[HN Gopher] Google Timer is back
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Google Timer is back
Author : meken
Score : 128 points
Date : 2022-08-22 19:17 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.google.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.google.com)
| sixhobbits wrote:
| I don't see it on mobile (Firefox Android) but do if I hit
| request desktop site, in case anyone is confused
| cma wrote:
| Google cripples the site on firefox android. There is an
| extension called Google search fixer that adjusts the user
| agent to mobile chrome on Google searches make it not do that.
| purpleblue wrote:
| My kid used this all the time because I would give him timelimits
| on his Minecraft time. When it disappeared, he was in complete
| disarray but started to rely on Siri. I think he'll be happy to
| see it back up and running!
| ProAm wrote:
| Anyone placing bets on how long it lasts? Standard 18-24 months?
| jacquesm wrote:
| You can set a timer to remind you.
| ProAm wrote:
| :D haha which message service will they send the reminder to?
| s0rce wrote:
| RSS to google reader
| comboy wrote:
| too soon
| kylehotchkiss wrote:
| Enjoy it before it goes back to the graveyard!
| yonrg wrote:
| Wow! So there is somewhere the killedbygoogle homepage. Do we
| also have a reincarnatedbygoogle site?
| tonetheman wrote:
| who even knew they had a timer...
|
| Imagine being the person/team who worked on this knowing that
| most of the web will never see your work.
| jmkni wrote:
| llaolleh wrote:
| Probably put it back so someone can put it on their promotion
| packet.
|
| El low hanging fruit.
| silicon2401 wrote:
| When it stopped working for me I just started using duckduckgo's
| timer
| meken wrote:
| Response to this thread
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32295674
| johnasmith wrote:
| Looks like this was an actual bug, not deliberately removing a
| feature:
|
| https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/1560010093294489602
|
| https://support.google.com/websearch/thread//152736727
| franze wrote:
| and .... it's buggy
|
| try https://www.google.com/search?q=timer+724+years
|
| click on start, looses most of the time
| TrainedMonkey wrote:
| Some kind of overflow, it resets timer to 40 hours. Same thing
| happens with 1 year, except timer is reset to 60 hours. Another
| interesting observation is that "timer 723 years" did not bring
| timer up, but "timer 722 years" did.
|
| Update: "timer 100 hours" works, but "timer 101 hours" does
| not. That is 100 hours is 144,000 seconds, does not seem to be
| anything special about this number.
| jefftk wrote:
| Sometimes it drops to 40hr, other times to 100hr. Haven't
| been able to figure out what the pattern is.
| buildbot wrote:
| 725 years causes it to glitch twice
| buildbot wrote:
| I got it to reset twice in row by using 725 years, reset to
| 63 then 99!
| bhaney wrote:
| It can just only handle two digits in the hours place after
| the first tick. Any other digits get removed. 1 year becomes
| 60 hours because it turns 1 year into 8760 hours, then
| removes the "87" and leaves the "60"
|
| Edit: this seems like it's just a display bug and the
| original time is still preserved. If you search "timer 100
| year 1 second" then it formats to "876000h 00m 01s", then the
| next tick shows "0s", then the next tick shows "99h 59m 59s"
|
| > Another interesting observation is that "timer 723 years"
| did not bring timer up
|
| That is weird. Even weirder that "timer 723 year" (singular)
| does seem to work.
| bmitc wrote:
| Is it really buggy? Is it a feature that you need a timer of
| 724 years ... in a web browser?
| margalabargala wrote:
| An obvious bug is an obvious bug, even if typical users don't
| often hit the bug.
|
| I can absolutely think of a reasons why someone would use
| this. For example, a DM in a role playing game might pull up
| a very long timer as a prop to show their players.
|
| I agree that "the number of times you want a 724 year timer
| to count to zero" is negligibly small, but that is a minor
| subset of "the number of times you want to show a 724 year
| timer counting towards zero"
| scoopertrooper wrote:
| OP took things a little far, you can make it glitch at the 5
| day mark.
|
| You may ask why I'd need a timer in my web browser for 5
| days, and you be right to do so.
| bmitc wrote:
| Haha. I'm not even for sure why I need a timer in the web
| browser at all.
|
| However, I will concede it is indeed rather buggy. A Google
| search of "timer 3 minutes" does nothing for me, as it just
| performs a normal search with no timer widget. A search of
| "timer 2 minutes" or "timer 4 minutes" works fine.
