Clock Law

upstatemike

Senior Member
I think we need a new law making it a federal crime to incorporate a clock display into anything that is not actually a clock. I don't need to look at my coffee pot or microwave or thermostat to check the time and the man-hours wasted each year in adjusting these devices for daylight savings time must put enough of a drain on our economy to qualify as a threat to national security.

I suggest 20 years minimum jail time for first offenders with penalties escalating rapidly from there. If it's not a clock don't put a clock display on it!
 
You can use an appliance module with any automation controller although I don't hold with leaving coffee grounds in the pot overnight to begin with. You have to grind the beans just before you brew the coffee or else why bother? (Convenience is nice but quality still rules in the end).
 
upstatemike said:
...I suggest 20 years minimum jail time for first offenders ...
That's right, make 'em do "time"!


Speaking of time, I thought I'd share this joke:

In a small mining town, a man walking to his early morning shift always stops in front of the clock shop in the town square and sets his watch precisely to the time displayed on a large grandfather clock in the display window. He does this every single morning for years.

One day he happens to be going in to work somewhat later on that morning and when he walks in front of the clock shop, he notices that it is open for business. He can't help but walk in and starts a conversation with the shop owner:

"You know" he says, "I have been walking past your shop for 16 years now, every morning around 7 AM, and every time I do, I stop in front of your shop and set my watch exactly to the time of your big grandfather clock over there!"

The shop owner is flattered, learning that his display clock is actually serving a useful purpose too. Then he asks the man a question:

"But tell me sir, what requires you to have your watch set so precisely?".

The man, happy to explain, answers:

"Well you see, I work at the mine, and it is my duty at 4:00 to blow the whistle signalling the end of the morning shift".

Upon hearing this, the clock shop owner is starting to pale, and the mine worker is asking him what's wrong. The shop owner replies:

"Well, evey day when I hear the mine's whistle, I set all my clocks!"
 
Hopefully you will make an exception for devices that adjust themselves for DST.

I would hate to lose the clock on my phone, pager and cable box.

And if you are going to try and jail Bill Gates over the clock in the corner of my Windows XP desktop, you might have a big fight on your hands =)

Vaughn
 
So I guess this weekend was DST. we dont obey it, but still I hate it.

DST, like snow, was one of those things that I didnt know about until I grew up. Snow, on contrast, is easier to understand.

Ten years ago I got to be admin of an HP9000 with Unix (HP-UX) without any training nor documentation. The person who gave me the system told me that the system would do DST adjustment and they didnt know how to turn it off. :p

The problem was that this system was our syncronization server between our ERP system and the Sales Force Automation sofware. The first time that it changed I got to change the date back manually, but 6 months later the machine changed back and it missed the deadline to pull all the sales orders for the day. That morning I got all the staff of the company on my cublicle, starting with the Sales Manager. :rolleyes:

It was the last time. I fixed it the same day (spent the day on that). I still hate DST and dont understand what value it adds (compared to the hassle).
 
ver0776 said:
Hopefully you will make an exception for devices that adjust themselves for DST.

I would hate to lose the clock on my phone, pager and cable box.

And if you are going to try and jail Bill Gates over the clock in the corner of my Windows XP desktop, you might have a big fight on your hands =)

Vaughn
i agree with vaughn. If it adjusts itself for dst, I dont have a problem with it.
 
ver0776 said:
And if you are going to try and jail Bill Gates over the clock in the corner of my Windows XP desktop, you might have a big fight on your hands =)

Vaughn
Bill Gates should get special treatment; I'm thinking firing squad or guillotine. My XP machines are set to get their time from nist.gov but never seem to be in synch with the atomic clocks that get set via shortwave from the atomic clock in Colorado.

I think the Windows time synch implementation must be pretty sloppy or else I have some strange Twilight Zone type forces affecting the signal from Colorado.
 
The X10 clock has a 9-volt battery in it so when you lose power or move the clock, you don't have to reset it.

Every clock device should have a battery backup like that! So my microwave may not know about DST, but the damn thing should remember what time it thought it was when the power goes out for a bit. Should the manufacturer's spend the extra $1 for a battery hookup? I think so.

