I'm sure I could learn to read this as quickly as any other clock, given practice. I saw one 45 years ago on the mantel in someone's house. My nerdy teenage friend had learned how to read it and taught me. I didn't have one to practice with, and quickly forgot. Forty-five years later, and I've never seen another one.
This display, as a clock interface for humans, makes no sense in the real world. Outside of showing it to people as a novelty.
If you want a cool clock that anyone can read, get a nixie tube clock.
I had a binary watch in highschool. They're really not that hard to read once you know how. Practical? No. But they're great for showing everyone you're the biggest dork in the class.
Mine might've been from ThinkGeek as well. I always loved visiting their website, before they became yet another pop culture store and got bought up by GameStop anyway.
Fuck this, too much brain power needed to simply tell the time. I'll stick with my smartwatch (FWIW I at least use an analog watch face 'cause although I'm dumb, I'm not that dumb).
Six columns of binary numbers each representing a base 10 digit to display three base 10 numbers is kinda stupid, but it is easier to read than just having three binary numbers I guess.
Yeah, what kind of idiot needs repeating patterns in the time format for repeating times during a day? Just display the unix timestamp on the clock tower and be done with it.
Actually, having 64 bits arranged vertically on a tower seems neat.
When it's a 24 h display like in the cartoon the digits must have more lights to represent numbers higher than 15. The clock in the cartoon only has four lights per column.
Seems to be, although that's a very loose interpretation of what a "binary clock" means. Splitting the tens columns into a new digit is mathematically gibberish.
I really don't like these. It's binary for each digit, so it's really just a bad proxy for decimal numbers rather than being clean binary numbers. If it were roman numerals, I feel like it would be equally silly to separate the numbers this way: 15:39 -> I, V : III, IX.
I understand that it makes it hard to read if the binary numbers go high, but that's why we don't use them like this.
My math teacher in high school had one of these, though he never mentioned what it was to us. I used to stare at it off and on during class, and eventually it clicked βOh, itβs a clock!β After that, with some intense staring, I figured out the pattern and was satisfied. Asked the teacher about it later, and apparently I had taught myself binary.
That knowledge displaced whatever he was talking about that day. Hopefully it wasnβt too important.
Yeah, this one is just messed up. They use binary to display the individual characters of a decimal number. This makes it wayyy harder to read than a proper binary clock.
I don't know why he has such trouble. You really should only need 1 bit to determine whether or not it's afternoon. Just look at the "afternoon" bit light. π€·ββοΈ
You only need four bits to represent 12 (actually 16), add 1 extra bit to double that for the am/pm bit. Any bit can represent anything you like if you encode it as such. π
It does sound counterintuitive, doesn't it. It's actually the opposite of what you'd expect, at least in my case.
When I wrote my own binary clock I first tried using one 5-bit word to visually represent 0β23, and another 6-bit word to represent 0β59. But I found it hard to quickly read at a glance. Especially the minutes.
I found the 4-bit representation of 1β12 simpler to read at a glance, and then use the 5th bit to represent am/pm. In fact, I could skip the am/pm bit completely, because who tf doesn't know whether it's before or after noon when looking at a 12h clock, unless you're in complete isolation from the outside.
Then, obviously 6 bits for the minutes is even harder to glance, and more noise, so I made that into a 2-bit thing where the most significant bit is whether or not we are past the half hour, and the least significant bit represents whether or not we are past the 15 or 45-minute mark, which tells me which quarter of the hour we are in. It served me enough granularity to be on time for meetings etc. π
imho, the "seconds" bits are neat because you can see things change... Like, you see that it does stuff. Like the "seconds" hand on an analogue clock, it's mostly practical to see that it's working as expected.
Yet they are abundant, esp. with Linux GUIs. Every clock applet has a binary option: digital, analog, binary. And fuzzy, which is what the yellow-haired guy is doing.
I have a watch that shows binary time. Two rows, I think 12 hour cycle, no seconds. Pretty easy to read, honestly. Also an absolute nerd gadget and I loved it.
In college, I had a binary clock and a binary watch. They were great! I could read them just fine; everyone else couldn't. Stopped using them because they were bright as hell! The watch doubled as a flashlight at times (depending what time it was). Eventually, the battery in the watch died. I think both were gotten from thinkgeek (back when it was good).
68 Comments
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 67 pts · 225d
I'm sure I could learn to read this as quickly as any other clock, given practice. I saw one 45 years ago on the mantel in someone's house. My nerdy teenage friend had learned how to read it and taught me. I didn't have one to practice with, and quickly forgot. Forty-five years later, and I've never seen another one.
This display, as a clock interface for humans, makes no sense in the real world. Outside of showing it to people as a novelty.
If you want a cool clock that anyone can read, get a nixie tube clock.
PKscope@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 225d
I fucking love my nixie clock.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 225d
Which timeline is it?
