I’m all for conquering the stars. Seriously. At least exploring them. I think if we try to plant our flag everywhere like we did on the planet we’ll get our ass handed to us eventually.

As we travel the stars and meet other species, ala Star Trek, or populate other planets and areas, like The Expanse, here’s what’s going to happen, Earth is going to be in our rear-view mirror.

Like all the way.

So the concept of a day is going to disappear. Which means the concept of the year will also disappear.

So this whole notion of a stardate is really going to be bupkis.

And if we expand it to be a solar system based number, it will again become irrelevant when we leave the solar system.

The only true number will be a universal (or multi-versa) constant that represents change.

Except, change isn’t necessarily constant throughout the universe is it?

Anyone have a solution for this?

It occurred to me, as I was writing down 2017.33 on a log that remembering the day may be a challenge. It made me wonder how we remember dates now. Is remembering a number between 1 and 365 going to be difficult? 366 if it’s a leap year, but that’s for another discussion.

Today is Ground Hog day. I know it’s February 2 because it’s Ground Hog day. If it weren’t ground hog day, I’d have to think about last time I was paid (which I don’t much pay attention to date so much as the day). I could calculate that I was paid on Jan 31, but I know it was Tuesday. So, if Tuesday was the 31st and today is two days later, it must be February 2nd.

There’s no way I could (not that anyone could, but just for the fact that I try to recall pertinent information, not information I could easily look up) just know today was Feb 2nd. I don’t pay attention to dates as a matter of memory, but as a scheduling device. My calendar tells me what day it is today and what I have to do today. I wouldn’t know that it’s February 2nd unless I was told, really. I could calculate based on proximate events (like getting paid), but other than that, I would be lost. If you ask me in 5 months what the date is, without a calendar / clock / watch I really wouldn’t know, because I don’t track that. I have tools for that.

Continue reading →

I went to the web timer page today (or, looked at it, I keep it open on one of my screens) to fill in the day of year and realized that I had used the wrong method. I admit, I read the documentation wrong. I verified the android app at this point and confirmed that it’s showing the correct date. The web page was a simple fix, but since I didn’t want to do the math (I have other things to do to, ya know), I looked up what existing solutions were already out there.

The cleanest and most elegant one I found was at http://javascript.about.com/library/bldayyear.htm. They basically wrote an extension to the javascript date library, included here:

Date.prototype.getDOY = function() {
var onejan = new Date(this.getFullYear(),0,1);
return Math.ceil((this – onejan) / 86400000);
}

So, while dates were off by about 30 for one day, all things are well again in the world!

No, but seriously, if you want it, I’ll make it. Android apps cost nothing to make and can be made on Linux, Windows, and Macs. But if you want to build an IOS app you have to buy or rent a Mac. I’m not against doing it, but until there is at least one person in the world who would want the app for IOS (and takes the time to say so to me), I’m not going through the effort to build it.

If you want it, I’ll build it. Until then, we’re sticking with the website and the android app!

We’re in like Flynn!! The app has been published in the google play store and can be found here!

Download it and try it out!

New features to roll out soon.

2017.18 – 670 ticks. I sat down last night to tinker with my Metric Timer android app. Low and behold, got it fully functioning before I ran out of steam.  I just have a couple tweaks to make on the menus (like getting them to show!) and then it will be ready for an alpha release. I’m hoping tonight. It’s taking longer than usual since I’m using Xamarin to build the app and I’ve not used that tech before. However, I’ve already used the app twice since it was created, which is cool since it’s only been in existence less than 1000 ticks (24hrs). Hit me up on twitter @johntsangaris if you are interested in checking the alpha out on Android.

Before this project site went up and before I created the timer at http://metrictime.geekster.me, I worked on a prototype to ensure my math and execution was sound. In it, I came across several decisions that I had to make.

Firstly, I had, without making a goal of it, switched to using the <year>.<day of year> date format. So, today being January 11, 2017 is 2017.11. It was something I started on January 1st and just did. I can only attribute that to being a geek. A few days ago I decided to give metric time a run after having looked at it 15 years ago.  I figured that it would be appropriate since I’m changing how I do dates (I wonder if I can use that format on the next check(que) I write, I’ll let you know if the bank rejects it).

Continue reading →

It’s only be one day and already I’m seeing both the fun of the project and the limit without having more tools.

For instance, I’m looking into creating a windows app that displays metric next to your current time and date in your tool bar. Also, other than adding a manual calculation to http://metrictime.geekster.me, I need to create a phone app to give me the time.

Just when I thought it was going to be a fun and light project… 🙂

I’m going to have to research a bit more to see if smart watches are at the point where I can create an app for that as well.

Just to help keep things simple,  I wrote down the important times of the day that I’m learning.

I’d expect that if we went full metric that we may adjust our day according to metric time. Like work would start at 300, 350, or maybe 400. Maybe back to work would be 545. We tend to like working with simple numbers. That’s why we don’t have meetings from 8:27 to 8:53, typically.  However, since we live in the standard time world, here are a few shortcut times for my day.

Wake up – 229

Get to work – 333

First meeting – 354

Lunch – 500

Back to work – 541

Go home – 708

Go to sleep – 958

This small effort project will be my attempt to convert to using Metric Time for one month during 2017. I’ve created a webpage that displays metric time. In this project blog I’ll document issue I’ve had as well as considerations, decisions, and thoughts on Metric Time.

This is not an attempt to change the world. Just an experiment in what it would take to actually convert.

The site that displays Metric Time is at http://metrictime.geekster.me.

-John
2017.10