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Digital Clock Without Electricity or Moving Parts

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-where's-the-alarm-function dept.

NerdMachine writes "Throw away those slide rules and embrace the digital age. The Digital Sundial is a 10 year old invention on display in Sundial Park (Genk, Belgium), Deutsches Museum (Munich Germany), Kölnisches Stadtmuseum (Cologne, Germany), and Martha's Vineyard, USA. You need to pivot it to adjust daylight savings time. If you can't visit one of these, Digital Sundials International can sell you one for US$12,000+, or you can buy a pocket version for under US$100 for that special nerd in your life."

32 of 269 comments (clear)

  1. Sunlight? Heard about it by SIGALRM · · Score: 5, Funny
    In the true tradition of all sundials, the device is purely passive - it operates without electricity, and has no moving parts. Instead, the sunlight is cast through two cleverly designed masks
    I live in Seattle. Just a wild guess... but I don't think these clocks are going to sell well here.
    --
    Sigs cause cancer.
    1. Re:Sunlight? Heard about it by boarder8925 · · Score: 2, Funny
      Torch light sales might go up though if this thing catches on.
      Well, those torches better be able to move like the sun, otherwise the clock won't work.
      --
      Keep your eyes to the sky.
    2. Re:Sunlight? Heard about it by dna42 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

    3. Re:Sunlight? Heard about it by Rei · · Score: 2, Funny

      I worry more about when there's that floating exclamation point over my head. Not only does it make me look funny and block out my ability to look up, but invariably when it happens, someone comes up and starts trying to talk with me. It gets boring after a while.

      I suppose you could use the exclamation point to light a sundial like this, but most graphics cards aren't good enough for something like that.

      --
      The *special* hell.
    4. Re:Sunlight? Heard about it by fbjon · · Score: 2, Funny

      Dude, you don't realize the potential of a digital sundial wristwatch!!!

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    5. Re:Sunlight? Heard about it by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

      I live in Seattle. Just a wild guess... but I don't think these clocks are going to sell well here.

      Just get the guy who figured out how to sell fridges to Eskimos.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  2. What i need for Christmas!! by CmdrObvious · · Score: 2, Funny

    That will go perfectly with my new Digital Sun! I cant wait!

    1. Re:What i need for Christmas!! by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


      Sundials don't work, the one I've had in my basement hasn't changed time since I installed it.

      --
      Trolling is a art,
    2. Re:What i need for Christmas!! by neverutterwhen · · Score: 4, Funny

      A quick hack for this would be to remove the rest of your house.

      --
      My appreciation of Douglas Adams is far deeper than yours.
  3. Defeating the purpose of the sundial by ralphart · · Score: 5, Funny

    $12,000 USD?? That doesn't seem like a very bright idea.

  4. Whoa by underpar · · Score: 4, Funny

    $12,000 USD?? That doesn't seem like a very bright idea.

    And if you're not bright enough it won't work when you're inside.... That's deep.

  5. Not until... by bourne_id · · Score: 5, Funny

    .. they have built-in calculators, can be worn on the wrist, and can run a scaled-down version of Linux.

    JMD

    --
    When all else fails, feel free to panic.
    1. Re:Not until... by freakmn · · Score: 3, Funny

      So Solaris running it now isn't good enough for you?

      --
      warning: This post is likely to contain gobs of dripping sarcasm. Consume at your own risk.
  6. Doesn't a sundial require a moving part? by I_am_Rambi · · Score: 5, Funny

    as in the earth. If the earth didn't rotate, it wouldn't work. Sorry, but there must be a moving part.

    1. Re:Doesn't a sundial require a moving part? by njfuzzy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sundials would also work with a moving sun. ;)

      --
      My Photography - http://ian-x.com
      The Deathlings (comic) - http://thedeathlings.com
    2. Re:Doesn't a sundial require a moving part? by Penguinshit · · Score: 5, Funny


      Is that you, Aristotle?

      --

      I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...

    3. Re:Doesn't a sundial require a moving part? by John+Harrison · · Score: 2, Funny

      in the same manner that a sense of humour is not part of you, right?

      --
      Lasers Controlled Games!
    4. Re:Doesn't a sundial require a moving part? by njfuzzy · · Score: 2, Funny
      No, not at all.

      But I will give you a clue:

      "Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world."

      ;)

      --
      My Photography - http://ian-x.com
      The Deathlings (comic) - http://thedeathlings.com
    5. Re:Doesn't a sundial require a moving part? by NardofDoom · · Score: 4, Funny

      Someone stop this frame-of-reference madness!!

      --
      You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
  7. Sunlight? Pocket? by ackthpt · · Score: 2, Funny
    If you can't visit one of these, Digital Sundials International can sell you one for US$12,000+, or you can buy a pocket version for under US$100 for that special nerd in your life."

    Evidently the sun does shine there for some people...

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  8. Douglas Adams quote by gmknobl · · Score: 3, Funny

    We "still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea."

  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  10. Only 10 years old? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    This has to be the fastest slashdot has got an article to the frontpage. Congratulations

  11. Re:The sound of silence by NardofDoom · · Score: 3, Funny
    So when they call me into work at 2AM to fix something I can show up at 7 and say my watch wasn't working.

    Excellent.

    --
    You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
  12. Okay, so to recap by cardshark2001 · · Score: 2, Funny
    It's some kind of fancy light bouncing device that can tell you what time it is every 5 minutes. It's not incredibly useful at night. You can't play doom on it.

    Next!

    --
    WWJD? JWRTFA!
  13. Spoiled Kids These Days... by Godling · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...will never learn to read a proper sundial.

    1. Re:Spoiled Kids These Days... by daeley · · Score: 3, Funny

      So are you saying gnomon is an island?

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  14. Wow by slapout · · Score: 2, Funny

    I could buy 17 Linux licences from SCO for that!

    --
    Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
  15. Ahh, sunlight... by revolvement · · Score: 5, Funny

    A slashdotter's arch-nemesis.

    *runs from the flames*

  16. Re:Not a good gift... by 77Punker · · Score: 2, Funny

    Some of us nerds think evolution is important; I have learned from a female biology nerd that we can reproduce under the right conditions. I highly recommend it not only for the good of the human race, but it's fun too.

  17. Re:Not a good gift... by 77Punker · · Score: 2, Funny

    Dude, after 5 hours of UT I swear I turned around and might've seen a girl walk past the CS lab!

  18. Battery by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... what kind of battery life does this so-called "Sun" have?

    The clock mechanism is powered by a flywheel.

    The display is powered by thermonuclear fusion.

    Horrors! Have to ban sundials! That "sun" thing is so dangerous when they're working that just a few minutes exposure can give you a radiation burn.

    (Bad, bad woodchip mill. Good old outback bill.)

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way