FTFA: "Before the invention of artificial light, the moon had greater social impact. And, for those living near the equator in particular, its waxing and waning was more conspicuous than the passing of the seasons."

I can tell the author has never lived in the topics.

StoneColdAtheist: FTFA: "Before the invention of artificial light, the moon had greater social impact. And, for those living near the equator in particular, its waxing and waning was more conspicuous than the passing of the seasons."

I can tell the author has never lived in the topics.

How does one live in the topics, build a house out of books, start every sentence with a literary question or live every day like it is a different genre?

plushpuppy: StoneColdAtheist: I can tell the author has never lived in the topics.

How does one live in the topics, build a house out of books, start every sentence with a literary question or live every day like it is a different genre?

You have me at your mercy, dear lady, as I do not know
Time is of the essence, though, if we all are to know
Pray answer me the riddle, now, that I too may know

nep;dr

Bah, time itself is subjective and arbitrary. We simply "agreed" that a second is a measurement of a periodic element (caesium-133) oscillations at rest at 0 K.

In reality, neither my microwave, nor my computer, nor atomic clock in my honest opinion can accurately tell time. The only way that time is equal to whatever an atomic clock says is when the devices are reset to the atomic clock. After that point, the timing becomes inaccurate yet again due to the internal mechanics of each device.

Personally, time really does "fly" when I am having fun and "slows down" when I am extremely bored. When I am busy I seem to not have enough time unless I decide to give myself time and stop watching the clock.

ZAZ: Longitude by Dava Sobel is a book length version of page 4.

As it should be. The compass, astrolab, and portable (springloaded) clock are the very foundation of accurate navigation. Those three allowed sailers to know where they are and where they are going.

/maps are probably important too

Eddie Adams from Torrance: ZAZ: The first quartz clocks installed at the Royal Observatory in 1939 varied by only two thousandths of a second a day.

And yet modern computers are typically a thousand times less accurate. We shouldn't need ntp.

Unless you want to spend thousands on a rubidium clock for your PC, you're never going to get decent timekeeping. Even high quality crystal oscillators will drift a fair amount due to temperature and voltage fluctuations.

NTP and PTP are essentially free. As long as you can live with being within a few microseconds of the actual time, there's little point in having a decent clock on your motherboard.

Or a good quality GPS receiver with a 1 pulse-per-second output. The cheap ones are good to 1us. The better quality ones are good to 50ns.

Keeping time consists of two parts. Knowing what time it is and knowing when exactly it is that time. A rubidium oscillator can tell you exactly when 1 second has elapsed, but there's no phase lock to reality reference. The GPS receiver will output a string saying "at the pulse, the time will be 14:24:00", then output a pulse within 50ns of it being that time.

/Have a friend who has a metrology obsession
//He had a few rubidium oscillators and a cesium oscillator and has an (unfortunately non-working) Atomichron

colinspooky: No it's not. Seems pretty comprehensive to me

Ed Finnerty: colinspooky: No it's not. Seems pretty comprehensive to me

With seven pages, I'd agree.

This.

I wonder is subby considers multiple orgasms all over the place, body and face, bukkake style, just simply foreplay.

If so, I'd like to come over and hang out sometime, because I'm doing it wrong apparently.

/nice find though, thanks!

GoldenMetalRaven: Bah, time itself is subjective and arbitrary.

Not to mention that time may not even exist...

I thought time was supposed to be relative. Did it change?

GoldenMetalRaven: Bah, time itself is subjective and arbitrary.

"Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so."

GoldenMetalRaven: Bah, time itself is subjective and arbitrary. We simply "agreed" that a second is a measurement of a periodic element (caesium-133) oscillations at rest at 0 K.

In reality, neither my microwave, nor my computer, nor atomic clock in my honest opinion can accurately tell time. The only way that time is equal to whatever an atomic clock says is when the devices are reset to the atomic clock. After that point, the timing becomes inaccurate yet again due to the internal mechanics of each device.

Personally, time really does "fly" when I am having fun and "slows down" when I am extremely bored. When I am busy I seem to not have enough time unless I decide to give myself time and stop watching the clock.

Philosophy is fun! ;)

Also, Clock Tease (pops to You Tube)

ZAZ: Longitude by Dava Sobel is a book length version of page 4.

Neal Stephenson's "System Of The World" trilogy is about 3000 pages surrounding the Longitude Prize, but he manages to touch on a few other things.

OK, clock nerds. Got about 20 bucks and 20 hours? Make your own working paper clock (new window)

Bought one myself... haven't had the guts to get started building it yet.