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Gordon Richmond wrote:
On 1/1/07 12:53 AM, in article
zd2mh.8373$yC5.786@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Scott W. Harvey"
<NOT_MY_REAL@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Gordon Richmond wrote:
Of course, you now have a full-time career keeping all the damfool digital
clocks
synchronized. :>)
A couple of weeks ago I encountered a seller at a flea that was selling
cheap LED alarm clocks made by a company called Equity Time. They are
called "Insta-Set" clocks and they are so simple to set a three year old
could do it in less than two seconds with one hand tied behind his back.
How? Amazingly simple.....The timekeeping electronics is backed up by a
lithium battery and the minutes portion is set at the factory. The clock
has a four-position switch on top of it, one position for each U.S.
time zone. You just plug the clock in, set the switch to your time zone
and voila...the clock is set! It's so simple, it's pure genius....with
all the billions of digital clocks out there, and all the convoluted
methods of setting them, why didn't someone think of this before?
Well for one thing, there's no guarantee these clocks will be accurate,
given that this depends on the tolerance and environmental sensitivity of
the crystal. If you're not critical, it's probably good enough. But
honestly, how hard can it be to set a clock?
Setting digital clocks is PITA. I've never seen one where you could scroll the
display
BACK, only forward. So if it's gained 2 minutes, you have to scroll it ahead 23
hours and
58 minutes. An analog clock can be set back in less time than it took me to
type this
sentence.
Gordon Richmond
I've seen many like you describe, and they most certainly are a PITA.
However, I've also seen ones with separate hours/minutes/am-pm/date etc.
..some of those even with forward/reverse setting. The most innovative
one I've seen (which I have) is a little Magnavox clock radio with a
wheel/dial on the top. You turn it back and forth to set the time. No
problem if you go too far, just reverse direction. From the clicking
sound, I believe it must be a digital encoder or stepping switch. OTOH,
it's a pretty noisy solution, as making large adjustments sounds like a
New Year noisemaker.
jak
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