Show HN: I made an online Unicode Cuneiform digital clock
oisinmoran.comI got the idea to pay homage to the people who gave us base-60 time, and in the process discovered that Cuneiform is in Unicode.
I got the idea to pay homage to the people who gave us base-60 time, and in the process discovered that Cuneiform is in Unicode.
If you like weird clocks, I've got a collection of them here [0] which includes two others I've madeβthe QR Code Clock (probably my stupidest design of anything to date), and the vague clock (which is always correct and accurate but as it is just a single rotating "6" is only really legible at 6 and 9 o'clock)
Currently working on my first physical one!
[0] https://lynkmi.com/oisin/Clocks
My little contribution to the online clock world is a Japanese Shaku Dokei that I made while I was researching them to add one to my physical collection. I ended up finding a nice Tokugawa shogunate clock from about 1750, which is very similar to the one I digitally created, though my digital one works a heck of a lot more reliably!
https://timebygone.com/
This is great, just added it to my collection! Thanks for sharing
this one looks traditional, but its run by a tuningfork https://www.secretbatcave.co.uk/projects/electromechanical-c...
which is based on this
https://hackaday.io/project/177317-tuning-fork-clock
Nice to see the Mengenlehre clock in Berlin. Coincidentally, directly in the adjacent Europa-Center is also the clock of flowing time, which I found fascinating as a kid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_of_Flowing_Time
The QR one is oddly pleasing to me for some reason. I kinda want to make an e-ink version that is just minutes and hours now
Thank you! By all means, I'd love to see it. I actually have a programmable watch [0] that I want to put it on. And the ultimate goal is a non-screen-based hardware version of this.
[0] https://watchy.sqfmi.com/
That sounds like this guy's mirrors https://www.smoothware.com/danny/
Ooh wow! I've seen one of these in the Microsoft HQ in Seattle and saw a video about the pom pom one but didn't know it was the same guy. And there's so many! Thank you, this is great.
These are beautiful, each in their own right. Thank you for sharing.
This one is good
https://github.com/BarkyTheDog/catclock
Nice! This makes me appreciate the improvement roman numerals had over cuneiform: that a symbol isnβt repeated more than three times so itβs easier to read at a glance.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subitizing
This is why VIII and IX are easier to parse than π and π (though grouping them by 5 does help)
Just by watching your clock for 1 minute I learned Cuneiform numbers! Thank you! :)
I absolutely love this, bonus: I can now read Cuneiform numbers, if I ever need that.
Suggestion: You can potentially show the Cuneiform time in the url.
sent at: π:ππ:ππ
Sumertime! Great naming choice!!
It seems that of all the numbers (needed here), the symbol for 20 (π) is the only one that doesn't render on Android. Very odd. It does seem to be the last used codepoint (U+12399) in the Cuneiform block (U+12000βU+123FF) and they seem to stop rendering from U+1236E (on Android) which leaves 43 symbols un-rendered.
Anyone any idea why that might be?
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform_(Unicode_block) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform_Numbers_and_Punctuat...
sent at ππ:ππ:ππ
Okay, in the interim I have a shipped a fix for Android (seems fine on an iPhone emulation) that uses two tens like so "ππ" (looks like <<) instead of one twenty "π" (also looks like << but a bit tighter). This is definitely one of the weirdest patches [0] I've ever doneβchanging how an ancient language is displayed based on the specific type of incomprehensibly advanced technology it's being displayed onβbut I guess that's what Sundays are for.
[0] https://github.com/OisinMoran/OisinMoran.github.io/commit/15...
Cuneiform is still a wedge issue.
Because Google has mostly stopped updating the font stack on Android.
See bug report https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/366415133
https://i.ibb.co/6RBrwZpz/firefox.png
Firefox 139.0.4 on Arch Linux
You'll need to install the `noto-fonts` package to get NotoSansCuneiform-Regular.ttf (amongst others)l I'd recommend also installing `noto-fonts-cjk` to enhance your web experience.
I guess the Arch in Arch Linux isn't for archaeology then :(
You just don't have the required font.
Well, I can report that π isn't rendering on Windows 10 either. Your "sent at" renders fine. Whatever it is, it isn't specific to Android.
I assume it's mostly down to fonts, but I don't know why a font would implement some of the cuneiform block without doing all of it.
U+12399 was not an assigned code point until Unicode 8. The other code points were in Unicode 7.
The visual appeal is undeniable ;)
Thank you! I am quite happy with how it turned out and looking at it now reminds me a bit of the clock in Lost when it turns to Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
Interesting, that it's all standard base-10. A Number system based on 12 could have been a good fit for a base-60 time.
Babylonians/Sumerians invented base-60, and didn't have special characters for 10, 11 (and maybe 12)? Really?