Bummer - iOS 6 wants to load the whole file before switching to the second frame, so this won't work there.
Show HN: Real time updating gif countdown with automatic time zone detection.
11–19 of 19 posts
Re: Show HN: Real time updating gif countdown with automatic time zone detection.
#12I am confused, what is the actual advantage of having the countdown be a gif compared to HTML+JavaScript? For video and remote desktop there might be use for the kinds of gifs, but for a numeral countdown?
I would use such a gif in a blog post as an announcement for something. "Site will be up again at 8pm. (gif)", "Get 25% off in 1 hour (gif)"
Re: Show HN: Real time updating gif countdown with automatic time zone detection.
#13Bummer - iOS 6 wants to load the whole file before switching to the second frame, so this won't work there.
I added a check so now it only sends the first frame to iOS devices.
Re: Show HN: Real time updating gif countdown with automatic time zone detection.
#14I am confused, what is the actual advantage of having the countdown be a gif compared to HTML+JavaScript? For video and remote desktop there might be use for the kinds of gifs, but for a numeral countdown?
The use case for it is things like forums, where you are limited in what you can embed.
Re: Show HN: Real time updating gif countdown with automatic time zone detection.
#15The only issue is that the gif is streaming, which means the page is never 'ready'. Also I didn't look into it, but wouldn't bandwidth be an issue if people left these running in backgrounded tabs?
The gif is set to only update for 2 minutes. That ends up being around 470KB.
If the size or "page never loading" is an issue you have the option to turn of animations when creating the countdown.
Re: Show HN: Real time updating gif countdown with automatic time zone detection.
#16It shows my timezone as Australia in the preview?
I'm in US/Pacific time zone
$ date
Sun May 26 12:10:52 PDT 2013
Re: Show HN: Real time updating gif countdown with automatic time zone detection.
#17The only issue is that the gif is streaming, which means the page is never 'ready'. Also I didn't look into it, but wouldn't bandwidth be an issue if people left these running in backgrounded tabs?
That will also never work in mobile safari since it doesn't play gifs until they finish downloading.
The maker replied to me in a comment below - it won't work in Mobile Safari, but now it only sends the first frame, so the page will finish loading and it won't eat up bandwidth.
Re: Show HN: Real time updating gif countdown with automatic time zone detection.
#18The only issue is that the gif is streaming, which means the page is never 'ready'. Also I didn't look into it, but wouldn't bandwidth be an issue if people left these running in backgrounded tabs?
That will also never work in mobile safari since it doesn't play gifs until they finish downloading.
[deleted]
Re: Show HN: Real time updating gif countdown with automatic time zone detection.
#19It shows my timezone as Australia in the preview? I'm in US/Pacific time zone $ date Sun May 26 12:10:52 PDT 2013
Pretty sure it just defaults to Australia, since I also had Australia.