| cmelbye wrote:
| I've noticed that the language parsing of these
| knowledge/assistant queries is a bit strange sometimes. A
| more subjective example is "10 lakh in USD". This isn't a
| perfectly formed query -- lakh is not a currency but a
| unit in the Indian numbering system. However, I think
| most humans would assume that I'm talking about
| converting Indian rupees and this is reflected in the
| organic search results. Google understands that I'm
| trying to convert currency but for some reason decides
| that I meant "10 lakh Euro in USD".
| phailhaus wrote:
| #wontfix
| aeyes wrote:
| And the title of the page shows something else and doesn't
| update.
| theophrastus wrote:
| ..and curiously, with the little speaker icon 'on', it produces
| no audio alarm for me, (firefox 103.0.2). Whereas this[1] one
| produces a quite notable sound.
|
| [1] https://www.online-stopwatch.com/countdown-timer/
| willio58 wrote:
| These days browsers make sure there's user interaction before
| audio plays. The other website you linked requires a click to
| start the timer, therefore meeting that requirement. If
| Google made this timer muted by default, and you had to click
| unmute, it would likely work.
|
| Ran into a related bug on a site I was working on the other
| day and had to learn this browser quirk the hard way.
| martin_a wrote:
| I wouldn't be surprised if this was a "Chrome only" feature.
| In 2022 everything can happen.
| zatkin wrote:
| When would you ever need a timer for 724 years?
| efsavage wrote:
| 724 Test Engineers walk into a bar...
| benbristow wrote:
| When you're waiting for the answer to life, the universe and
| everything
| [deleted]
| paxys wrote:
| A bug is a bug. "Why would anyone ever do XYZ" is a separate
| discussion. And if you write software for a living you know
| that there is _always_ that one user who will do exactly XYZ.
| bbertelsen wrote:
| Hyrum's law. How meta.
| kuboble wrote:
| Nope. Undefined behavior on obviously incorrect input isn't
| a bug in my world. ( might be in other circumstances )
| nomel wrote:
| It's not incorrect input. It's incorrect handling of
| accepted input.
| taftster wrote:
| You must be a C programmer.
| insightcheck wrote:
| Haha. I was thinking along similar lines as kuboble, but
| then I'm someone in the process of trying to learn C.
|
| I agree, upon further thought, that at least an error
| message would be better for the user (e.g. "Maximum timer
| duration exceeded").
| dogecoinbase wrote:
| "Undefined behavior consists of exactly one proposition,
| to wit: There must be compiler engineers whom the
| language standard protects but does not bind, alongside
| developers whom the language standard binds but does not
| protect." (source:
| https://twitter.com/jckarter/status/1558181259314167808 )
| JohnFen wrote:
| Undefined behavior on obviously incorrect input is always
| a bug. Incorrect input should give you an error.
| diarrhea wrote:
| I mean, the query is "timer $period". It's correct in its
| syntax, a period's a period. It's not asking for "timer
| TIMMY; DROP TABLES". _That's_ incorrect input.
| sverhagen wrote:
| Sure, a bug is a bug, but the original remark was that the
| software was "buggy". I read "buggy" as riddled with pretty
| obvious bugs. If we're calling software "buggy" for having
| any bugs, then, I guess, nearly all software is "buggy"
| (and the word looses its usefulness).
| Jtsummers wrote:
| Anything over 100 hours gets recalculated modulo 100, so
| 101 hours becomes 1 hour. But then the page title, which
| is meant to show the current countdown in the tab
| display, gets updated to show the full time, but weirdly
| formatted. So at least two bugs.
|
| Try "timer 101 hours". The page title will (very quickly)
| show "10:05:9x" where x is the 10s digit of the seconds.
| While the page itself claims it's a one hour timer (59
| minutes and some seconds). So the actual time is in there
| somewhere, just showing up wrong in both places.
|
| It also doesn't seem to let me enter 30 minutes as a
| timer, but most other minutes times work. So, yes, it's
| buggy.
|
| EDIT: It's not actually modulo 100 hours, I should note.
| The display is showing it that way, but since it has the
| real time stored internally it still counts down. If it
| were actually modulo 100 hours then it would zero out a
| 100 hour (or 200 or 300...) countdown immediately,
| instead these wrap to 99 hours, 59 minutes, and 59
| seconds on the first tick.
