Author Topic: I think we knew this...  (Read 16784 times)

Basil

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Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #25 on: 26 April, 2018, 12:14:35 pm »
Kids tell me the time much more accurately than I am used to.  In this house we still use the "Nearly ten to" "just gone 5 past" convention.

I'm sure I remember my parents saying "5 and 20 to".  Which would sound very odd today.
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Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #26 on: 26 April, 2018, 12:45:35 pm »
I run a dual display watch, if I want to know the approximate time I glance at the analogue face and know which quarter of the hour it is. If I need to know if I have enough time to get to the station for the train then I will read the digital display.

Kim

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Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #27 on: 26 April, 2018, 12:56:12 pm »
At some point in my fairly long history of using Linux on the desktop, I had a toolbar clock app with configurable precision.  You could do normal things like "12:54:23" or "12:54pm", or as you turned the precision down it would go through "five to one" "one o'clock" "lunchtime" "afternoon" and "Thursday".  Silly but fun.

Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #28 on: 26 April, 2018, 12:57:16 pm »
These days the main advantage of analogue clocks to me is that I can read them without my glasses on.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

T42

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Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #29 on: 26 April, 2018, 01:10:48 pm »
And you can read someone else's watch upside down from halfway cross the room.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

hellymedic

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Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #30 on: 26 April, 2018, 02:19:56 pm »
These days the main advantage of analogue clocks to me is that I can read them without my glasses on.

Certainly true for the bedroom wall clock, which is  the only thing at which I glance without my spex.

Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #31 on: 27 April, 2018, 09:38:03 am »

I'm sure I remember my parents saying "5 and 20 to".  Which would sound very odd today.

My late mother was Welsh and she told the time in that manner.
[/quote]

My Grandma did, and I've been known to without thinking (she lived with us so I learned her habits). I once said it to my American boss who nearly fell over laughing at something so antiquated. I hadn't thought about it until then.
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Mr Larrington

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Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #32 on: 27 April, 2018, 12:57:31 pm »
Spare a thought for BRITONS in Germany, where "half two" is half past one.
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Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #33 on: 27 April, 2018, 01:31:12 pm »
I don't think I would be able to check a pulse with a digital watch.

I don't know what younger medics do.

Wall clocks with sweep second hands were good...

I swipe across the screen on my apple watch to temporarily turn it into an analogue clock face  ;D
Also sometimes use a nurses fob watch that I only ever look at the second hand on, not for telling the time. Its not even set to the right time.

T42

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Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #34 on: 27 April, 2018, 03:19:02 pm »
I hope it doesn't become elitist or politically incorrect for public buildings to have analogue clocks. Nor yet:

PM to PPS: What's the time, Rodney?

PPS: Well, sir, the big hand's on the 4 and the small one's nearly on the 3.

PM: Thank-You, Rodney. Quarter past four, then?
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Kim

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Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #35 on: 27 April, 2018, 05:42:33 pm »
I hope it doesn't become elitist or politically incorrect for public buildings to have analogue clocks.

They'll just become what they've been for me all my life:  Decorative items, possibly of historical interest, that you can tell the time from with a bit of effort.

What I'd actually like to see the death of are digital clocks that aren't backed up by an accurate time source.  If you see a random analogue clock (that isn't somewhere like a clocktower or railway station, where you expect effort will be put into making it show the right time) you can reasonably assume that it's either some antique mechanical thing that's drifted up to a few minutes since it was last given some loving attention, or it's a cheap shitty quartz oscillator that nobody's touched since the last daylight savings change, and therefore not to be trusted.

Digital clocks, on the other hand, have no excuse.  Unless you've got a very good reason to have a free-running clock (eg. a wristwatch or bike computer), either sync them to a time source (GPS, radio time signal, NTP, GSM, the grid frequency, whatever) or don't bother.  My microwave doesn't need a clock, and it needs one that's perpetually 5 minutes out even less.

Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #36 on: 27 April, 2018, 06:28:33 pm »
Digital clocks, on the other hand, have no excuse.  Unless you've got a very good reason to have a free-running clock (eg. a wristwatch or bike computer), either sync them to a time source (GPS, radio time signal, NTP, GSM, the grid frequency, whatever) or don't bother.  My microwave doesn't need a clock, and it needs one that's perpetually 5 minutes out even less.
Which is why our kitchen has three clocks, one analogue and two digital, all different and all wrong.
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

Kim

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Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #37 on: 27 April, 2018, 06:40:46 pm »
Digital clocks, on the other hand, have no excuse.  Unless you've got a very good reason to have a free-running clock (eg. a wristwatch or bike computer), either sync them to a time source (GPS, radio time signal, NTP, GSM, the grid frequency, whatever) or don't bother.  My microwave doesn't need a clock, and it needs one that's perpetually 5 minutes out even less.
Which is why our kitchen has three clocks, one analogue and two digital, all different and all wrong.

Our kitchen has three digital:  One free-running and usually few minutes fast (microwave), one synced to the electricity grid (oven), and the one on the kitchen computer screen that we sometimes use for telling the time, which is NTP synced to something with a GPS receiver.  Oh and a rotary mechanical timer on the boiler which we don't use, but is grid-synchronised and if I didn't need glasses to see that high, could be used to tell the time the power has been off for to within about 5 minutes.

But mostly when cooking we don't care about the absolute time, we just care about "come back and turn it over in n minutes".  The key feature is that the timing device can reliably get your attention from elsewhere in the house.  Hence a complicated computer program integrated with stuff, rather than a simple noise-making timer.  (Most people would just set an alarm on their phone.)  It also reminds us when and which bins to put out, which is surprisingly useful.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: I think we knew this...
« Reply #38 on: 27 April, 2018, 07:13:36 pm »
The clock on the oven, which I'm pretty sure isn't synched to anything, is the only "public" time telling device in our whole house. It's digital and if it wasn't there, the boy would be either late or early for school (or rather, to meet his friends on the way in to school). It's digital. Every so often he complains it's out by a few minutes and someone (me) presses various buttons until remembering how to set it. Mostly, it's a timer. For actual time we have watches and phones and stuff.
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