Comic Strips

I'm sure I could learn to read this as quickly as any other clock, given practice. I saw one 45 years ago on the mantel in someone's house. My nerdy teenage friend had learned how to read it and taught me. I didn't have one to practice with, and quickly forgot. Forty-five years later, and I've never seen another one.

This display, as a clock interface for humans, makes no sense in the real world. Outside of showing it to people as a novelty.

If you want a cool clock that anyone can read, get a nixie tube clock.

I had a binary watch in highschool. They're really not that hard to read once you know how. Practical? No. But they're great for showing everyone you're the biggest dork in the class.

For those who aren't familiar, this is how you read this. Just add up the columns where there are lights.

* 8 * 8 * 8
* 4 4 4 4 4
2 2 2 2 2 2
1 1 1 1 1 1

So the last panel doesn't have any 8s and is read like this. You add the columns.

- 4 4 - - 4
- - - 2 2 -
1 1 - 1 - 1

And adding those columns gives you:

1 5 4 3 2 5

15:43:25

I really don't like these. It's binary for each digit, so it's really just a bad proxy for decimal numbers rather than being clean binary numbers. If it were roman numerals, I feel like it would be equally silly to separate the numbers this way: 15:39 -> I, V : III, IX.

I understand that it makes it hard to read if the binary numbers go high, but that's why we don't use them like this.

My math teacher in high school had one of these, though he never mentioned what it was to us. I used to stare at it off and on during class, and eventually it clicked “Oh, it’s a clock!” After that, with some intense staring, I figured out the pattern and was satisfied. Asked the teacher about it later, and apparently I had taught myself binary.

That knowledge displaced whatever he was talking about that day. Hopefully it wasn’t too important.

15:39? Then takes him 3 minutes

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

Wouldn't it make more sense for the clock to have just 3 rows or columns? Hour/minute/second.

I don't know why he has such trouble. You really should only need 1 bit to determine whether or not it's afternoon. Just look at the "afternoon" bit light. 🤷‍♂️

I mean, they obfuscated it by adding seconds. It's really not that hard. Just takes a few seconds instead of a glance.

In college, I had a binary clock and a binary watch. They were great! I could read them just fine; everyone else couldn't. Stopped using them because they were bright as hell! The watch doubled as a flashlight at times (depending what time it was). Eventually, the battery in the watch died. I think both were gotten from thinkgeek (back when it was good).

Yet they are abundant, esp. with Linux GUIs. Every clock applet has a binary option: digital, analog, binary. And fuzzy, which is what the yellow-haired guy is doing.

I have a watch that shows binary time. Two rows, I think 12 hour cycle, no seconds. Pretty easy to read, honestly. Also an absolute nerd gadget and I loved it.

6 bit, 6 bit, 7 bit? Huh. Only 5, 6, and 6, is needed for 24-hr binary-coded-sexagesimal... ohh. It's binary-coded-decimal-coded-sexagesimal.

15:43:25 in the last panel. Or about a quarter to four in the afternoon.

I suppose the 5,6,6 BCS option would need a lot more mental effort.