it at the bottom of these blog pages****
I finally got a working eTime clock! I have to admit that I thought we were talking a little graphics and some javascript here. But the task was a bit more daunting than I thought it would be.
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There is a picture of the clock to the right. I tried make it work on the blogger pages but there is some "fixing" that this software does that I don't understand yet so the javascript breaks. I set up the working clock on my Comcast page because it let me upload my html file without interpretation.
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It is version 1.0 and I will be updating it over the next few weeks. But it should show you how your local clock will look. Mine (because I am in Mountain Daylight Time) has the "A" on the night time 6:00 position. Yours will be somewhere else depending on your local time.
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The point being, Sheneal instructed me, that when we are scheduling a cross-time-zone event (webcast, conference call, group discussion, whatever....) all we need to do is look at our local eTime clock and speak the letters. We will automatically think the numbers because we have been doing it for years. Some watches and clocks don't even have numbers on them (little jewels or dots do just as well).
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The conversation will go something like this: "Is G:30 ok with you?"; "Well, I usually eat lunch at G'o'clock, can we make it I:30?" "I:30 is a little too close to my quitting time - tell you what, this should only take us 45 minutes so can we make it I:15?" "Perfect"
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Each person will be looking at their own clocks and thinking 12:30 - 12:00 - 2:30 - 2:15 for the one in MDT and 2:30 - 2:00 - 4:30 - 4:15 for the one in EDT but speaking a common language out loud.
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The best use of the new way of "telling" time will be on the internet. "Webcast at B'o'clock" - with an eTime clock on the site - no confusion. Later when Google puts it on the main page as a standard widget we will truly be able to communicate about time without any translation at all.
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A short note about the 5 to 6 hours. Sheneal explained to me that most global clocks that they deal with in the other worlds are in the shape of our figure eight, either on its side or on straight up. One of the circles is general night time and the other is daytime.
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I told her that most people in this world would not feel comfortable with that right away and that we need a transitional clock that looks mostly like our current clocks.
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We went back and forth on this. She kept telling me to "turn it in on itself". For some reason I could not understand what she was saying until I remembered a thing called a Mobius Strip. She said "yes, finally, that's it; fold it, tighten it up and you can make the clock." It was a simple idea but have you ever looked in your favorite graphics program for the "Mobius Strip" icon? No such beast. In the end I was able to make the current version using Bryce and Paintshop and my not-so-favorite program: Lots-o-time.
