I just hunted up my spare wristwatch. I haven't used it since before the switch to daylight-savings time, and it was resting comfortably in the back of a drawer. Of course, the hour was off by one, but the minute was right on. Jerry -- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. �����������������������������������������������������������������������
On the accuracy of a common crystal
Started by ●October 1, 2007
Reply by ●October 1, 20072007-10-01
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Reply by ●October 1, 20072007-10-01
Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> writes:> I just hunted up my spare wristwatch. I haven't used it since before > the switch to daylight-savings time, and it was resting comfortably in > the back of a drawer. Of course, the hour was off by one, but the > minute was right on.My $11 Walmart special (Casio) loses about 5 seconds per month. Not too bad for the money! I have an expensive temperature-compensated watch that is accurate to 10 seconds per year, but it's sitting in the drawer due to the high cost of a simple repair. -- % Randy Yates % "How's life on earth? %% Fuquay-Varina, NC % ... What is it worth?" %%% 919-577-9882 % 'Mission (A World Record)', %%%% <yates@ieee.org> % *A New World Record*, ELO http://www.digitalsignallabs.com
Reply by ●October 1, 20072007-10-01
Randy Yates wrote:> Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> writes: > >> I just hunted up my spare wristwatch. I haven't used it since before >> the switch to daylight-savings time, and it was resting comfortably in >> the back of a drawer. Of course, the hour was off by one, but the >> minute was right on. > > My $11 Walmart special (Casio) loses about 5 seconds per month. Not > too bad for the money! > > I have an expensive temperature-compensated watch that is accurate > to 10 seconds per year, but it's sitting in the drawer due to the > high cost of a simple repair.My presentation gold watch with the engraved back quit while I was on a trip, so I bought a replacement for $10 at an airport kiosk. That's the spare I wrote of. The one I use most of the time cost $5. It came from a street vendor in New York. I like the Velcro strap. It's cheaper to buy a new watch than to replace the battery at Radio Shack. Jerry -- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Reply by ●October 1, 20072007-10-01
On Mon, 01 Oct 2007 11:38:58 -0400, Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> wrote:>Randy Yates wrote: >> Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> writes: >> >>> I just hunted up my spare wristwatch. I haven't used it since before >>> the switch to daylight-savings time, and it was resting comfortably in >>> the back of a drawer. Of course, the hour was off by one, but the >>> minute was right on. >> >> My $11 Walmart special (Casio) loses about 5 seconds per month. Not >> too bad for the money! >> >> I have an expensive temperature-compensated watch that is accurate >> to 10 seconds per year, but it's sitting in the drawer due to the >> high cost of a simple repair. > >My presentation gold watch with the engraved back quit while I was on a >trip, so I bought a replacement for $10 at an airport kiosk. That's the >spare I wrote of. The one I use most of the time cost $5. It came from a >street vendor in New York. I like the Velcro strap. It's cheaper to buy >a new watch than to replace the battery at Radio Shack. > >JerryI wear a $25 Timex that I bought at Wal-Mart about seven or eight years ago. It's on its third band and second battery. This thing hardly ever needs to be set, I'm guessing every couple of years it's a minute or so off. I check it against the atomic clock synch on my PC and my RF atomic thingie on my wall. Since AZ doesn't observe daylight savings time, I never need to reset it, so it just keeps chugging. When I travel it has a "T2" alternate display and I just change the hour on that, leaving my native, home time-zone, display unchanged. And this cheap-o watch replaced a $20 Casio that I'd worn for about ten years before that had finally died completely. The fact that we can have such accurate time keeping so reliably for so little money is indeed an interesting thing, especially given how valuable accurate time was for navigation a couple of hundred years ago. Eric Jacobsen Minister of Algorithms Abineau Communications http://www.ericjacobsen.org
Reply by ●October 1, 20072007-10-01
On Mon, 01 Oct 2007 07:30:43 -0700, steve <bungalow_steve@yahoo.com> wrote:>On Oct 1, 10:02 am, Jerry Avins <j...@ieee.org> wrote: >> I just hunted up my spare wristwatch. I haven't used it since before the >> switch to daylight-savings time, and it was resting comfortably in the >> back of a drawer. Of course, the hour was off by one, but the minute was >> right on. >> >> Jerry >> -- >> Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. >> ����������������������������������������������������������������������� > >you can measure the technological advancement of any species by asking >how accurate their clocks areWe have a rough idea of how humans are doing with timekeeping. How is everyone else faring in this regard? Eric Jacobsen Minister of Algorithms Abineau Communications http://www.ericjacobsen.org
