[HN Gopher] Author Clock: a novel way to tell time
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Author Clock: a novel way to tell time
Author : iamben
Score : 97 points
Date : 2024-06-11 11:24 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.authorclock.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.authorclock.com)
| Night_Thastus wrote:
| 13000 quotes over ~720 combinations isn't a bad spread.
|
| I'll admit, it's cute. For someone well-read this is a pretty
| charming gift. Visually pleasant and nicely constructed.
| altairprime wrote:
| I've seen one of these in person. It works as advertised.
| tzury wrote:
| Nice. Saw the price and that threw me right into SharkTank
| pitches, "cost me $39.99 and I sell it for $199".
| interludead wrote:
| Yeah, price is quite big
| xnx wrote:
| "Author Clock has built-in Wi-Fi, so all software and content
| updates happen automatically." i.e. At some point in the future,
| an advertisement will be the first thing you see when you open
| your eyes in the morning.
| HWR_14 wrote:
| Indeed, what software would you want to update?
| itishappy wrote:
| The quote db? I assume they're cached and not calling an API
| every minute.
| eddd-ddde wrote:
| That's what they mean. You could download new quotes every
| once in a while.
| toast0 wrote:
| It might be nice to update the quote database, or the
| timezone database, and wifi is handy for setting the time.
|
| I built a wifi alarm clock with OTA updates [1], which is
| handy when I find yet another bug in processing iCal or
| assumption I've made about what data will actually be in the
| iCal files. :/ Although, at this point, I've figured out what
| kinds of things don't actually work and avoid them instead of
| fixing the bugs, because there's two of these in the wild and
| I think the person I sent the second one to gave up on it.
|
| [1] https://github.com/russor/ClockThing
| toddmorey wrote:
| She turned back---for a brief, brief moment---and it felt like
| all the mad activity of the world stood paralyzed, save for a
| soft flutter from a single wisp of her hair.
|
| "Target closes in 45 minutes and they still have that great
| sale on TVs."
| knodi123 wrote:
| my mom had an alexa gizmo beside her chair, that was cycling
| through 4 kinds of ads followed by a random pic of one of her
| grandkids. Literally 80% ads. And she placed it beside the
| chair where she spends so many hours.
|
| I said "but didn't we get you a digital picture frame?" and she
| said "this one can play music. sometimes I use that feature."
|
| Really felt dystopian. She didn't mind at all. Although she
| appreciated when I spent 15 minutes digging in the settings and
| turning off every category of slideshow _except_ for pictures
| from her albums.
| genghisjahn wrote:
| It won't be along until the ads come back. I did the same
| thing. The ads always come back. Ended up returning it.
| iMark wrote:
| Is there some sort of internet law which says that any device
| providing a service which could be an app will eventually be
| replaced by an app?
| frutiger wrote:
| The app (or some equivalent) may already exist.
|
| The whole point of this product is that you get a device whose
| hardware is tailor made (e-ink, no other distractions, long
| time between charges, etc.) for this purpose.
| littlekey wrote:
| This is a great idea, and I love that it includes four languages.
| The price is a bit more than I'm comfortable with but I may pick
| one up anyway, it does look nicely constructed.
| jareklupinski wrote:
| nice! this reminds me of an art piece I saw once, which used
| segments of movies to show the time:
| https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/christian-marcl...
| aleksiy123 wrote:
| Cool but expensive af.
| divbzero wrote:
| A novel way indeed. I love how, while difficult to build without
| modern computing, the clock maintains the feel of low-key ambient
| tech.
| ajkjk wrote:
| The website tries to tell you every time someone buys one, like
| some kind of creepy attempt at peer pressure.
| pinkmuffinere wrote:
| Fwiw, this is a fairly common way to increase sales, as a kind
| of social proof, and to say "wow stock sure is dropping fast!"
| I understand it can be annoying though, as a user I'm not fond
| of it either.
| ajkjk wrote:
| It is gross in general, but it's especially offputting on a
| product that is otherwise sorta likable and cute. Like it's
| one thing if a hotel website does it because you expect them
| to be scummy anyway (not ideal but that's how it is). But
| this site could have easily not seemed scummy just by
| removing the greedy stuff.
| lynndotpy wrote:
| It completely turns me off from anywhere that sells it. I'm
| an annoying Ocarina fan, and the two largest Ocarina
| manufacturers in North America do this. I haven't bought one
| from either of them in years because of it.
| austinjp wrote:
| A well-known "dark pattern" used to suggest impending scarcity.
| Airlines and fast-fashion outlets are major offenders.
| Tao3300 wrote:
| In DARE they called that the "bandwagon approach". Everyone's
| doing it!
