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Vetinari's Clock (2011)
- bthallplz 1y agoDoes anyone know of a place where I could buy one?
- proee 1y agoNice to see someone using a rightly-sized microcontroller for their project. Most hackers today throw an ESP32, or worse yet, a Raspberry Pi to handle the simplest of tasks. I suppose this is because the platforms are so readily available, but still there is something cool about using a teeny-tiny microcontroller.
- defanor 1y agoI thought it is an overkill, though probably a convenient and practical one. But if one's aim is hacking with simpler technologies, a mechanical linkage (maybe something with a cam) should suffice for this task. Or an electrical circuit with simpler components, without digital logic in it.
- Applejinx 1y agoFar too great a disparity, but lovely to see all the same :) at least 60% of the ticks should be very close to normal to elicit a false sense of security and no more than 27% of the ticks should be WAY OFF, perhaps even less. However, the principle is sound, and the execution is… timely?
- kingofmen 1y agoAt last we have built the Torture Clock from the famous fantasy story, "Don't Build the Torture Clock".
- yayitswei 1y agoAwesome. I wonder if there is a pulse sequence that maximizes that feeling of randomness?
- NoSalt 1y agoI have not read the Discworld series, but this sounds insidious as Hell!!! I love it.
- B1FF_PSUVM 1y agoI asked Google Gemini for book sources, got this: "The Vetinari Clock originates from Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of books, specifically appearing in the waiting room of Lord Vetinari, a recurring character. It is first described in Feet of Clay and also features in Going Postal, where its purpose is to psychologically unsettle visitors by ticking irregularly while still maintaining accurate time"
- LeoPanthera 1y agoDon't post AI generated content. If I wanted to read slop, I could generate it myself.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- bombcar 1y agoYou're in for a real treat! I envy you. Where to start, where to start ... https://wiki.lspace.org/Reading_Order https://wiki.lspace.org/Reading_Order
- bityard 1y agoI read the series on chronological order and enjoyed it. Getting to the end of the last book was sad, but on the bright side I read pretty slowly (a few pages a night before bed) and have a terrible memory for fiction so starting the cycle over and reading each book again in sequence is very nearly like reading them all again for the first time.
- NoSalt 1y agoThanks!
- lproven 1y agoPreviously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43554442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43554442 Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9216754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9216754
- amelius 1y agoSimilar to a Geiger counter.
- technothrasher 1y agoI may have the antidote for this clock. I've got 37 different mechanical clocks in my lab. I suspect the irregular ticks from this clock would get drowned out by all the unsynchronized ticking from the others.
- andreareina 1y agoI love it. I kinda want it to be implemented as a LFSR though that would likely cost more in parts and power. The fixed tick interval isn't as bad as I thought it would be.
- p0w3n3d 1y agoI'm a musician, I couldn't listen to it for a longer time. Btw. site was killed by hn-first-page's effect. https://web.archive.org/web/20250625211705/https://www.waitingforfriday.com/?p=264 https://web.archive.org/web/20250625211705/https://www.waiti...
- p0w3n3d 1y agoThe web archive version has a dead youtube link, so I cannot tell for sure. But I looked around youtube and this version is so rhythmical I could listen to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkP1kM_7p7E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkP1kM_7p7E EDIT it was not youtube, got it from sources. It's here: https://odysee.com/$/embed/Lord-Vetinari_s-Clock/0b5f49b3f88d48b859128b27b91b719369852901?sunset=lbrytv https://odysee.com/$/embed/Lord-Vetinari_s-Clock/0b5f49b3f88...
- mark_undoio 1y agoIn Cambridge we've got a clock called the Chronophage which is intended to be a sinister "eater of time" - the designer has done a good job of making it feel uncomfortable to look at. There's some detail here: https://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/articles/secrets-corpus-clock https://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/articles/secrets-corpus-clock My memories of what I've heard over time: * The grasshopper escapement actually is the demonic insect that sits on the top, "walking" around the serrated ring. * Although it's backlit electronically it's actually a fully mechanical design - including all of the weird things it does. * The Chronophage itself blinks its eyes unnervingly. * It sometimes pauses or ticks slightly backwards, then runs faster to catch up again. * On certain special dates it does extra weird stuff. * The "chime" is a metal chain dropping into a box. There were three made in the series, this was the first one. I've always found it slightly unappealing aesthetically but also compelling - there's no arguing with the fact that there's always a crowd of fascinated observers looking at it.
- lproven 1y ago> a clock called the Chronophage Until recently there was one in the wall of a bar in Douglas here on the Isle of Man. Apparently, the inventor of the thing lives here. Another is in his home. However that bar, the rather rough 1886, is now the Island's first Wetherspoons... :-/
- 2b3a51 1y agoGeorge Daniels, Roger Smith and this clockmaker John Taylor. Must be something in the tides?
- lproven 1y ago> Must be something in the tides? Or the tax régime, I suspect, TBH...
- 2b3a51 1y agoYeah, Daniels was selling watches for low 7 figures so VAT or other forms of purchase tax would have been a significant chunk of change. And income tax of course. "Daniels claimed that there was little money to be made in watchmaking, but his lifestyle suggested otherwise. In 1982 he moved, for tax reasons, to the Isle of Man, where he bought a substantial Georgian house complete with tradesmen’s entrance and sweeping drive." https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8846796/George-Daniels.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8846796/George-D...
- pdpi 1y agoA bit of a Baader–Meinhof moment for me. Adam Savage discussed on Youtube earlier this week[0] the Chinese water torture episode of Myth Busters, and mentioned an email he got some time after, from somebody who had apparently actually used that torture technique in practice, and this person stated that what really made it effective was tuning the drip so the drops were completely unpredictable. So, with Vetinari's Clock, Pratchett once again managed to, as was his wont, humorously but accurately nail a pretty damn grim bit of real-world trivia. 0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y2fDrv47U4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y2fDrv47U4