Artemis_Mystique@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 224d
Considering current events; way out there
XeroxCool@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 225d
Bioshock Infinite, I think
dalekcaan@feddit.nl · 55 pts · 225d
I had a binary watch in highschool. They're really not that hard to read once you know how. Practical? No. But they're great for showing everyone you're the biggest dork in the class.
salacious_coaster@feddit.online · 6 pts · 225d
dalekcaan@feddit.nl · 5 pts · 225d
Mine might've been from ThinkGeek as well. I always loved visiting their website, before they became yet another pop culture store and got bought up by GameStop anyway.
ttyybb@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 225d
In that case I might need one...
Serinus@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 225d
For those who aren't familiar, this is how you read this. Just add up the columns where there are lights.
So the last panel doesn't have any 8s and is read like this. You add the columns.
And adding those columns gives you:
15:43:25
Psythik@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 225d
Fuck this, too much brain power needed to simply tell the time. I'll stick with my smartwatch (FWIW I at least use an analog watch face 'cause although I'm dumb, I'm not that dumb).
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today · 5 pts · 224d
This is the level of watchface I need to tell the time quickly
Tonava@sopuli.xyz · 11 pts · 224d
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 224d
It helps reading it out loud
Honytawk@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 223d
Sure, lets start shouting out what time it is every time we need to know the time
Psythik@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 224d
My dude, this is not something you should be bragging about.
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 224d
Not bragging by any means, more of a "my brain needs one less thing to worry about" situation.
bravesilvernest@lemmy.ml · 30 pts · 225d
15:39? Then takes him 3 minutes
Tja@programming.dev · 22 pts · 225d
15:39:02 until 15:43:25, so more than 4 minutes.
It is afternoon, tho.
bravesilvernest@lemmy.ml · 12 pts · 225d
"If the first column has lights, it's more than likely afternoon" lol
Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone · 27 pts · 225d
The true binary clock: afternoon or not-afternoon.
sukhmel@programming.dev · 1 pts · 224d
You just need to rearrange bits so that each bit answers a practical question:
Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it · 5 pts · 225d
I mean, if you don't need to know the precise time it''s indeed useful and cool...but there are better ways to do it
Anafabula@discuss.tchncs.de · 7 pts · 225d
Six columns of binary numbers each representing a base 10 digit to display three base 10 numbers is kinda stupid, but it is easier to read than just having three binary numbers I guess.
four@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 225d
Wdym three binary numbers? Just one is enough. Make it a Unix timestamp so you can have a calendar built in!
noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de · 7 pts · 225d
Yeah, what kind of idiot needs repeating patterns in the time format for repeating times during a day? Just display the unix timestamp on the clock tower and be done with it.
Actually, having 64 bits arranged vertically on a tower seems neat.
ladicius@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 225d
When it's a 24 h display like in the cartoon the digits must have more lights to represent numbers higher than 15. The clock in the cartoon only has four lights per column.
I'd prefer your version of this clock.
ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 224d
Seems to be, although that's a very loose interpretation of what a "binary clock" means. Splitting the tens columns into a new digit is mathematically gibberish.
OddMinus1@sh.itjust.works · 29 pts · 224d
I really don't like these. It's binary for each digit, so it's really just a bad proxy for decimal numbers rather than being clean binary numbers. If it were roman numerals, I feel like it would be equally silly to separate the numbers this way: 15:39 -> I, V : III, IX.
I understand that it makes it hard to read if the binary numbers go high, but that's why we don't use them like this.
mlg@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 224d
They should make one that shows the unix timestamp with the full 32 bits lmao
noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 224d
64 bits please. We don't want a year 2038 problem.
bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 224d
BCD is something that's supported directly by some processor instruction sets.
binarytobis@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 225d
My math teacher in high school had one of these, though he never mentioned what it was to us. I used to stare at it off and on during class, and eventually it clicked βOh, itβs a clock!β After that, with some intense staring, I figured out the pattern and was satisfied. Asked the teacher about it later, and apparently I had taught myself binary.
That knowledge displaced whatever he was talking about that day. Hopefully it wasnβt too important.
TisI@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 224d
And kids, that's the story of how I became binary.
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 19 pts · 225d
There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de · 13 pts · 225d
... and those who know at base n, "10" can represent literally any number.
howrar@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 225d
That's why you always specify the base
10
10mushroomman_toad@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 225d
10
anoerdman@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 224d
I hope they included that information on the cover of the Voyager golden record in case aliens want to understand our numbers.
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 225d
That sounds eminently practical. There's NO way that would ever lead to any excess ambiguity! π
OddMinus1@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 224d
Base 0, base pi and base i are interesting, though.
nroth@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 225d
Wouldn't it make more sense for the clock to have just 3 rows or columns? Hour/minute/second.