So now a battery is one of the top features I look for. If you have a clock, you better have a battery.

Vaughn
 
upstatemike said:
Bill Gates should get special treatment; I'm thinking firing squad or guillotine.
Good Lord, man... Don't you think an anti-trust conviction and a caning might be sufficient?
Maybe you should consider letting your coffee grounds sit overnight :rolleyes:
 
upstatemike said:
ver0776 said:
And if you are going to try and jail Bill Gates over the clock in the corner of my Windows XP desktop, you might have a big fight on your hands =)

Vaughn
Bill Gates should get special treatment; I'm thinking firing squad or guillotine. My XP machines are set to get their time from nist.gov but never seem to be in synch with the atomic clocks that get set via shortwave from the atomic clock in Colorado.

I think the Windows time synch implementation must be pretty sloppy or else I have some strange Twilight Zone type forces affecting the signal from Colorado.
mike your time could be off because of a bad bios battery too. might not be bill at all
 
although I don't hold with leaving coffee grounds in the pot overnight to begin with. You have to grind the beans just before you brew the coffee or else why bother?

Exactly. Failure to grind the beans just before brewing is a sign of our declining civilization and of the approach of the end times. One must get one's chi aligned, select the best coffee filter (just hold them and let them speak to you), grind the bean separately to the perfect grain size (by hand), then arrange them carefully in the filter. Run the machine with an empty filter first to get any impurities out of the filter, of course, as though that even needs saying. Then use triply filtered water, exactly one point four micro-liter per grain. Remove instantly upon completion of brewing cycle and place into a pyramid shaped thermal carafe (not a thermos, please), which must be placed such that the corner to corner axis is aligned exactly north to south (though if using a light roast, you may want to situate it about 5 degrees off of true N/S alignment.) Only drink out of completely non-reactive cups, which have not been used more than 50 times at the most.
 
Dean Roddey said:
although I don't hold with leaving coffee grounds in the pot overnight to begin with. You have to grind the beans just before you brew the coffee or else why bother?
Exactly. Failure to grind the beans just before brewing is a sign of our declining civilization and of the approach of the end times. One must get one's chi aligned, select the best coffee filter (just hold them and let them speak to you), grind the bean separately to the perfect grain size (by hand), then arrange them carefully in the filter. Run the machine with an empty filter first to get any impurities out of the filter, of course, as though that even needs saying. Then use triply filtered water, exactly one point four micro-liter per grain.
Oh no, I've been using 1.7 micro-liter of water per grain. Maybe that's what the problem is. :D
 
Dean Roddey said:
Exactly. Failure to grind the beans just before brewing is a sign of our declining civilization and of the approach of the end times. One must get one's chi aligned, select the best coffee filter (just hold them and let them speak to you), grind the bean separately to the perfect grain size (by hand), then arrange them carefully in the filter. Run the machine with an empty filter first to get any impurities out of the filter, of course, as though that even needs saying. Then use triply filtered water, exactly one point four micro-liter per grain. Remove instantly upon completion of brewing cycle and place into a pyramid shaped thermal carafe (not a thermos, please), which must be placed such that the corner to corner axis is aligned exactly north to south (though if using a light roast, you may want to situate it about 5 degrees off of true N/S alignment.) Only drink out of completely non-reactive cups, which have not been used more than 50 times at the most.
And yet the people who think it is silly to try to make a decent cup of coffee at home will gladly spend $4 a cup at Starbucks and go on about how much better it is than their own coffee. It's the same stuff. It's just that Starbucks doesn't leave the grounds in the coffeemaker overnight!
 
Paul said:
mike your time could be off because of a bad bios battery too. might not be bill at all
That could be part of it. I could probably resolve it by changing the update interval to once every couple of hours to compensate for any drift. Anybody know where you adjust the internet time update interval? I don't see that option in the clock setting popup.

***Never mind, I found it***

Registry Settings
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\
TimeProviders\NtpClient]
Value Name: SpecialPollInterval
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: Seconds in Decimal
 
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