I wrote 3 clock applications that display KiloSecond based time instead of Hours and Minutes.
If you are sick of hours and minutes too, switch to KiloSecond time like me!
More information and downloads here: http://betteros.org/sw/ksec.php

Sure - why didn't I think of that! All I have to remember is that 50ks is 13 hours 53 minutes and 20 seconds! How much easier that will be!

Not meaning to be totally dismissive of it, I think it's use as a human timekeeping method is not very practical.

Current time keeping methods are no more base 60 than you would say kilosecond time is base 86400, or a mile is base 5280, in any practical sense, or to the way humans perceive passage of time.

The numbers are base 10, the duration of an hour unit in seconds is 3600, in minutes 60. The duration of a day in hours is 24, or 1440 minutes, or 86400 seconds.

Although my computer clock may find it useful to know how many seconds have elapsed between two events, I seriously doubt that humans would find it more intuitive to know that it is 51300 rather than 2:15pm.

When I read the subject I thought "clocks that are 3 kilosecond based" rather than "3 clocks that are kilosecond based" ....
Whoa !!!

Parsing human text is so bloody difficult ...

Well, ideally you would give up reliance on hour:minute:second time and the conversion would be unnecessary. It is not helpful to use ksec time if you are always converting it back to hour:minute:second time anyway. It's like learning a new language, if you always translate it in your head, you will never learn to speak fluently.
Knowing that 50ks is 13 hours, 53 minutes, and 20 second is not helpful, but knowing that it is 50ks into the day could have meaning.


True, technically. but I for one can never remember how far a mile it because it is also a silly measurement.
I would also prefer if we could give up days and years as units of measure, but that just isn't feasible.

Maybe, but I think its more our preconceptions than anything. We know 2:15 because we learned it and have been using it, just like most people use MS Windows because it's what they learned and what they know. 2:15pm looks familiar to us, and maybe 51300 looks foreign, but really, 51.3ks is a manageable number and could be meaningful if we gave it a chance.
Ksec time works out to be about the same amount of digits as equivalent "regular" time, so I really don't see how its any less intuitive.

Anyhow, in the end, its just a fun toy to play around with. Basically equivalent to Xeyes (eyes that follow your cursor). Just a bit of fun (and something that is only available to Linux users).

Oh... whoops. Sorry about that. That is pretty ambiguous...

EDIT: I guess it's not possible to edit subjects. So I can't make it more clear, sorry.

HAHA! I did the same thing, and paused trying to think of why someone would do that!

The length of the mile was not arrived at scientifically, but probably for reasons important to the people and period that defined it, no longer important or interesting to us. So maybe an obscure measure, but I wouldn't say silly.

And the day and year will persist until the earth quits spinning and revolving around the nearest star. Why would you want to give those up? They have inherent meaning, not so arbitrary as the mile, or the second for that matter!

Perhaps we should drop the second and learn to think in microyears or milidays, something with a more tangible basis.

But our perceptions, well founded or not, are pretty much hard-wired into us by mid-childhood - very difficult to change.

But as you say, all good natured, as are my comments!

Thanks

I personally think it's silly to continue using measurements that no longer make sense.

Or until humans leave earth, or until medical science makes sleep obsolete. Yes I agree, that's why we can't give up days yet.

Now that is brilliant. However, it has sort of been done before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_time
However, Decimal time has the problem of redefining the second (1 decimal second = 0.6 seconds), but if you just use milliday instead of "decimal second" it makes the concept sound a better. I like it.


Yep, I agree, but somebody might want to try, and I support that.

I think it would be nice for everyone to use the 24 hours system at least before we start looking at new ways to tell time.