paint us all with the same brush, maaaan!
posted by grubi at 5:27 AM on June 6, 2007

Cool. Good find. Good post.
posted by MarshallPoe at 5:29 AM on June 6, 2007

I'm an American and I vastly prefer yyyy-mm-dd to anything else. It eliminates ambiguity and it sorts properly. You can even tell Windows to use it instead of the stupid default.
posted by Rhomboid at 5:56 AM on June 6, 2007

I just permit Windows to install DRM software every hour on the hour. Works for me.
posted by dreamsign at 6:10 AM on June 6, 2007

Don't forget the Industorious Clock.
posted by seymour.skinner at 6:46 AM on June 6, 2007

Heh. I was wondering if the thread would devolve/evolve into a list of everybody's favorite online clock. You picked mine, seymour.skinner.
posted by dreamsign at 6:50 AM on June 6, 2007

I agree with grubi's biggest to smallest.
Jan 12, 2007 is 120701 since 12 is bigger than 07 which is bigger than 01. Same with July 1, 2012.
posted by MtDewd at 6:57 AM on June 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

Block Clock
posted by MtDewd at 7:01 AM on June 6, 2007

Holy, that's awesome, MtDewd. I just tried using the Industrious Clock as a desktop but it's really too bland and white for that, and too small windowed in a corner. Will have to try the block clock. Thanks!
posted by dreamsign at 7:10 AM on June 6, 2007

Screensaver version is here.
posted by avoision at 7:54 AM on June 6, 2007

Oooh yeah, and the Block Clock screensaver is here.
posted by dreamsign at 8:04 AM on June 6, 2007

Argh. Winsite no longer has the file, and many other search hits simply point to that download page. Found a working copy here, though.
posted by dreamsign at 8:10 AM on June 6, 2007

On Digg this was titled as: "THE EASIEST CLOCK TO READ EVAR!!!1!1!!!1"

Because we all spend so much time each day struggling to read a clock with only two hands, surely the answer is a clock with 6 'hands' and upside down lettering!! Thank you Digg!!

This message brought to you by Digg: reposting stories from the dawn of the internet and polluting countless roundup sites with idiotic crossposts since 2005!
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:49 AM on June 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

the posting subject's clock is interesting.
the first thing I thought of was the interface for Ableton's Live software. And I mean that as a compliment.

the other clocks linked are also very cool.
I'm gathering some screensavers right now.

thanks!
posted by I, Credulous at 8:55 AM on June 6, 2007

alas, either the screensaver links are dead or they're blocked by work. I'm destined to go through life without any of these kickass clock screensavers. (I love the block one... and the industrious one... is there a timeline one? screensaver I mean?)
posted by indiebass at 9:12 AM on June 6, 2007

the timeline is part of this package of screensavers (some of which are also linked above)

http://www.download.com/AJScreensaver/3000-2387_4-10460413.html?tag=lst-1-3

hth,
posted by I, Credulous at 9:33 AM on June 6, 2007

Then there is the Billy Chasen Clock.
posted by Rashomon at 11:16 AM on June 6, 2007

Thanks, I CREDULOUS! I don't get the block one, but I get the handwritten one and the bar one. awes.
posted by indiebass at 2:17 PM on June 6, 2007

Heh, "Block Clocking"
posted by redteam at 12:04 AM on June 7, 2007