|
| EDIT: For grins I'd started a 101 hour timer a bit over
| an hour ago before stepping away from the computer.
| Despite the display silliness, it actually will run for
| 101 hours. After the first hour the displayed time rolls
| back to 99:59:59 and the page title updates correctly. I
| also noticed that there's a progress bar below the timer,
| it correctly shows the progress within the 101 hour timer
| the whole time.
| sverhagen wrote:
| Those sound like reasonable bugs, the original that we
| were responding to (724 years), less so.
| intrestingstuff wrote:
| [deleted]
| dang wrote:
| Recent and related:
|
| _Google Timer is gone_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32295674 - July 2022 (323
| comments)
|
| Less recent but related:
|
| _Google Timer_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8436869 -
| Oct 2014 (34 comments)
|
| _Google timer_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6429564 -
| Sept 2013 (154 comments)
|
| _Now set timer on Google.com_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6155243 - Aug 2013 (11
| comments)
| TheMaskedCoder wrote:
| How are people supposed to use features like this if they get
| dropped and re-added from time to time? If I want a convenient
| timer, googling "set 5 minute timer" has no advantage if I don't
| know whether it will work or not. Inconsistency is an enemy of
| convenience.
| meibo wrote:
| Your software never has bugs? We definitely had to turn
| something off before because something didn't line up/someone
| messed up planning during a bigger tech transition. This stuff
| happens in big orgs ran by humans, I'm happy that it's back and
| it's a lot better than the first result in any case.
| hotpotamus wrote:
| I know that software is fiendishly difficult, but if you
| think a parent is ever going to put their child in a software
| driven car, then the industry had probably better get a bit
| more serious.
| odensc wrote:
| Parents put their children in software driven planes every
| day.
| wutbrodo wrote:
| This doesn't make any sense. "Software" isn't produced by a
| single company with a single set of engineering practices
| and trade-offs. Safety-critical software has been around
| for decades and decades, and it's not developed and tested
| using the same practices as a minuscule D-list feature of a
| web service.
| hotpotamus wrote:
| A lesson that Boeing apparently needed a refresher on.
| spoonjim wrote:
| I already put my kids in a software driven car every day.
| It has automatic cruise control, automatic lane keeping,
| and automatic emergency braking. I don't trust Tesla's
| Autopilot yet but as soon as there is a self-driving car
| which I believe is safer than a car driven by me, I will
| switch to that.
| behnamoh wrote:
| Why wouldn't I be surprised to see it gone later on? Kudos to
| Google for reshaping their brand image this way, they made my
| switch to alternatives much easier.
| naillo wrote:
| On the other hand I doubt many more people noticed that it went
| away than ppl on HN who saw the previous thread. So now they've
| all been re-informed and know they can rely on it again.
| capableweb wrote:
| I agree with you in general but not in this particular case.
| Best case scenario: you get a five minute timer running right
| away. Worst case scenario: you click the first link and get a
| five minute timer right away
| shmoe wrote:
| Still bitter about reader over here, friend.
| dpedu wrote:
| Is it inconsistent? Even if it isn't google's timer, you still
| get results for timers provided by other websites, if you
| google search for "set 5 minute timer".
| jacquesm wrote:
| Holding out for Reader ;)
| rexf wrote:
| It will only come back if the universe runs in a loop.
| zestyping wrote:
| For timing a meeting, try http://timeit.lol/ -- it shows you an
| estimate of when your meeting will end, which will creep forward
| if you exceed the time allotted for the current agenda item. It
| was designed for standups, where each person gets 5 minutes to
| speak, but you can also add agenda items of varying length.
|
| You can also use it in count-up mode (http://timeit.lol/?0) to
| count how much time each person has spoken.
| gregmac wrote:
| Another good way to time certain meetings is using dollars:
| https://www.mcgurrin.info/mcc/meetingclock.htm
| ZainRiz wrote:
| OP's link also shows how long until Google Timer is killed again
| lopatin wrote:
| Here's a timer for when they'll shut it down again
|
| https://www.google.com/search?q=timer+2+weeks
| [deleted]
| underyx wrote:
| Googling "mortgage rates" also stopped showing the interactive
| widget when the timer first disappeared. And now that widget is
| also back.
| sjs7007 wrote:
| Find my phone widget is also gone. Need to click through into
| the website now which for a person who constantly misplaces
| their phone is annoying.
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(page generated 2022-08-22 23:00 UTC)