Hey Phil,
Just say "Hey Siri/Alexa/... What time is it?" and listen for the answer
As long as you can make out the gabble from all the smart phones in the vicinity
That's just it Phil, you don't. Glancing at one's watch in front of people is one of the most rude things in society. Imagine a class full of co-workers who keep looking at their watch while you're giving a presentation. A one hour meeting lasts an hour, watch or not. The habit of looking at a watch doesn't make the time go any faster, and for other people in the room, it's just a tacit reminder that they're not important.
I'm certainly not criticising, and it does require throwing out old habits. After a bit of practice, it's not hard to refine one's internal clock. Besides, there's something more honest about clocks on smart phones, or pocket watches for that matter. There's no pretending with them. In my experience, people distrust those who keep looking at their watch.
The last watch I wore was a gold Mickey Mouse watch. No, really! It was only available to Walt Disney Studio employees (my wife worked there in the 80s). It eventually stopped working (I still have it), but I've never used one since.
Hello!
Oh wow. (About the watch.) By the way Mickey wears a Kermit watch, given to him by the frog.
And at Maker Faire last week, one of the stalls happened to be your book's publisher. I did say nice things. And what's strange is that your book Gordon, was the one that caught everyone's eyes.
Glancing at one's watch in front of people is one of the most rude things in society
What? In my three score years on this planet I don't recall ever being offended by people checking the time on their wrist watch. Perhaps they were discrete. Perhaps it was such a common thing nobody noticed.
I can imagine getting distrustful of people continually looking at their watches, but that is not normal behavior.
No, what pissed me off is people answering their mobile phones whilst in the middle of a conversation with me. Worse still starting to check their twitter feed, facebook or whatever. I started to make it a rule to terminate such conversations at that point. If they then ask "where were we?" I say "Sorry, I don't remember".
I do find it odd how accurate ones brain and or body can be at timing. Often when I set an alarm clock for some early morning activity that I'm enthusiastic about I will wake up just minutes before the alarm goes off.
On the other hand, if I'm not so enthusiastic my brain will go through all kind of contortions to stop me waking up. An alarm can get integrated in to some dream about an emergency situation. Conversation on the alarm clock radio will become a dream about some meeting I'm in. I continue slumbering for another three hours...
I have recently realized that I miss my wrist watch. So much more convenient than getting the time from a mobile phone. And more reliable.
Aside: How come there are few, if any, big clocks to be seen in airports? Railway stations, bus stations and such always had clocks in prominent places. Obviously, the whole operation depends on the time. Today if you sit drinking a coffee in an airport there is no clock to be seen anywhere. Very annoying. Unless you have a wrist watch of course....
I am just waiting for the Apple Watch to have the full iPhone functions, except the screen of course. Then the iPhone/iPad or equivalent can just become a wireless slave terminal/screen to the watch, so when I want a big screen I pull out the big screen. I will only need to trade my watch every two years. Dick Tracy will be a total reality. The screen can also act as a charger for the watch too.
The last watch I wore was a gold Mickey Mouse watch. No, really! It was only available to Walt Disney Studio employees (my wife worked there in the 80s). It eventually stopped working (I still have it), but I've never used one since.
Robert Langdon, the protagonist in DaVinci Code, A&D & Inferno also wears a Mickey Mouse watch, a gift from his parents.
Apparently all geniuses prefer Mickey and/or Hopalong time.
40 years ago, I had a problem that caused my body temp to run high and no watch I tried ran accurately. Did not matter, accutron, mechanical, windup or battery powered,analog or digital. Solved the problem,got my temp back to normal and my current Seko only gets off time is when I have to reset the date function because of short months. I
just remembered, I had the watch when I solved the problem, and it has been running accurately ever since.
JIM
heater,
GameBoys are what my kids had growing. It also kept them occupied on long drives (16 hours to their Grandma's).
My wife would often steal one to play Tetris.
All,
Remember when all the digital watches of the 80's used to pop on the hour. On the plane home from Hong Kong, every hour was greeted with lots of pips, almost in synchronism, but not quite.
