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1/25-scale Cray C90 wristwatch

chrisfenton.com

41–50 of 79 posts

Re: 1/25-scale Cray C90 wristwatch

#41

I love to imagine this kind of thing dug up by an alien civilization. That it displays the moons of Jupiter will be a fun puzzle and a source of wonder. “Obviously”, they will say, “these people must have worshipped Jupiter as a god and used the position of its moons to keep time.” But the pieces of the puzzle will never quite fit. Who knows, maybe the Antikythera mechanism or the pyramids were a similarly ludicrous…

"Some people (X'Grn'k et al) say it was a device used for humorous purposes. However, we consider that the presence of sacred etched silicon devices rules this hypothethis out. While crudely worked in that time, and despite the abundance of raw material on the planet, such silicon was in short supply and was central to the nascent Guptian Church movement. In addition, records suggest that the "geo"politics of the time, somewhere between 1980 and 2050, had silicon artisanry in constant high military demand (see the F'llr'wq Metaversity analysis on use of Phonic Screen Devices in Central-West Asian planet-surface warfare between 1945 and 2045), and if not inducted into the Guptian priesthood, a silicon carver could expect a so-called 99-6 life, a 105-Earth-hour cycle with 99 hours in a warfab and 6 hours to rest (J'Hrar et al). Furthermore, per a recent discovery of a transaction record thought likely to be payment for living volume at the Western-American coastal enclave, the artisan class appears to have little in the way of disposable resourcing. Thus, we consider it unlikely that an artisan of that period could have spared or even been allowed the resources or time for such levity."

Re: 1/25-scale Cray C90 wristwatch

#42

I love to imagine this kind of thing dug up by an alien civilization. That it displays the moons of Jupiter will be a fun puzzle and a source of wonder. “Obviously”, they will say, “these people must have worshipped Jupiter as a god and used the position of its moons to keep time.” But the pieces of the puzzle will never quite fit. Who knows, maybe the Antikythera mechanism or the pyramids were a similarly ludicrous…

"Some people (X'Grn'k et al) say it was a device used for humorous purposes. However, we consider that the presence of sacred etched silicon devices rules this hypothethis out. While crudely worked in that time, and despite the abundance of raw material on the planet, such silicon was in short supply and was central to the nascent Guptian Church movement. In addition, records suggest that the "geo"politics of the tim…

I am now adding "Silicon Carver" to my resume.

Re: 1/25-scale Cray C90 wristwatch

#43

> The display shows a free-running simulation of Jupiter and 63 of its moons. For convenience, I just plot the X/Y coordinates of each moon in the ecliptic plane. The ephemerides come from the HORIZONS server that NASA operates, at a specified date and time. The J90 just dumps a new frame whenever the Teensy has pulled the previous one, so with a teensy (ha!) bit of calibration on the micro controller side, it would…

[dead]

> But what is a Nixie Watch? How does it function? These are some questions worth exploring with this distinct and idiosyncratic wristwatch. So—let’s continue!

> ....

> Without getting into the weeds too much, the watch harvests electricity from said battery; deploys that electricity through currents; then the currents are switched off-and-on at exact times via a circuit board—which governs the electrical currents.

While this certainly isn't "in the weeds", it does rather feel that this is not even within visual range of any plant at all.

At the risk of eating the Onion, though it's not inaccurate, it doesn't seem like a very useful description, to anyone, even if the reader has never encountered electricity. The juxtaposition of that sentence with the earlier airily unelaborated-upon "a Nixie tube is a cold cathode tube" is pure art.

Re: 1/25-scale Cray C90 wristwatch

#44
post #10

I thought this was funny until the last picture, then I thought it was great.

Haha yeah, the "A 25:1 Replica of my wristwatch" image caption cracked me up.

reminds me of the thing in model railroading, where actual IRL rail equipment is referred to as "prototype" for the model

Re: 1/25-scale Cray C90 wristwatch

#46
post #4

The round displays are so cool Uses an FPGA lol damn that's hardcore

FPGAs were an odd experience of learning for me. I started thinking they were hard to program. Then once I got halfway decent at simple things, I realized just how powerful they can be. So many things just run faster if not instantaneously if you optimize for FPGA. It's incredible. And with modern cheapy low end boards, I hope they get more popular in projects.

Re: 1/25-scale Cray C90 wristwatch

#49
post #13

This would be a great prop for time travel scifi movie. Protagonist travels to 1991 and tries to convince scientist to help him. When asked for a proof, shows Gray C90 Wristwatch. "Our real computers are different, but I show you this because it does not pollute the timeline."

My premise for a time travel movie is very simple.

1. Buy a book on probability. Work through the practice exercises.

2. Time travel back to a time before the laws of probability were invented or taken seriously. Pre-1600's would be a good guess.

3. Become a gambler.

4. With the riches that will soon be pouring into your pockets, acquire resources and transform history.

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