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>The clock doesn't remove the local times and replace them with UTC You're right, this clock doesn't remove the local times and replace them with UTC; instead

>The clock doesn't remove the local times and replace them with UTC You're right, this clock doesn't remove the local times and replace them with UTC; instead this clock overlays the local times with a replacement "A-X time", which is a single timezone applied to everywhere. Not UTC, but a new, non-standardized "DIY" UTC. That's the whole thing it does: throw away the location-specific "daylight-hours" quantifier (the "hour" part of the time) and replace it with a "single timezone" version (where it's "F:30" everywhere on earth at the same time), but instead of the globally-recognized standard of UTC, it's a brand-new standard that arbitrarily uses letters rather than numbers (with an "origin point" that's unclear -- where in the world is A:00 equal to 00:00? I couldn't find it, so I couldn't easily figure out my timezone's offset so that I could reason about daylight hours). I've seen clocks that do this already, but with UTC instead of "A-X time": they have two "dials", one for local time and one for UTC. That's all this is, just with letters instead of numeric hours (an arbitrary substitution) and a newly-made-up "base" timezone instead of UTC. There's no functional difference between consulting a clock like this so that you can say "F:30" to all of your teammates and it'll be the same time everywhere, and consulting a UTC clock so that you can say "10:30 UTC" to all of your teammates and it'll be the same time everywhere, except that most people have memorized their local UTC offset and can go "oh, okay, 10:30 - 5 hours = 5:30", where with F:30 they have to go consult your website instead. Having a configurable "meeting time" feature is neat, but like...that's an extra tool you had to build on top of your clock system, not an intrinsic feature of your clock system itself. I need a complex translator tool to tell me what A-X hours are reasonable for meeting with people because I can't just simply apply offsets in my head and get intuitive results (especially because the "base" offsets are unclear). I think a lot of folks overestimate how painful it is to do modulo addition/subtraction, compared to how painful it is to learn an entirely new system of timekeeping-and-translation.

hhebbo 5y ago
I appreciate the detailed analysis. The base of the letters and where they start, the A, is UTC. A is UTC +/-0. The idea isn’t the letters, which seem to be the main point in the comment, the idea is the rotating UTC (represented by letters to distinguish local from UTC times) instead of having am extra hand moving. An extra Hand moving will make the clock more complex to read. We’d have 4 hands moving. I think a rotating UTC makes it easier to read. As for the letters, it’s easy to change back to numbers which is then simply UTC itself. It’s an experiment with letters, if it doesn’t work, it can be changed. Would love to hear your thoughts on the rotating UTC layer vs an extra UTC layer + hand.

hhebbo 5y ago

I appreciate the detailed analysis. The base of the letters and where they start, the A, is UTC. A is UTC +/-0. The idea isn’t the letters, which seem to be the main point in the comment, the idea is the rotating UTC (represented by letters to distinguish local from UTC times) instead of having am extra hand moving. An extra Hand moving will make the clock more complex to read. We’d have 4 hands moving. I think a rotating UTC makes it easier to read. As for the letters, it’s easy to change back to numbers which is then simply UTC itself. It’s an experiment with letters, if it doesn’t work, it can be changed. Would love to hear your thoughts on the rotating UTC layer vs an extra UTC layer + hand.