by a few seconds a week ever since rollover. Is anyone else encountering this anomaly?

-- viewer (justp@ssing.by), May 18, 2000

Answers

Jean Luc? Jean Luc? My computer is losing time. What do you make of this anomaly?

We are Locutus! Locutus of Borg! Resistance is futile! Your computer shall be assimilated. Time shall be assimilated.

Jean Luc! Those implants sure are sexy!

Right back at you Gates!

That would be episode 67 from the 3rd season of STNG. Nothing to worry about, viewer.

Or, if this bothers you terribly, you might wish to change out your battery.

Or you can download a program such as Atom Time.

Try moving your computer to another room. If the problem is relieved, you probably have a small tear in the fabric of time located where your computer was experiencing said problem.

If this is so, place a watch with a second hand (not battery operated) in the space vacated by the computer. You can measure the size of the rift by slowly moving the watch around & noting the movement of the second hand.

Be right back, my dog is calling me.

-- Bingo1 (howe9@shentel.net), May 18, 2000.

A few seconds a *week*? HAW Haw haw. Those crystals *average* about 2 seconds off per day, one way or another. My own computer gains about 3 *minutes* a week, and that's within the spec for these parts.

If staying within microseconds of actual time is important (sometimes it is), get a GPS card. Not cheap, but it will do the trick.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), May 18, 2000.

if you need to keep track of time that precisely, you need to get a computer that wasn't made on this planet.

idiot....

-- Timex (takes@licking.etc), May 18, 2000.

Try moving your computer to another room. If the problem is relieved, you probably have a small tear in the fabric of time located where your computer was experiencing said problem.

LOL! Thanks for your burst of creativity, Bingo! It's much appreciated.

-- LunaC (LunaC@LunaC.com), May 18, 2000.

Of course, a non-technical solution is just to reset the clock periodically. (Ducking to avoid being smacked)

-- (kb8um8@yahoo.com), May 18, 2000.

Maybe all your other clocks are running a few seconds fast?

-- What's the diff? (time@waits.for.no.one), May 18, 2000.

I've installed Atom Time a few weeks ago, and found out my computer loses about a minute a week. What I'd like to know is, why does my cheap $20 quartz watch kept time perfectly since I adjusted it with Atom Time when I first downloaded it, and my $1,500. pc can't?

-- (wazzup@wit.dat?), May 18, 2000.

Wazzup,

The short answer to your quite legitimate question is the following:

There is a man of legend. He is known by many names. In the west he is best known as Old Saint Tick. St. Tick flies around the world each evening, checking wristwatches, grandfathers, cuckoos, etc. for the correct time.

As you may have surmised, Old St. Tick is computer illiterate. Therefore, it is each computer owner's responsibility to set the time themself.

Now you know the rest of the story.

-- Bingo1 (howe9@shentel.net), May 18, 2000.

And to all a good night.

-- Bingo1 (howe9@shentel.net), May 18, 2000.

Clearly, this has to (DICK PUSSY SHIT!!!!) be a Y2K problem.

-- Timmy Tourettes (timmy.FUCK.tourettes@syndrome.com), May 18, 2000.

Sounds like a problem between the keyboard and the chair.

-- cheap computers! (you@get.what.you.pay.for), May 18, 2000.

Excellent!!! Your question,and the responses, at least for now, indicate that as a group your neural processing functions remain intact if somewhat inhibited...

Time remains an issue. Or to be more accurate, temporal expression. I respectfully suggest that you explore the on which your clocks base their expression. If your instrument is utilizing GMT (and GMT systems), there may be a conversion process taking place prior to display. This miniscule action is cumulative but not detectable on a discrete transaction basis. GMT apparently still runs on UNIX time. If your measurements are based on GMT, there will be an incremental loss due to processing and this explain your discrepancy.

