[HN Gopher] IBM Audible Random Timer
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IBM Audible Random Timer
Author : luu
Score : 88 points
Date : 2024-08-03 05:03 UTC (17 hours ago)
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| amelius wrote:
| What does the random distribution look like?
| tyingq wrote:
| _" This is I think where the "randomness" is generated -
| assuming the two counters run at different rates, the
| comparator would trigger the alarm when the two counters hit
| the same number at the same time."_
|
| I think the above probably isn't right...
|
| The 4060 counters have a built-in oscillator. My guess is that
| it starts them at the same time and the alarm is when they
| don't have the same number...when there's drift as compared
| across the two oscillator sources. And that the clock dial
| probably changes the speed of one of the oscillators, so they
| match well enough to stay in sync for the rough desired period.
|
| All that to say the random distribution is probably based on
| the variability between any two 4060 counters.
| amelius wrote:
| So these device all have a different distribution?
| tyingq wrote:
| Data sheet for the CD4060B, does have some info on
| variation of frequency between units:
|
| https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/cd4060b.pdf
| amelius wrote:
| Ok, but what I really meant was: will the IBM random
| timers all have a different mean time between beeps (etc.
| for other statistical moments)?
| mikehollinger wrote:
| Even highly precise and expensive timers will drift.
|
| Lesson learned: we built a 42-node several petabyte storage
| cluster. Worked fine as we were starting small, and got
| bigger, and bigger. When we "had it" and disconnected from
| our internal network and moved to an isolated network we
| discovered quickly that the timebase on all the systems
| drifted very quickly to be seconds and then minutes out of
| sync after several days. This was because they couldn't
| access NTP.
|
| Set up an ntp server and "resolved" it, except now we had
| an entire cluster of hardware that was (in lock step)
| drifting out of sync with the rest of the world. Fixed
| that. Moved on.
|
| Another example: we bought a bunch of really cheap LED
| ropes to make our LGBT+ pride float's backlighting for a
| pride parade several years ago. I wired it. The ropes were
| all independent and we planned to have them rotate colors.
| The little controller boxes had a mode that would smoothly
| transition through presets. It turned out that simply
| turning on the power would cause the lights to start in
| sync, and then quickly drift out of sync in a really
| mesmerizing way. They'd occasionally come back together but
| frankly it was better than anything we could've programmed.
|
| We also learned we could control the rate of the "smear" by
| over or under volting the LEDs a bit.
|
| Even if it's digital, everything is eventually analog. And
| analog is weird.
| knotimpressed wrote:
| I wonder how well this would keep me/someone from accidentally
| hyperfocusing-from experience, a 10 minute repeating timer helps
| _somewhat_ , but I have always been curious about a random length
| timer instead.
| nippoo wrote:
| Is hyperfocus a state you want to avoid? In my experience I
| spend most of my time (as a developer) hoping/trying to induce
| hyperfocus as that's when I get most productive work done...
| chmod775 wrote:
| Same here. I go further and mute all notifications/my phone
| to avoid distractions.
| positus wrote:
| I fairly regularly hyperfocus on something that isn't the
| thing I should really be hyperfocusing on and end up spending
| hours fleshing out a less-than-supremely valuable idea
| without meaning to. Hyperfocus in the wrong direction can be
| a real problem!
| dialup_sounds wrote:
| Some people struggle more with directing their attention than
| maintaining it.
| RockRobotRock wrote:
| That's the blessing and the curse of ADHD/autism. It's easy
| to get hyperfocused, but it's not always on something
| productive.
| fmbb wrote:
| Just try it!
|
| I've used bash like this many times before:
| while sleep 600 do say "hey!" sleep $((
| $RANDOM % 300 )) done
| INTPenis wrote:
| I have a friend who has a pomodoro integrated DE. So whenever
| he does anything there is a colored line around the screen that
| slowly shrinks while it counts down. And when it reaches the
| end I think his screen shuts off or something, not sure what he
| set it to do. But it's following the famous pomodoro technique.
