It's the most annoying time of the year
Category: Just Plain Silly...
Posted Wednesday, October 27, 2004 at 10:01 AM [GMT-6]

As I contemplate the impending reversion to Standard Time this coming Sunday, I'm reminded anew that a person with more than one clock never knows what time it is, and a household with 30 clocks is seriously pitiful.

I'll be grateful for the extra hour of sleep and the extra morning daylight, but the physical act of turning back the hands of time lost its allure years ago. It seems that nowadays every device that can be plugged into an electrical outlet (and some which cannot) comes with a clock, and the majority of them don't know CST from CBS. Even those which purport to be self-aware when it comes to the chronological metamorphosis really aren't (although it's debatable whether it's the fault of the device or the owner, who, admittedly, is non-fluent in machine language).

Much is being made about the advent of BPL -- Broadband over Power Lines -- which will bring us the wonderful joy of highspeed internet access over the our home wiring. That's all well and good, but what I'm really interested in is TPL -- Time over Power Lines. This groundbreaking technology would not only reset all those clocks automatically, but also keep them synchronized onto the (hopefully) correct time, so that I no longer have to scurry through every room of the house, mentally computing a running average of the displayed times, in order to figure out if I'm early or late.

TPL would then free me up to deal with the lone holdout: the wind-up clock on the mantel, which can only go one hour back by going eleven hours forward. I'm sure there's a lesson to be learned there, but I don't have time to delve into it. Or do I? I never really know, anymore.

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Comments

Heck, I'll invest in that idea, need some centure capital?

Posted by: shannon at October 27, 2004 01:00 PM

By my computer I have a clock that is constantly set by radio waves to the correct second by the Nat'l Atomic Clock. Works great. But the thought occured to me years ago, why not mandate that every timepiece in the country be made such.

Then, an official edict would go out ordaining that at the eastern edge of every time zone 7 A.M. would be when the sun broke the plane in the East. The master time system would adjust the 1.2 minutes or so variance every day and automatically reset the clocks of the country thru the wireless hookup. Therefore and ergo no more need for "daylight savings time". Each and everyday would be standard.

Posted by: Wallace-Midland, Texas at October 27, 2004 10:11 PM

Wallace, you're starting to scare me.

Posted by: Eric at October 27, 2004 10:17 PM

I know......the brilliance of my idea scares most everyone. That's what you meant isn't it?

Posted by: Wallace-Midland, Texas at October 27, 2004 10:54 PM


Wallace, if you're going to propose something like that you have to call it an ~EXPERIMENTAL~ and then type the entire idea in ALL CAPITALS.

Teasing aside, a widely cited US Department of Commerce study found that 51 percent of U.S. homes had a computer in fall 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. And only 41.5 percent of U.S. homes had Internet access.

So around 58.5% doesn't have internet access at all, much less high speed internet access. There's been a lot of talk about the "digital divide", the internet "haves" and "have nots".

Something like that could make it worse.

One group has an even more radical solution to Daylight Savings Time.

Posted by: Mr. Freen at October 27, 2004 11:31 PM

I know......the brilliance of my idea scares most everyone. That's what you meant isn't it?

Well, what else could I mean? ;-)

Mr. Freen, I think what Wallace is referring to is an adaptation of the current broadcast by the National Atomic Clock that is used to keep certain timepieces (one of which is hanging on my garage wall) accurate (presumably to the millisecond). No computer is necessary...just a quick trip to Wal-Mart.

My teenaged nephew has already starting dropping Christmas hints for a Timex wristwatch with the atomic auto-sync feature built into it.

Posted by: Eric at October 28, 2004 08:29 AM

Ah, my fault. I should have read his post more clearly. Here's an even more high tech alternative to the radio updated clock.

Realistically, is that kind of accuracy necessary? Time seems to be whatever anyone's local clock says it is. Even an organization like eBay seems to periodically "tamper" with eBay Official Time. (something which makes last second bidding rather difficult)

Posted by: Mr. Freen at October 28, 2004 09:12 AM

Realistically, is that kind of accuracy necessary?

Call me a romantic, but I prefer consistency over accuracy.

Posted by: Eric at October 28, 2004 09:22 AM
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