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Binary Watch

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the first-story-to-use-the-word-ostfriesen dept.

sovereignclass writes: "IDG in Sweden ran a little story about a firm in Norway that has built a binary wrist watch. It look way cool and I am definitely in line for getting one myself. With a price-tag of 250 norwegian kronor it's not a tough buy either. Yes, it shows time in decimal too... In Sweden we often poke fun at the Norwegians (like the Germans do to the Ostfriesen) and this almost sounds too good to be true."

3 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Nitpick part III by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    @500 is 1200 GMT, @999 is 2359 GMT

    I'm not too familiar with "beat time" or whatever, but technically, 999 would probably be 23:58:33.6 GMT, since each beat(?) is 1 minute, 26.4 seconds.

  2. Left-aligned digits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Before it is actually produced, I would hope the trendy designer would be smart enough to ask a computer-literate person beforehand and *right align* the digits ( and replace the digits with lights, as already mentioned ).

    It's nice now that the world and his dog wants to be a geek, but they need to realise that should still ask us real geeks before doing anything technical.

  3. Weird time... by Creepy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I was half expecting to read 23:59:59 on the watch, but it reads 23:59:50. Didn't I hear Norway moved to a 50 second minute somewhere...

    hah - gotta get my slams on Norwegians when I can. I went to school with a girl who used the e-mail sig the Norwegan goddess, so we of course made fun of her as the Nor-WEGG-An goddess rather than the Nor-Weeg-An goddess. Ah, the good old days :)

    Anyhow, straying offtopic. Not much you can say about a friggin watch, tho (ooh - mine does base 2!).

    I can just imagine a conversation here:

    So, is there a time I can take you home and show you the true meaning of love?

    Scrawling on a bar napkin: 11001

    Um, is that supposed to be a time? It looks like you forgot the colon... what's the extra one for?

    It's in binary - see? Look at my watch.

    That's a weird watch... it looks like it's almost that time now... you're not trying to pull something over on me, are you?

    Naw. Ask one of your buddies over there, maybe they can figure it out.

    Smiling slyly - by the looks of things, it's almost that time now.

    I'm waiting...

    (asking buddies) What the f*ck is binary? For that matter, what the f*ck does 11011 mean in it?

    (shrugging) The heck if I know.

    Me either. Hey, your friend over there just headed out the door... did you get a phone number?

    Shit!

    (for the technically challenged or lazy, 11001 binary is 25 decimal [16+8+1=25] - thanks go out to the Dukes of Stratosphear [aka XTC] for their strange and weirdly inspiring song 25 O'Clock)