If you do not understand this posting, I refer you to the "old board" of the ancienne regime. By the way, don't bother to flame me. I am an old man and an old hand on the old board and will not be impressed!

mike

-- mike in houston (mmorris67@hotmail.com), May 18, 2000.

have you ever seen the likeness of the Virgin Mary in connection with your computer?

Perhaps, and this is only a theory, your computer is the only one with the correct time, and the rest of the world is running on Satan's time.....

[hey! It could happen!]

-- Can you disprove it? (ha@ha.ha), May 18, 2000.

Thats no joke about that small tear in the fabric of time..me and Doc went thru one and ended up in the year 1860..no wait that was a movie I starred in once..never mind

-- micheal (jfox@back to future.com), May 18, 2000.

Thanks for your reply, Mike. The computer is almost three years old and kept accurate time prior to rollover. Battery is not the problem. And GMT conversion process would have been consistent throughout the three-year period.

-- viewer (justp@ssing.by), May 18, 2000.

...and, oh yeah... the computer isn't cheap. Its components were sought and combined by an assembly programmer.

-- viewer (justp@ssing.by), May 18, 2000.

What a strange thread from a simple question. Thanks for the laughs. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), May 18, 2000.

yes so has mine

-- richard (richard.dale@onion.com), May 19, 2000.

Remember all those melting clocks? Same thing. Surrealistic, melting, digital clocks. It's only just beginning!

-- Sal (SalvadorDali@St.Petersberg), May 19, 2000.

There's a neat little shareware program from Locotus Codeware (http://www.locutuscodeware.com/) called "SocketWatch" that'll check a list of time servers however often you want and return the correct time and reset your clock -- if you're really serious about it. I paid them the $10 and have been running it for the last few months, and it gives me a small sense of superiority to know that the NYSE usually rings the closing bell about 15 seconds early. (I probably need to get a life.)

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), May 19, 2000.

Yeah, I run SocketWatch too, and set the wristwatch by the computer. Always know what time it is, within a second or two, anyway.

But that still doesn't help when I get to the corner store at 1:55 AM and the guy says, "No beer! The register says 2:01!"

-- Chicken Little (panic@forthebirds.net), May 20, 2000.

That is really weird. I had no idea there exists a Locutus Codeware which watchdogs one's computer clock. Makes me wonder why I mentioned Locutus of Borg in my first rather 'unusual' post.

Collective Unconscious? Coincidence?

Either way it puts a smile on my face.

-- Bingo1 (howe9@shentel.net), May 20, 2000.

...as we have predicted. Congratulations. You have been peacefully assimilated.

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), May 20, 2000.

Does it really matter that the time is not accurate? Did you know that time was created for people who can't do everything at once? Slow your internal down, enjoy what you're doing now, and GO Trailblazers!!!!! Bet LA!!!!!

-- Aragorn (ontheotherside@spacetime.net), May 20, 2000.

Older PCs used a separate 32,768hz crystal with a "trim" capacitor external to the RTC chip. If you had a very accurate frequency counter, you could adjust the clock to precisely that frequency and the RTC would keep excellent time.

It's common nowdays to simply integrate the crystal into the RTC chip (along with a sink, a coffee maker and a zillion other things, *sigh*). No adjustment is provided, so you're stuck with whatever accuracy the box has when it leaves the factory.

And yeah, that's normally not very much.

If you're wondering why it should suddenly go bad, there's a VERY slim chance that you have a virus (VERY slim). Check for that. If not, though, it's probably One Of Those Things. PC RTC chips are notoriously inaccurate, and they WILL vary with wind speed, temperature, the price of eggs in Taiwan, and a dozen other things.

-- Stephen M. Poole, CET (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), May 22, 2000.

You've got it, Stephen--I'm wondering why it should "suddenly" (over the past few months) go bad when it maintained accurate time for the two years prior to that. The motherboard is an enhanced 486.

The odds of it being a virus are pretty slim.

-- viewer (justp@ssing.by), May 22, 2000.