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Now this is a Clock

D

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” Designed by Danny Hillis, the Clock is designed to run for ten millennia with minimal maintenance and interruption. The Clock is powered by mechanical energy harvested from sunlight as well as the people that visit it. The primary materials used in the Clock are marine grade 316 stainless steel, titanium and dry running ceramic ball bearings. The entire mechanism will be installed in an underground facility in west Texas.”

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http://longnow.org/clock/
 

RayDunzl

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I inherited an Atmos Clock that has been running since 1983...

The "pendulum" rotates clockwise for 30 seconds, then counterclockwise for 30 seconds...

Hypnotic


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Blumlein 88

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I inherited an Atmos Clock that has been running since 1983...

The "pendulum" rotates clockwise for 30 seconds, then counterclockwise for 30 seconds...

Hypnotic


View attachment 43201
I've wanted one of those for 30 years. Missed a couple at auctions. I first saw one in an old mansion in Mobile, Alabama. Torsional pendulum. Have also seen similar German ones often called 400 day clocks because you only had to wind them every 400 days. Though I think about half that is actually the norm.
 

RayDunzl

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maxxevv

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” Designed by Danny Hillis, the Clock is designed to run for ten millennia with minimal maintenance and interruption. The Clock is powered by mechanical energy harvested from sunlight as well as the people that visit it. The primary materials used in the Clock are marine grade 316 stainless steel, titanium and dry running ceramic ball bearings. The entire mechanism will be installed in an underground facility in west Texas.”

View attachment 43152

http://longnow.org/clock/

A grandiose idea but does it actually keep accurate time ?
 

RayDunzl

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Eirikur

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Time is relative, so, relative to what?
It's defined absolute as the time that elapses during 9,192,631,770 cycles of the radiation produced by the transition between two levels of the cesium 133 atom - according to the internet, so it must be true.

Then again, wasn't it the philosopher Einstein who said that time spent with relatives really seems to take longer than the actual progression would indicate (or something to that effect)?
 

Arpiben

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It's defined absolute as the time that elapses during 9,192,631,770 cycles of the radiation produced by the transition between two levels of the cesium 133 atom - according to the internet, so it must be true.

Then again, wasn't it the philosopher Einstein who said that time spent with relatives really seems to take longer than the actual progression would indicate (or something to that effect)?

International Atomic Time (TAI) is truly defined as per your quote. BIPM Bureau International des Poids et Mesures is the bureau taking care of it.:)
 

RayDunzl

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I didn't know about wadokei timekeeping.

I like it.

On my first trip to Japan for NEC, I kept seeing internal documents dated with the year 61.

Being, of course, a crude and somewhat ill-mannered, though occasionally entertaining gaijin*, I did not know they used the year of the reign of the current emperor, in this case, the 61st year of Hirohito.

Even their current telephone exchange product I was working with was named that way - the Nippon Electric Automatic Exchange, NEAX-61

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Above, you see an actor pretending to set some pushbuttons on the 0 side (everything was duplicated) Central Processing Unit, in front of the fabulous StarTrek Transporter styled Line and Trunk Test Desk of that era.

The two frames to his right contained 2 megabytes of main memory each.

*my status improved somewhat one day, while walking down one of the long halls in the plant with a Japanese coworker, as everyone (including my friend) moved to the walls to allow the head man of that plant, who had recently finished serving a tour of duty at the Irving Texas facility, to pass unimpeded, saw me, called me by name, and we spoke for a minute in the hall while others nearby were stuck to the wall till he fully passed. We called him Cowboy Kawakami (alternately and even more informally known as Little Big Man), for his penchant for wearing cowboy boots while in Texas (and diminutive stature).
 
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NTomokawa

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Funny, I've never visited Japan, despite being a third-gen.

Or maybe it's because I'm a third-gen that I feel next to no connection to "the land of my ancestors".

Between their stagnant economy and 160-hour work weeks, yeah I'm glad I'm Canadian.
 

Cortes

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Funny, I've never visited Japan, despite being a third-gen.

Or maybe it's because I'm a third-gen that I feel next to no connection to "the land of my ancestors".

Between their stagnant economy and 160-hour work weeks, yeah I'm glad I'm Canadian.

C'mon, as a turist Japan has it all. Best country to visit for my tastes.
 

RayDunzl

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Funny, I've never visited Japan, despite being a third-gen.

It's an eye-popping place to visit.

It works best if you can do it at someone else's expense, and even better if you have some reason to be there.

I had it good, learned to follow the rules to the extent I cared too, and worked for the big corporation, which can be a dream for many there.

I went to the Bank where my expense cash had been transmitted. The security guard stopped me at the door. An employee was called, I identified myself, 'Ah! Come!"

Into a side room, it looked like the Branch Manager and Assistant Branch manager and a teller. Lots of paperwork I couldn't read with each adding their little personal stamps. Then the cash came out, two counted it, and then 450,000 yen was fanned out on a little tray and presented to me along with some rice cracker snacks.

But, you may be at a disadvantage, depending on your appearance, it would be difficult for them to automatically see you as a foreigner, and adjust their immediate expectations of your behavior, which undoubtedly will be all wrong.

The 160 hour work week only applies to those trying to climb somebody else's ladder. You don't go home until after your boss/supervisor goes home.

Since you probably don't want to meet them at the train station (you didn't stay late enough if you do), you have to wait until the next train, about 30 minutes apart where we were.

The work day officially started at 8:30, so the 8hour folks went home at 5:30, the top level executives usually at 6:00, division managers at 6:30, division assistant managers at 7:00, department mangers at 7:30, department assistant managers at 8:00, supervisors at 8:30, and finally everyone else could start thinking about leaving at 9 or 9:30, on average. There was little to no actual work performed during those extra hours.

As a foreigner, I wasn't required to follow any traditions, although it was best if I took a turn at Karaoke when asked.

That schedule doesn't apply on Wednesday, as it is the mid-week party night. Everyone leaves at a reasonable time.



At work:

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Second and first stops of a typical after-work evening:

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Drinking with the North Koreans, and the restaurant owner's younger days as a Tarzan-style sumo:

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Why you don't want to be a software engineer in Japan:

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What I consider to be my going away party on the soccer field behind the Abiko Plant, as it coincided with the last day of my last trip to Japan. I had three bottles of Jack Daniels jingling in my backpack all day. I don't know how we rated a table right up front, now that I think about it, but we did.

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