this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 67 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I'm sure I could learn to read this as quickly as any other clock, given practice. I saw one 45 years ago on the mantel in someone's house. My nerdy teenage friend had learned how to read it and taught me. I didn't have one to practice with, and quickly forgot. Forty-five years later, and I've never seen another one.

This display, as a clock interface for humans, makes no sense in the real world. Outside of showing it to people as a novelty.

If you want a cool clock that anyone can read, get a nixie tube clock.

[–] PKscope@lemmy.world 18 points 3 months ago

I fucking love my nixie clock.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)
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[–] dalekcaan@feddit.nl 55 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I had a binary watch in highschool. They're really not that hard to read once you know how. Practical? No. But they're great for showing everyone you're the biggest dork in the class.

[–] ttyybb@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

In that case I might need one...

[–] bravesilvernest@lemmy.ml 30 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

15:39? Then takes him 3 minutes

[–] Tja@programming.dev 22 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

15:39:02 until 15:43:25, so more than 4 minutes.

It is afternoon, tho.

[–] bravesilvernest@lemmy.ml 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

"If the first column has lights, it's more than likely afternoon" lol

[–] Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The true binary clock: afternoon or not-afternoon.

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[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 5 points 3 months ago

I mean, if you don't need to know the precise time it''s indeed useful and cool...but there are better ways to do it

[–] Anafabula@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Six columns of binary numbers each representing a base 10 digit to display three base 10 numbers is kinda stupid, but it is easier to read than just having three binary numbers I guess.

[–] four@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Wdym three binary numbers? Just one is enough. Make it a Unix timestamp so you can have a calendar built in!

[–] noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 months ago

Yeah, what kind of idiot needs repeating patterns in the time format for repeating times during a day? Just display the unix timestamp on the clock tower and be done with it.

Actually, having 64 bits arranged vertically on a tower seems neat.

[–] ladicius@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

When it's a 24 h display like in the cartoon the digits must have more lights to represent numbers higher than 15. The clock in the cartoon only has four lights per column.

I'd prefer your version of this clock.

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[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 30 points 3 months ago (1 children)

For those who aren't familiar, this is how you read this. Just add up the columns where there are lights.

* 8 * 8 * 8
* 4 4 4 4 4
2 2 2 2 2 2
1 1 1 1 1 1

So the last panel doesn't have any 8s and is read like this. You add the columns.

- 4 4 - - 4
- - - 2 2 -
1 1 - 1 - 1

And adding those columns gives you:

1 5 4 3 2 5

15:43:25

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Fuck this, too much brain power needed to simply tell the time. I'll stick with my smartwatch (FWIW I at least use an analog watch face 'cause although I'm dumb, I'm not that dumb).

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 5 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Pebble

This is the level of watchface I need to tell the time quickly

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[–] OddMinus1@sh.itjust.works 29 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I really don't like these. It's binary for each digit, so it's really just a bad proxy for decimal numbers rather than being clean binary numbers. If it were roman numerals, I feel like it would be equally silly to separate the numbers this way: 15:39 -> I, V : III, IX.

I understand that it makes it hard to read if the binary numbers go high, but that's why we don't use them like this.

[–] mlg@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They should make one that shows the unix timestamp with the full 32 bits lmao

[–] noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 3 months ago

64 bits please. We don't want a year 2038 problem.

[–] bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

BCD is something that's supported directly by some processor instruction sets.

[–] binarytobis@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

My math teacher in high school had one of these, though he never mentioned what it was to us. I used to stare at it off and on during class, and eventually it clicked β€œOh, it’s a clock!” After that, with some intense staring, I figured out the pattern and was satisfied. Asked the teacher about it later, and apparently I had taught myself binary.

That knowledge displaced whatever he was talking about that day. Hopefully it wasn’t too important.

[–] TisI@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 months ago

And kids, that's the story of how I became binary.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

[–] noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 3 months ago (3 children)

... and those who know at base n, "10" can represent literally any number.

[–] howrar@lemmy.ca 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That's why you always specify the base

10~10~

[–] noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 months ago

I hope they included that information on the cover of the Voyager golden record in case aliens want to understand our numbers.

"10" can represent literally any number.

That sounds eminently practical. There's NO way that would ever lead to any excess ambiguity! πŸ˜„

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[–] nroth@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Wouldn't it make more sense for the clock to have just 3 rows or columns? Hour/minute/second.

[–] Rednax@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

Yeah, this one is just messed up. They use binary to display the individual characters of a decimal number. This makes it wayyy harder to read than a proper binary clock.

[–] noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 months ago

My thought as well, but alas, this is what my dad's looks like 🀷. Illustrates the point even better though, kind of.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I don't know why he has such trouble. You really should only need 1 bit to determine whether or not it's afternoon. Just look at the "afternoon" bit light. πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 3 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Doesn't that turn on at 10:00

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[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I mean, they obfuscated it by adding seconds. It's really not that hard. Just takes a few seconds instead of a glance.

[–] noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If that obfuscated something, it wasn't on purpose... it's just literally the clock in my dad's kitchen.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's to make a nerdy thing more nerdy. But they really shouldn't have added seconds to a thing that takes more than a second to read.

[–] noerdman@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 3 months ago

imho, the "seconds" bits are neat because you can see things change... Like, you see that it does stuff. Like the "seconds" hand on an analogue clock, it's mostly practical to see that it's working as expected.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yet they are abundant, esp. with Linux GUIs. Every clock applet has a binary option: digital, analog, binary. And fuzzy, which is what the yellow-haired guy is doing.

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[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

I have a watch that shows binary time. Two rows, I think 12 hour cycle, no seconds. Pretty easy to read, honestly. Also an absolute nerd gadget and I loved it.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

6 bit, 6 bit, 7 bit? Huh. Only 5, 6, and 6, is needed for 24-hr binary-coded-sexagesimal... ohh. It's binary-coded-decimal-coded-sexagesimal.

15:43:25 in the last panel. Or about a quarter to four in the afternoon.

I suppose the 5,6,6 BCS option would need a lot more mental effort.

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[–] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

In college, I had a binary clock and a binary watch. They were great! I could read them just fine; everyone else couldn't. Stopped using them because they were bright as hell! The watch doubled as a flashlight at times (depending what time it was). Eventually, the battery in the watch died. I think both were gotten from thinkgeek (back when it was good).

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 months ago

I made a uni project where we had to program some old processor + simple display, so I made a roman clock. Was appreciated.

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