This forum dead or dying?

[iacchus]

Analog are coming back into fashion with the newest generation. Dumbphones, proper wristwatches, fancy pens. The pendulum always swings and sometimes the rebellious thing feels like a Luddite.

My 16 year old refers to my G-Shock square as my "stupid watch" and only wears analog.

Giorgio Galli talks about the same shift I've noticed here

 

[IMA SOL MAN]

The one thing that I can see a digital really good for is other time zones, like Universal Time Coordinated (UTC)/Greenwich. As a ham radio operator, that can be useful. Or, if you want to keep track of time in some other time zone different from your own. When I was in Europe, it was good to keep track of the time back in the USA to schedule phone calls home.

 

[Schokokeks]

The one thing that I can see a digital really good for is other time zones, like Universal Time Coordinated (UTC)/Greenwich. As a ham radio operator, that can be useful. Or, if you want to keep track of time in some other time zone different from your own. When I was in Europe, it was good to keep track of the time back in the USA to schedule phone calls home.

If I recall, the Casio G-Shock 2100 series watches are digital mechanisms with an electro-magnetic analog dial. You can switch between different world cities, and it will then move the hands to update it. The DST option works like that, too. I turned that off over the weekend, and it just automatically corrected the dials.

They're an interesting analog watch. I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but I kind of love it, haha.

 

[Buff]

When i went from a fitbit(i had 3) to an apple watch mainly for workout and health reasons and the fitbits didn’t last very long i found i missed wearing my watches from my meager collection. For the last 7-8 years i have been wearing a watch on my dominant wrist and the apple watch/health monitor on my other wrist. For heath concerns the apple watch is always on my wrist except when i need to charge it but the analog/traditional watch comes off at night or when i’m doing a workout or something i might damage my nice expensive watch.

 

[Bronco]

Analog is also better for getting an intuitive display of rates of change. It's far easier to get an idea of acceleration rates on an analog speedometer simply by seeing how fast the needle is sweeping along the display.

I actually made a recommendation to the folks at SpaceX that they utilize an analog view speedometer on their Falcon and Starship Internet launch broadcasts for that very reason. The deceleration during the booster reentry burns in particular is quite impressive and people would be able to appreciate it far more seeing the data in that context.

I understand why they haven’t, as their screen real estate is very limited given the amount of information they’re trying to convey on multiple stages. Maybe a bar graph type layout would work better than a round gauge for that specific use case.

 

[Monocrom]

Additionally, when working swing and midnight shifts most digital watches let you choose the 24 hr clock vs the 12 hr. It is much easier to use a digital watch that tells you it is 1832hrs or 0317hrs rather than you having to convert the time for paperwork.

I've got military time memorized. Well, mostly.... The AM hours are easy. Just add a zero in front, leave out the ":" and put hours or hrs. at the end. Remember that 12 midnight is 0000 hours. PM is not as bad as it seems. 4pm = 1600 hours (4x4 gets you 16). And, 10pm = 2200 hours or in my case, my favorite .22LR firearm (Ruger 10/22). Everything in between, you can easily add or subtract from those two known points.

 

[Monocrom]

I always choose the option of 24 hour time. It just seems to make more sense than AM and PM.

The issue is that the vast majority of folks are used to AM and PM.
Ben Franklin once created a superior alphabet, in English to the one we currently use. The problem is, no one wanted to learn a whole new alphabet for a language they already speak. So, we've been using the very same inferior one for countless decades upon decades because no one could figure out how to transition to the superior English alphabet, when it came to educating the next generation, and all the ones after that. Imagine a nation where folks can't communicate with each other because there's two different versions of English.

 

[jtr1962]

The issue is that the vast majority of folks are used to AM and PM.
Ben Franklin once created a superior alphabet, in English to the one we currently use. The problem is, no one wanted to learn a whole new alphabet for a language they already speak. So, we've been using the very same inferior one for countless decades upon decades because no one could figure out how to transition to the superior English alphabet, when it came to educating the next generation, and all the ones after that. Imagine a nation where folks can't communicate with each other because there's two different versions of English.

I'm so used to it that it's like second nature to me. This problem is similar to the metric system. The rest of the world is on it but we don't want to take the step of just having the next generation of school kids go cold turkey and learn only metric. As an engineer I move seamlessly between both systems. I still prefer °F for temperature though. I guess because of the finer spacing between degrees relative to metric. I do like km/h better. Mostly because of a higher number for the same speed. Saying I did 50 while riding sounds a lot more impressive than 31.