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| Makes me think of a quote my high school friend loved so
| much: "Eat shit - millions of flies can't possibly be
| wrong!".
| Suppafly wrote:
| I like this but I'd rather make it myself than buy it. I wonder
| if there is a db one can get with the time quotes already
| compiled, it would be trivial to make one, although the fit and
| finish wouldn't be this nice.
| bloopernova wrote:
| I wish someone would sell an e-ink screen for lazy tinkerers.
|
| It would be powered by USB C, have a small Linux system
| installed, and some easy way to display stuff on the screen. In a
| nice case.
| housel wrote:
| There is the Inkplate
| (https://www.crowdsupply.com/soldered/inkplate-5), which has an
| ESP32 and so should be just as hackable as a Linux system.
| kirktrue wrote:
| Thanks for the link! I've been looking for something similar
| to hack on
| RomanPushkin wrote:
| Sending vibes into Universe for the Russian language support...
| amadeusw wrote:
| This is a very nice packaging of a kindle hack I've seen several
| years ago [1]. Previous discussion: [2] You can point your kindle
| web browser at this website: [3]
|
| [1] https://techni.gallery/literaire-klok-trekt-
| internationaal-a... [2]
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17688324 [3]
| https://literature-clock.jenevoldsen.com/
| Waterluvian wrote:
| This is a phenomenal way to add a new distraction to every minute
| of my workday.
| WillAdams wrote:
| Funded this on Kickstarter to get one for my wife (who has an MA
| in English).
|
| It's nice, but interferes with her BlueTooth mouse and keyboard,
| so rather than the envisioned usage at her desk it migrated to
| the living room.
|
| The new mode of updating less often greatly reduces the need to
| charge.
| interludead wrote:
| I think your wife would like it!
| interludead wrote:
| I have always hunted for things like this. In my childhood, I
| collected calendars with quotes from great people. These clocks
| have intrigued me very much
| kristianbrigman wrote:
| I really like mine, but recommend the larger one - as a clock,
| you really need to be too close to the smaller one
| Retr0id wrote:
| I wonder how easy it is to mod the firmware.
|
| I have my own idea for an e-ink clockface, and something like
| this could save me some hardware prototyping (at a steep price!)
| Realistically I'm probably better off repurposing a kindle.
| Animats wrote:
| How often does it need to be charged?
|
| I made something like that about fifteen years ago. It displayed
| "A little after two", "A quarter past three", and such. It wasn't
| an e-ink device; the display was vacuum-fluorescent. So it needed
| a power cable to a wall wart. I wanted to build one that would
| run for a year on a battery, like an ordinary clock, but e-ink
| displays were too costly back then.
|
| The idea is from an old New Yorker cartoon, where someone is
| looking in the window of a clock store, and sees a long, narrow
| clock displaying "A little after three".
|
| Today, of course, it has to be "cloud enabled".
| Night_Thastus wrote:
| From the specifications:
|
| "Long-life battery: Author Clock lasts over a week between
| charges and comes with its own USB-C cable. Depending on your
| settings it can last for several months."
| vincent-manis wrote:
| The 1PM quote should be "It was a bright cold day in April, and
| the clocks were striking thirteen."
| em-bee wrote:
| only during april
| eh_why_not wrote:
| > _We plant a tree for every Author Clock sold...._
|
| > Shop: $199.00 USD
|
| Funny how products that claim a cause on the side are always 5
| times the price they should be.
