Sunday, February 29, 2004 |
01:24 - The Wall Wot Keeps Time
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Here... this should be good for a few Monster-House-esque geek points. I know I've been sorta slack lately in that regard.
This is my bedroom wall, facing the foot of my bed. It has a built-in atomic clock. Neat, huh?
...Actually, the deal is this: I bought one of those $30 radio clocks from OfficeMax; tore it apart; extracted the little box that houses the mechanism and the radio-syncing electronics; took off the hands, and attached longer hands made from strips of Bristol board; then I took a larger rectangle of Bristol board, sprayed it with the same drywall texture gunk they use on the walls, and painted it red to match; and then waited for like six months while I got the room all painted and trimmed and ready.
Then, today (finally), I got out the razor knife and cut a hole in the drywall just the right size to stick the box in, plus some finger holes so I can remove it later (to change the battery, etc). Then I used wood glue to tack down the paper patch so the edges are barely visible, unless the light is coming directly from the side (which it usually is-- bah). Then I used a compass and a plumb bob and little cutouts of Bristol to lay out the tick marks. I started the clock so it synchronized itself to the atomic time, then pressed the hands into place. And there you have it.
It's an NTP-enabled wall.
UPDATE: Okay, picky, it's not actually NTP... it's the weird analog ticker-radio thing astronomers and such use. Same concept.
Now, if I had wired up some kind of micro-PC in the wall, and written a port of ntpd to run on WallOS, then we'd be in business...
Maybe I'll get in touch with Larry Wall.
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