| tomcam wrote:
| > So whenever he does anything there is a colored line around
| the screen that slowly shrinks while it counts down.
|
| That might literally drive me crazy. Watching with dread as
| the line disappeared would disrupt my work completely.
| Eventually I'd just lose it like a character in a Poe story.
| cpeterso wrote:
| I use a Pomodoro timer browser extension. It's a small
| toolbar icon that shows a minute countdown, so it's not too
| distracting (until it's supposed to be).
| tomcam wrote:
| That makes much more sense to me.
| chatmasta wrote:
| If you're on a Mac, you can try enabling the system setting to
| "announce the time," if you like being startled by a robotic
| voice on the hour.
| fifteen1506 wrote:
| I've been using grandfather clocks ticking sound to help me focus
| on the laptop on a noisy environment.
|
| Would find it funny to see IBM had an official tool to help
| people focus, but for now I'll assume it's for random sampling of
| something.
| Animats wrote:
| It's a work sampling timer. When it goes off, you record what you
| were doing.[1][2] After a few days or weeks, a pattern of how
| much time is spent doing what appears. It's a management idea
| that never really caught on, because it's so annoying. Probably
| saleable as an app today, with a cloud-hosted back end.
|
| [1]
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC225293/pdf/mlab...
|
| [2] https://www.hca.wa.gov/assets/billers-and-
| providers/particip...
| HPsquared wrote:
| I wondered if you could use a Geiger counter with background
| radiation to do the same thing, but it'd probably be thrown off
| by moving between different rooms.
| zitterbewegung wrote:
| Yes you can it is a type of quantum random number generator.
| See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_random_number_gene
| rat...
|
| The biggest drawback is non uniform distribution and low bit
| rates. Another was radiation concerns.
| KMnO4 wrote:
| I think you'd need a very insensitive Geiger counter. Mine is
| relatively cheap (GQ GMC320) and still clicks 30 times per
| minute as background radiation.
| HPsquared wrote:
| You could put it inside a box maybe.
| speps wrote:
| > Probably saleable as an app today, with a cloud-hosted back
| end.
|
| https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bereal-photos-friends-daily/id...
|
| But a corporate version!
| xbryanx wrote:
| Similar to Reporter:
|
| http://reporter-app.com/
| RsmFz wrote:
| Oh I built one of those with Rust and FLTK: https://six-five-
| six-four.com/git/reactor/annoying_journal
|
| I figured if it works for software profiling it oughta work for
| people. And I set the interval to some Golden Ratio thing like
| 37 minutes, with the hopes that it wouldn't log the same times
| every day, but also wouldn't be purely random.
| tomcam wrote:
| Wait, so how well did it work?
| layer8 wrote:
| Does anyone happen to know an iOS app that does something like
| this? Preferably with configurable upper and lower bound for the
| random interval, and maybe times of day when it should be active,
| and/or a settable timer when it should stop being active.
| picture wrote:
| Reporter. I saw a pretty cool visualization of someone's
| activities over a year, and decided to give it a shot. I gave
| up after the first day because of how annoying it is.
|
| http://reporter-app.com/
| layer8 wrote:
| Thanks. I don't want an app that asks any questions about my
| activities or the like, just one that sounds an actual alarm
| (not a notification).
| IIAOPSW wrote:
| Similar to a dead man switch. You acknowledge the device on
| random intervals. Failure to acknowledge the device means the
| person is presumably incapacitated, so the heavy vehicle/machine
| they are supposed to be operating (train, boat, forklift
| whatever) automatically comes to a halt.
|
| This seems conceptually similar but without being part of a fail
| safe mechanism.
| kjrose wrote:
| I have seen something like this as a safety mechanism. It fires
| and you are supposed to either check in or verify something that
| is critical to life. The randomness is to ensure that
| psychologically the alarm is not ignored or becomes habit to
| respond to.
|
| Not positive if this is the same though.
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