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| Funny how products made as if there's no such thing as an
| externality or grotesque wealth inequality are always so much
| cheaper than they really ought to be.
|
| ps. i am not suggesting that the author clock is externality-
| free. it probably is not. nor am i forgetting that it will be
| purchased mostly by people on the upside of that inequality.
| eh_why_not wrote:
| It's buyer manipulation. _" Here's this ridiculously priced
| item; but it's okay you can feel good about throwing this
| much money away, because we're planting a tree."_
|
| Instead of segmenting/targeting the high-income market by
| product quality, they target by emotional manipulation
| claiming good causes. (i.e. higher-priced product that does
| not have to be higher quality).
| lmm wrote:
| You're suggesting that it's somehow made in a way that's more
| conscious of externalities or wealth inequalities than
| cheaper competitors, a suggestion that I think is
| unwarranted.
| gtbcb wrote:
| Do you all not think that companies should charge prices that
| maximize their profits (in the long run)? Typically, companies
| are trying to predict the price elasticity curve that yields
| the most profit via # units sold * price. That said, if you
| overcharge, that could be bad for the brand, turning off users
| in the short and longer term.
|
| Another product like this for me is the Manta Sleep Pro Mask.
| It's $80, but the best I've found, so I buy it anyways. I'm
| mildly annoyed and also feel like they're taking advantage of
| me on price and will switch as soon as there's an alternative
| at least as good for less...but when that happens, they'll
| probably lower their price, which is what typically happens as
| sectors and products mature due to competition.
|
| Profit maximization curves are interesting, and I think explain
| things like how convenience stores exist with much lower volume
| compared to grocery stores. Eg XYZ food costs 90 cents and the
| grocery store sells it for $1, yielding profit of 10% whereas a
| convenience store sells it for $1.50, just a 50% increase in
| price for the consumer (for the convenience), but the profit is
| 6x that for the grocery store, so they only need to sell approx
| 1/6 to make the same profit.
|
| In the case of the author clock. If COGS is $50, profit is
| $150ish. If they sold for $100, they'd have to sell 3x as many
| to make the same profit. Given that it's a niche product for
| readers (smaller population and typically more educated and
| wealthier), I think they care less about the price. Doesn't
| seem that unreasonable to me.
| annoyingnoob wrote:
| I think it was in the 80's, I got a little pine tree from
| McDonald's. Must have been a promotion or part of a Happy Meal,
| I honestly don't recall. I planted it in my parents yard, where
| it is still growing today (and its huge).
|
| We had a live Christmas tree another year that is still growing
| in the yard too.
|
| Save your money from over-priced clocks, plant a tree yourself
| and enjoy it for a long time.
| spalt wrote:
| I kickstarted this long ago and when I got it a few months ago
| gave it to my wife as a gift, who is an author. She immediately
| rejected it because she found the eink transitions where it
| flashes a dark color briefly very distracting.
| crote wrote:
| I wonder if someone has managed to extract the quote database yet
| for DIYers.
|
| The device's firmware is easily available via their website - the
| Mac Installer contains a pair of 9MB binaries (in addition to
| 200MB of Electron), which seems to just be an unencrypted ESP32
| blob. Running `strings` on the blob gives plenty of human-
| readable stuff (including entire html pages), but nothing
| resembling quotes. Maybe they are compressed in some way?
|
| Assuming 140 characters per quote, the entire 13000-entry quote
| database should fit uncompressed in about 2MB, so who knows.
| __jonas wrote:
| Here is the quotes database of one of the older projects this
| is (potentially) based on:
|
| https://github.com/JohannesNE/literature-clock/blob/master/l...
| gwern wrote:
| 13,000 seems surprisingly small, all things considered. Seems
| like the sort of task where you could automate it with a
| small LLM instance and process millions of books easily. Then
| extract all of the key strings and have a set of tens of
| thousands of ways to describe time which can be searched for
| as fixed-string matches, and might be of interest in its own
| right. (How do mentioned times change over history? Do they
| get more precise? Do books take place at wider ranges of the
| day?)
| NKosmatos wrote:
| What about copyright and/or intellectual property of these
| quotes? Do quotes fall under fair usage law?
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| Unfortunately, shipping is only available for the US. Not even
| Canada.
| itskarad wrote:
| Cool, but $200, wow.
| Tao3300 wrote:
| If I'm halfway through reading a quote when it ticks over, can I
| backtrack?
| thih9 wrote:
| Eink is bad for anything that changes often; the flicker of the
| screen refresh would be distracting.
|
| There is a high chance that the quote would disappear before you
| finish reading.
|
| Even ignoring these flaws the item seems significantly
| overpriced.
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