Wearing a watch, or a cell-phone to assume to know what time actually is, is - hmm - quite impossible. At the moment you look at it, it is already gone.
I had and have the pleasure to work with different time zones every day. Like others reported, I wake up every time before my alarm clock goes off. A colleague of mine and me stumbled about this and postulated the following thesis, then parted and met some weeks later again to verify.
Setting up alarm clocks (especially in changing hotel rooms) needs some CONCENTRATION on the subject. Especially when drunk the evening before a meeting.
And one still wakes up before the alarm clock.
So the experiment was, instead of setting the alarm clock just write down the time on a piece of paper and set it next to the bed.
As if to answer the human timekeeping/alarm clock puzzle for us is news that the Nobel Prize for Medicine has just been awarded to Jeffrey C Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W Young for tackling exactly that problem.
So the billion or so of us watch wearers are simply wrong and deluding, nay CHEATING ourselves and wasting tiny batteries for nothing?
Must be a massive cover up, a scam perpetrated by the worldwide watch battery cartel. Be careful, no-watch people, you're a threat to big battery money. You might start disappearing, just like every inventor of a 300 mpg carburetor.
Well.. there's a bus stop just outside. I don't go outside until it's less than a minute until its scheduled time (I hate standing around just waiting). A digital wristwatch is just the thing. A glance is enough. Finding a phone and turning on the display just to get the time would be absurd in this case.
iWatch it on ads, then I check the price, then Realise I cannot afford it / don't need it.
But I must say that it's getting there. Now it has mobile phone in built, I just need more battery time, and for it to use a wifi/Bluetooth iPad/tablet as a simple screen and keyboard for the bigger screen apps, and perhaps to recharge the iWatch battery too. No need for iPhone, just a number of simple different sized touch screens.
The battery in my digital watch is at least ten years old, and there's nothing indicating that it'll need replacing anytime soon, fortunately.
Having to recharge a watch every day or two sounds like a nightmare of insanity.
Well my watch did require a new battery 25 years ago, but just haven't had the need to replace it. ie I stopped wearing a watch.
As I said elsewhere, I am looking forward to a watch replacing my iPhone, and using a big wireless dumb tablet connected to the watch when I mostly need the bigger screen.
Google Glass or any wearable headsup display can show the time continuously. No need to glance at watches then. I'm sure in the very near future there will be people defending the practice, as if humanity needed it all along.
Have to wonder about the viability and the need for a lot of the new gadgets these days. One of the minor irritations of google news is the number of cell phone reviews that show up day after day.
Google Glass or any wearable headsup display can show the time continuously. No need to glance at watches then. I'm sure in the very near future there will be people defending the practice, as if humanity needed it all along.
Interesting.
Back when my LUG (Linux Users Group) met at a Google NY office, I once saw two of them wearing those things. After getting closely matched and worded replies, I was convinced that I just saw two Borg drones, trying to fit in. Or worse, two individuals from the Doctor Who timeline, concerning both Cybermen, and Daleks. All three are equally disturbing.....
I have decided to wait for tiny implant that goes in my head and connects wirelessly to my brain which simulates the watch in my vision. I heard they are in beta testing with a ship date of April 1
Comments
Just say "Hey Siri/Alexa/... What time is it?" and listen for the answer
As long as you can make out the gabble from all the smart phones in the vicinity
Hello!
Oh wow. (About the watch.) By the way Mickey wears a Kermit watch, given to him by the frog.
And at Maker Faire last week, one of the stalls happened to be your book's publisher. I did say nice things. And what's strange is that your book Gordon, was the one that caught everyone's eyes.
I can imagine getting distrustful of people continually looking at their watches, but that is not normal behavior.
No, what pissed me off is people answering their mobile phones whilst in the middle of a conversation with me. Worse still starting to check their twitter feed, facebook or whatever. I started to make it a rule to terminate such conversations at that point. If they then ask "where were we?" I say "Sorry, I don't remember".
