On Disk Monthly 58/odm58.zip/TK.TXT

Text File | 1991-06-10 | 9KB | 174 lines

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|E║ |5Helpware|E ║                ^1 Time Keeper |E                 ║ |5Helpware|E ║
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^C^1by
^C^1Michael Sadaway


   Although physicists don't fully understand it, they have become
very adept at measuring its passage.  Time, one of the most profound
and subtle mysteries of the universe.  What exactly is it or is it
not?  Even Albert Einstein retreated before the riddle of time.  As a
modern technological civilization, global in scope, we are utterly
dependent upon (even slaves to) this elusive quality of the cosmos.
In short, we live by the clock.  Bus, train, subway, and airplane
schedules, appointments, meetings, sporting events, TV broadcasts and
the work day--all are coordinated by time.  We are a people obsessed
with time.  Indeed, our present technological society would be
impossible without the skill to accurately subdivide the present.
This is why we have developed atomic clocks, which measure time by
counting the ultra-fast vibrations of atoms.  This is also why most
people today use electronic watches, based on essentially the same
principle as the atomic clock, and small enough for each of us to
carry one around.

  So, while we may not know what time ^1is^0, we ^1do^0 need to know
the time of day.  This brings us to Time Keeper, which can use your
modem to dial into the National Institute of Time and Technology in
Boulder, Colorado and synchronize your system clock with Universal Time
Coordinated (UTC).  Time Keeper is an easy-to-use Date & Time display
program with 12/24 hour formats and a programmable alarm. Even if you
don't have a modem you can call the Institute at 1-(303)-499-7111 and
set Time Keeper manually, then use its time hack feature to help you
synchronize all of your clocks.

  But Time Keeper's real value is in its ability to set your system
clock directly, via modem.  A simpler way to set a clock you will
never see!  And while peripheral cards are available for upwards of
$250 that set your system via shortwave radio to within 20
milliseconds of Universal Time, Time Keeper can set it to within as
little as 2 milliseconds!  So, set your wristwatch from Time Keeper,
and never let anyone claim that their time is more precise than yours.
You're on Universal Time!


^C^1Using Time Keeper

   Invoke Time Keeper from the DOS prompt by typing TK.  If your
machine has a color video card but a monochrome display (as most
portables have) force Time Keeper to use monochrome colors by typing
TK M.  You will see the current time in the center of your screen with
a list of the active keys at the bottom of the screen.

   Here is a list of the command keys and what they do:

   F1   Puts a help box at the top of your screen.  Pressing ESC, F1,
        or a non-toggle function key removes the box.
   F2   Toggles function key labels at the bottom of the screen ON
        and OFF.
   F3   Allows you to change the color and character design of the
        time/date display.  Your changes are saved in the file TK.DAT
        in the current directory when you exit the program.
   F4   Toggles between 12 and 24 hour time formats.  If the hour is
        before noon, you will see no immediate difference.
   F5   Toggles between date display, time display, and time/date
        display.  Time/date alternates the two displays every second.
   F6   Allows you to set the date either manually or by dialing
        directly into Boulder.
   F7   Allows you to set the time either manually or by dialing
        directly into Boulder.
   F8   Allows you to set the alarm time.
   F9   Toggles the alarm on and off.
   F10  Toggles the audio time hack on and off.
   ESC  Exits to DOS or the On Disk Monthly menu.
Control-C Configuration.  Sets communications port, dialing method,
          phone number and time zone.  Also controls whether
          Daylight Savings Time(DST) is observed.
Control-S Calls Boulder to set your system date and time.


