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September 30, 2005
Binary Clock
Ok, I'm smart. It's annoying, I know it as well as everyone else. So I'm at work the other day and I see one of these things on a desk as I'm walking by. Nothing that catches my attention is ever gone, it just put on the queue for processing later. My brain was working on it, the right hand side lights seem to travel up the to the top and then the next most right column increases. Some sort of calculator or something. Anyway the guy is at his desk, so I stop and ask him what it does. And he says it's a binary clock. I had a good laugh, because I know what it was, I knew what time it was. Then I stopped to think about how many people are left in this country that can actually still read binary? There are days I scare myself with how many hexadecimal I remember from my wasted youth in computers.
So how many cool points would I lose if I snapped up one of these bad boys??
Posted by ManDrake at September 30, 2005 1:56 PM
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Comments
It's only cool if you build it.
Bonus points for using TTL chips.
Even more bonus points for using transistors.
Not that I've ever spent any time at work writing one in Java. nope.
Posted by: reno at September 30, 2005 2:17 PM
And bonus bonus points for doing real binary, not BCD.
Posted by: reno at September 30, 2005 2:22 PM
Somehow Reno, I think your leading towards not having any cool points at all.
Posted by: ManDrake at September 30, 2005 3:54 PM
BTW, the clock says 12:26:16 for those of you that don't translate binary automatically in your head.
Posted by: ManDrake at September 30, 2005 4:14 PM
Thanks for clearing that up for me. I have to admit, when I first looked at it, I couldn't figure out how it was configured, or why the first row only had two lights. But, now I get it. :) I guess if I could have seen a video of it working (instead of just a picutre) it would have made more sense. Eitiher that, or I just needed to think about it a little more.
But, either way, thanks. That is way too cool. Maybe I should get one for Nelson's room . . .
:)
Posted by: katherine at October 3, 2005 2:51 PM