alt Hacker NewsThose kinds of projects are super fun, and the writing here is good, so congrats to the author.
That said, why do people need clocks? I usually know the time, day or night, within 30 minutes or so, and if I need to know the exact time (which happens rarely if ever), I look at my watch. There are zero clocks in my home. I would find it quite aggressive to have a big display that tells me exactly what time it is.
Come to think of it there is one clock in the kitchen, on the oven. It's usually never correct because it resets after any power flicker and nobody takes the time to set it back properly. This is a recent oven; it's surprising kitchen appliances still are so dumb.
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A random thing I'm remembering, but can't remember where or when I read it:
- Clocks started becoming a big deal when factory/shift work started being a thing in the early days of the Industrial Revolution.
I find value in it as a bedside clock, primarily for the alarm.
At this point it is almost pure nostalgia. Having one in the classroom or living room was crucial in my childhood because almost nobody have watches or any electronics that can tell time for that matter (computer? pfft, the school don't even have a single computer).
Later on, when everyone has their own (which are also highly accurate due to tower/network regular syncing) on their phone, I noticed that moving to a new place/classroom/office no longer involve ensuring that we have a wall clock. Nice if there's one, but otherwise we don't care, and if the battery run out, we can't be arsed to buy one and just put it in the shelf.
At this point appliances with accurate clock would only be those connected to the internet (because otherwise TLS won't work if they drifted long enough), dumb devices won't have battery-backed clock because that will cut a single cent of profit which obviously a tragedy that must be prevented at all costs.
I like my bedside LED clock. It produces very little light, but allows me to figure out what time it is when I wake up--handy in the winter months when it's pitch black until well after I should be at work. Did I wake up in the middle of the night and so should go back to bed, or did I wake up close to my alarm and might as well start getting ready? I can check without blasting my retinas with my phone which, even at the lowest screen setting is still incredibly bright by comparison. It also gives me a beacon back to my bed if I get up to use the toilet. During the new moon my bedroom gets very, very dark, and it's useful to help me get my position.
I have two clocks in my living room, they're nice because I don't want to wear my watch at all times. I have two because the previous owners of my house just left one, and I thought it looked nice so I left it up. It's actually been handy because wherever I am, wherever I'm facing, I can just glance up and know what time it is.
Do I need any of these clocks? I guess not any of the specifically, but I use them frequently.