   Before you try to call Boulder, press Control-C to configure your
modem.  Make sure you are using the proper ^1COM port^0 and that the
proper ^1time zone^0 is selected.  If you live in one of the areas in
which Daylight Savings Time is not observed, be sure to set DST off
(Time Keeper will determine whether DST is in effect when it calls
Boulder).  Don't forget to select the correct phone number.  Six phone
numbers are provided.  The first three numbers allow calling from
outside Colorado, long distance in-state and locally.  The second
three numbers are the same as the first except that they begin with a
nine and a pause to permit dialing an outside line on systems that
require this.  Time Keeper assumes that your modem understands the
standard Hayes command set.  If you want to call using a WATTS line or
optional long distance service, just dial using a phone on the same
line as your modem; then tell Time Keeper to dial the rest of the
number.


^C^1I Don't Have Time!

   Once you are sure of the correct time, you can experience the
sheer, unmitigated joy of resetting all the clocks in your house, car,
boat, etc.  What?--you only have 20 clocks?  As the saying goes, a man
with one watch always knows the time, a man with two is never quite
sure!  Time Keepers' time hack feature makes it easy to set all of
your clocks to within a fraction of a second.  An audible tone will
count off each second, with a varied tone on each tenth second and for
the last ten seconds of each minute.


^C^1"Changing Times"

  Years ago, things were not as hectic--the sundial and hourglass are
two well-known time keepers from antiquity.  Knotted ropes and notched
candles have been burned as crude measures of time.  But technology
has demanded ever greater accuracy from our clocks.  At the same time,
the growing interdependance of nations has made a world-wide standard
time a necessity.  By the nineteenth century, mechanical clocks were
highly developed and the standard for time was based on precise
astronomical measurements.

  The beginnings of a world-wide time standard came in 1887 when time
zones were established leading east and west from the meridian line
passing through the British observatory at Greenwich.  This gave us
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and the International Dateline which passes
along the opposite side of the planet from Greenwich.  Until 1956, a
second was defined as a fraction of the mean solar day (1/86,400th).
From that time until 1964 the second was redefined as a fraction of a
solar year (1/31,556,925.974th) because of irregularities in Earth's
^1rotation^0.  But by 1964 the irregularities in Earth's ^1orbit
were found to cause too much error in time measurements and so a new
standard was settled upon.  The new standard, which is still in use
today, is based not upon planetary motion, but upon the vibrations of
atoms.  The age of the atomic clock has arrived and the official world
standard for the length of a second is now defined as the time it
takes a cesium-133 atom to vibrate 9,192,631,770 times as measured by
what we call an atomic clock!  Now that's precise!

  Other elements, such as Ammonia, can be used to build even ^1more
accurate clocks.  The trouble is, atomic clocks cannot be run
indefinitely, so they are usually used in conjunction with high-
quality quartz clocks.  The quartz clock is used to keep the time; the
atomic clock is used to keep the quartz clock honest.  So using Time
Keeper is almost like having your own atomic clock!

  A note of warning: If accurate timings are important to you, make
sure that your system keeps good time before counting on it!  Not all
systems do, and if your computers' internal battery is old, your
system may keep poor time or forget the time altogether when it is
left off for too long.  Be aware too that many systems are only
accurate to within 20-50ms, no matter how precisely they are set.
Worse yet, rounding error can introduce short term errors in an
otherwise accurate system.  Two of the systems we tested on kept
falling over a second out of synch only to realign a minute or so
later!

  But for the vast majority of us, 50ms is ^1plenty^0 accurate enough!
Time Keeper's built in time hack function makes it easy to set all of
your clocks to the same time within a fraction of a second.  And you
don't have to remember whether to spring forward or fall back anymore;
just call Boulder every six months!  That level of convenience (not to
mention accuracy) is well worth a couple of bucks per year!

^C^1Outside of On Disk Monthly

   To run Time Keeper outside of ^1On Disk Monthly^0, type ^1TK^0.  To
force Time Keeper to use monochrome colors, type ^1TK M^0. Upon exit,
Time Keeper will save the color and modem configuration information in
the TK.DAT file.  If TK.EXE is in your PATH, TK.DAT will be placed in
the directory with TK.EXE, otherwise TK.DAT will be placed in the
current directory.

Disk files this program uses:
^FTK.EXE
^FTK.DAT