Rednax@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 224d
Yeah, this one is just messed up. They use binary to display the individual characters of a decimal number. This makes it wayyy harder to read than a proper binary clock.
noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 224d
My thought as well, but alas, this is what my dad's looks like π€·. Illustrates the point even better though, kind of.
victorz@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 225d
I don't know why he has such trouble. You really should only need 1 bit to determine whether or not it's afternoon. Just look at the "afternoon" bit light. π€·ββοΈ
bdonvr@thelemmy.club · 3 pts · 225d
Doesn't that turn on at 10:00
noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 225d
It's afternoon, time to call it a day!
Mirodir@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 223d
Coincidentally enough, "noon" is etymologically related to "nine", so 10 is indeed afternoon in a very literal sense.
(Just ignore the fact that it's originally meant to be "the ninth hour after sunrise", so ca. 3pm)
victorz@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 225d
You only need four bits to represent 12 (actually 16), add 1 extra bit to double that for the am/pm bit. Any bit can represent anything you like if you encode it as such. π
bdonvr@thelemmy.club · 4 pts · 225d
Sure but if you're on Binary time surely you've ditched the stupid AM/PM thing and use 24 hour time
victorz@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 225d
It does sound counterintuitive, doesn't it. It's actually the opposite of what you'd expect, at least in my case.
When I wrote my own binary clock I first tried using one 5-bit word to visually represent 0β23, and another 6-bit word to represent 0β59. But I found it hard to quickly read at a glance. Especially the minutes.
I found the 4-bit representation of 1β12 simpler to read at a glance, and then use the 5th bit to represent am/pm. In fact, I could skip the am/pm bit completely, because who tf doesn't know whether it's before or after noon when looking at a 12h clock, unless you're in complete isolation from the outside.
Then, obviously 6 bits for the minutes is even harder to glance, and more noise, so I made that into a 2-bit thing where the most significant bit is whether or not we are past the half hour, and the least significant bit represents whether or not we are past the 15 or 45-minute mark, which tells me which quarter of the hour we are in. It served me enough granularity to be on time for meetings etc. π
Serinus@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 225d
I mean, they obfuscated it by adding seconds. It's really not that hard. Just takes a few seconds instead of a glance.
noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 225d
If that obfuscated something, it wasn't on purpose... it's just literally the clock in my dad's kitchen.
Serinus@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 225d
It's to make a nerdy thing more nerdy. But they really shouldn't have added seconds to a thing that takes more than a second to read.
noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de · 5 pts · 225d
imho, the "seconds" bits are neat because you can see things change... Like, you see that it does stuff. Like the "seconds" hand on an analogue clock, it's mostly practical to see that it's working as expected.
A_norny_mousse@feddit.org · 5 pts · 225d
Yet they are abundant, esp. with Linux GUIs. Every clock applet has a binary option: digital, analog, binary. And fuzzy, which is what the yellow-haired guy is doing.
victorz@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 225d
I made my own π
Randelung@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 224d
I have a watch that shows binary time. Two rows, I think 12 hour cycle, no seconds. Pretty easy to read, honestly. Also an absolute nerd gadget and I loved it.
CaptPretentious@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 225d
In college, I had a binary clock and a binary watch. They were great! I could read them just fine; everyone else couldn't. Stopped using them because they were bright as hell! The watch doubled as a flashlight at times (depending what time it was). Eventually, the battery in the watch died. I think both were gotten from thinkgeek (back when it was good).
palordrolap@fedia.io · 4 pts · 225d
6 bit, 6 bit, 7 bit? Huh. Only 5, 6, and 6, is needed for 24-hr binary-coded-sexagesimal... ohh. It's binary-coded-decimal-coded-sexagesimal.
15:43:25 in the last panel. Or about a quarter to four in the afternoon.
I suppose the 5,6,6 BCS option would need a lot more mental effort.
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org · 2 pts · 225d
I know someone with a BCS watch (I prefer to call it 2c60) but they have a PhD in mathematics
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 224d
I made a uni project where we had to program some old processor + simple display, so I made a roman clock. Was appreciated.
frog@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 225d
If all 6 lights are on like in the second panel, then that is 63. Either something is wrong or I am reading this wrong.
lemmyng@piefed.ca · 8 pts · 225d
You are reading it wrong. You are assuming that the bottom row represents seconds, but each column represents a digit, hh:mm:ss.
frog@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 225d
Oh... Thank you.
HotsauceHurricane@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 225d
I used to be able to read this & now I'm forgetting parts. I'm gonna have to look it up again.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 225d
Oh, and the word clock.
altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -3 pts · 225d
Her tits are showing how inspired she is in every moment, in the unbiological flattening balloon manner.
TheOctonaut@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 225d
Which body parts are accurate in this "comic"?
altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 224d
I've not done such a claim.