Reply by ●October 1, 20072007-10-01
Eric Jacobsen wrote: ...> The fact that we can have such accurate time keeping so reliably for > so little money is indeed an interesting thing, especially given how > valuable accurate time was for navigation a couple of hundred years > ago.A couple of hundred years? In 1946, when they were available on the surplus market, a ships chronometer cost over $400 with certification. (By way of comparison, a new Dodge or Mercury cost $2000.) Only licensed land-based horologists were allowed to reset the time or adjust the rate of a chronometer. Departures, including drift relative to WWV time were noted in a log. "Comparing watches", used for actual sightings, were set from the chronometer as corrected according to the log. Comparing watches were generally good for a second or two per day (better when corrected for drift) about equivalent to Grandpa's "railroad watch". Chronometers had a three-day movement, but were wound at the same time each day. Substantial interference with the winding schedule was noted in the log to account for a possible discontinuity in the time record. By 1960, I has an Omega that was nearly as good as one of those chronometers. It cost more than $10, though. Jerry -- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Reply by ●October 1, 20072007-10-01
Jerry Avins wrote: (snip)> My presentation gold watch with the engraved back quit while I was on a > trip, so I bought a replacement for $10 at an airport kiosk. That's the > spare I wrote of. The one I use most of the time cost $5. It came from a > street vendor in New York. I like the Velcro strap. It's cheaper to buy > a new watch than to replace the battery at Radio Shack.Some years ago we had boxes of cereal with Shrek watches for about $2.50 each. I thought it should be a watch for $2.50 and free cereal, but maybe it is the other way around. In any case, it cost less than a watch battery, with the cereal thrown in for free. That was about the time my regular watch battery died, so I was wearing Shrek watches for a year or two. There must be some place to buy cheap batteries or they couldn't sell watched for these prices. -- glen
Reply by ●October 1, 20072007-10-01
On Oct 1, 10:57 am, Eric Jacobsen <eric.jacob...@ieee.org> wrote:> On Mon, 01 Oct 2007 07:30:43 -0700, steve <bungalow_st...@yahoo.com> > wrote: > > >On Oct 1, 10:02 am, Jerry Avins <j...@ieee.org> wrote: > >> I just hunted up my spare wristwatch. I haven't used it since before t=he> >> switch to daylight-savings time, and it was resting comfortably in the > >> back of a drawer. Of course, the hour was off by one, but the minute w=as> >> right on. > > >> Jerry > >> -- > >> Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. > >> =AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF==AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF= =AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF=AF> > >you can measure the technological advancement of any species by asking > >how accurate their clocks are > > We have a rough idea of how humans are doing with timekeeping. How > is everyone else faring in this regard? > > Eric Jacobsen > Minister of Algorithms > Abineau Communicationshttp://www.ericjacobsen.orgMy cats are really bad at timekeeping. They judge time by their stomachs which usually run about an hour fast per every 8 hours. I suppose they're not very technologically advanced. OTOH, they've figured out how to bend a more technologically advanced species to their needs. Reminds me of an episode of STTNG - "You are smart. You make things go." :) EB
Reply by ●October 2, 20072007-10-02
Randy Yates wrote:> Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> writes: > >> I just hunted up my spare wristwatch. I haven't used it since before >> the switch to daylight-savings time, and it was resting comfortably in >> the back of a drawer. Of course, the hour was off by one, but the >> minute was right on. > > My $11 Walmart special (Casio) loses about 5 seconds per month. Not > too bad for the money! > > I have an expensive temperature-compensated watch that is accurate > to 10 seconds per year, but it's sitting in the drawer due to the > high cost of a simple repair.I spent too much money on my watch, but it has a slide rule built into the bezel (which is why I bought this model). I wish I could report that I use it all the time, but in the past three years, the only time I have used the slide rule function has been to demonstrate how fully I peg the geek meter. I might use it more often if the bezel were easier to rotate. But it does keep good time. The last time I set it was for DST, and right now it's two seconds behind my laptop (which is synced to an atomic clock somewhere via ntp). -- Jim Thomas Principal Applications Engineer Bittware, Inc jthomas@bittware.com http://www.bittware.com (603) 226-0404 x536 Today is the last day of your life so far.