I do find it odd how accurate ones brain and or body can be at timing. Often when I set an alarm clock for some early morning activity that I'm enthusiastic about I will wake up just minutes before the alarm goes off.
On the other hand, if I'm not so enthusiastic my brain will go through all kind of contortions to stop me waking up. An alarm can get integrated in to some dream about an emergency situation. Conversation on the alarm clock radio will become a dream about some meeting I'm in. I continue slumbering for another three hours...
I have recently realized that I miss my wrist watch. So much more convenient than getting the time from a mobile phone. And more reliable.
Aside: How come there are few, if any, big clocks to be seen in airports? Railway stations, bus stations and such always had clocks in prominent places. Obviously, the whole operation depends on the time. Today if you sit drinking a coffee in an airport there is no clock to be seen anywhere. Very annoying. Unless you have a wrist watch of course....
Robert Langdon, the protagonist in DaVinci Code, A&D & Inferno also wears a Mickey Mouse watch, a gift from his parents.
Apparently all geniuses prefer Mickey and/or Hopalong time.
just remembered, I had the watch when I solved the problem, and it has been running accurately ever since.
JIM
GameBoys are what my kids had growing. It also kept them occupied on long drives (16 hours to their Grandma's).
My wife would often steal one to play Tetris.
All,
Remember when all the digital watches of the 80's used to pop on the hour. On the plane home from Hong Kong, every hour was greeted with lots of pips, almost in synchronism, but not quite.
I had and have the pleasure to work with different time zones every day. Like others reported, I wake up every time before my alarm clock goes off. A colleague of mine and me stumbled about this and postulated the following thesis, then parted and met some weeks later again to verify.
Setting up alarm clocks (especially in changing hotel rooms) needs some CONCENTRATION on the subject. Especially when drunk the evening before a meeting.
And one still wakes up before the alarm clock.
So the experiment was, instead of setting the alarm clock just write down the time on a piece of paper and set it next to the bed.
It worked for both of us.
The brain is a wonderful thing.
Enjoy!
Mike
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/02/nobel-prize-for-medicine-awarded-for-insights-into-internal-biological-clock
Must be a massive cover up, a scam perpetrated by the worldwide watch battery cartel. Be careful, no-watch people, you're a threat to big battery money. You might start disappearing, just like every inventor of a 300 mpg carburetor.
But I must say that it's getting there. Now it has mobile phone in built, I just need more battery time, and for it to use a wifi/Bluetooth iPad/tablet as a simple screen and keyboard for the bigger screen apps, and perhaps to recharge the iWatch battery too. No need for iPhone, just a number of simple different sized touch screens.
-Phil
Having to recharge a watch every day or two sounds like a nightmare of insanity.
Of course my mechanical wind up watch did not need any batteries for the thirty years before that.
No doubt there is some new fangled wireless charger you can leave your iWatch on every night.
https://www.buywatchwinders.com/single-watch-winders-c-4.html
Apparently, they just simulate wrist action so the little cam inside the watch can keep it wound.
-Phil
There's a sucker born every minute.
By the way, if I'm sleeping or in a coma I really don't want anyone hassling me about what time it is.
Well my watch did require a new battery 25 years ago, but just haven't had the need to replace it. ie I stopped wearing a watch.
As I said elsewhere, I am looking forward to a watch replacing my iPhone, and using a big wireless dumb tablet connected to the watch when I mostly need the bigger screen.
Just get an Apple brain implant. Hot wired straight into your visual cortex. No more clunky monitors required.
The Gremlins must have fallen out. :P
Interesting.
Back when my LUG (Linux Users Group) met at a Google NY office, I once saw two of them wearing those things. After getting closely matched and worded replies, I was convinced that I just saw two Borg drones, trying to fit in. Or worse, two individuals from the Doctor Who timeline, concerning both Cybermen, and Daleks. All three are equally disturbing.....
Awesome... those $40-400 watch winders make even a $10 watch battery from RadioShack look affordable.