 

[Chauncey Gardener]

Being an Air Force Brat for 20 years (until Dad retired) made Military Time second nature. It was the placement of the day before the month that gave me a hard time. 3rd of March as opposed to March 3rd.

 

[dc38]

I've got military time memorized. Well, mostly.... The AM hours are easy. Just add a zero in front, leave out the ":" and put hours or hrs. at the end. Remember that 12 midnight is 0000 hours. PM is not as bad as it seems. 4pm = 1600 hours (4x4 gets you 16). And, 10pm = 2200 hours or in my case, my favorite .22LR firearm (Ruger 10/22). Everything in between, you can easily add or subtract from those two known points.

You forgot the alphabetic designation of timezone!!!

**I can't remember exactly, but if given a time in that format without specifying the zone, then it would be referencing Zulu time, or Greenwich time

 

[Monocrom]

I'm so used to it that it's like second nature to me. This problem is similar to the metric system. The rest of the world is on it but we don't want to take the step of just having the next generation of school kids go cold turkey and learn only metric. As an engineer I move seamlessly between both systems. I still prefer °F for temperature though. I guess because of the finer spacing between degrees relative to metric. I do like km/h better. Mostly because of a higher number for the same speed. Saying I did 50 while riding sounds a lot more impressive than 31.

Yeah, 0-degrees F. makes more sense than whatever it happens to be on Celsius.
Also, although Liberia and Burma are slowly transitioning towards the Metric system; they haven't adopted it yet. So we're not alone!

 

[iacchus]

Celsius is a straightforward system when thinking in terms of freshwater.
Freezes at 0°C & boils at 100°C

where Fahrenheit is 32°F and 212°F respectively. A bit more cumbersome, that.

Originally, Fahrenheit was established to be 0°F as the temperature that a specific briney solution freezes (think standardized seawater) and the upper value pegged to be what they decided to be the standard body temperature of a human, or 96°F in the early 1700s. The 32°F comes in at the melting point of freshwater ice.

Interestingly, Celsius and Fahrenheit intersect at -40°

I much prefer Celsius, and that's what we use in the lab. Conversationally, my mind defaults to Fahrenheit though. That is just what everyone uses when bending ears about the weather.

 

[orbital]

Celsius is a straightforward system when thinking in terms of freshwater.
Freezes at 0°C & boils at 100°C

where Fahrenheit is 32°F and 212°F respectively. A bit more cumbersome, that.

Originally, Fahrenheit was established to be 0°F as the temperature that a specific briney solution freezes (think standardized seawater) and the upper value pegged to be what they decided to be the standard body temperature of a human, or 96°F in the early 1700s. The 32°F comes in at the melting point of freshwater ice.

Interestingly, Celsius and Fahrenheit intersect at -40°

I much prefer Celsius, and that's what we use in the lab. Conversationally, my mind defaults to Fahrenheit though. That is just what everyone uses when bending ears about the weather.

+

Metric system is logical.
First thought that learning about it early in grade school.

Nothing is more ridiculous than saying,, "Hey Larry, hand me that 17/64 socket"

 

[jtr1962]

Celsius is a straightforward system when thinking in terms of freshwater.
Freezes at 0°C & boils at 100°C

where Fahrenheit is 32°F and 212°F respectively. A bit more cumbersome, that.

Originally, Fahrenheit was established to be 0°F as the temperature that a specific briney solution freezes (think standardized seawater) and the upper value pegged to be what they decided to be the standard body temperature of a human, or 96°F in the early 1700s. The 32°F comes in at the melting point of freshwater ice.

Interestingly, Celsius and Fahrenheit intersect at -40°

I much prefer Celsius, and that's what we use in the lab. Conversationally, my mind defaults to Fahrenheit though. That is just what everyone uses when bending ears about the weather.

For lab work Celsius wins hands down. I prefer Fahrenheit for casually talking about the weather. The large gradation between degrees in Celsius is moot in lab work also given that lab thermometers read to at least tenths of a degree, and often hundreths or even thousanths.

 

[iacchus]

For lab work Celsius wins hands down. I prefer Fahrenheit for casually talking about the weather. The large gradation between degrees in Celsius is moot in lab work also given that lab thermometers read to at least tenths of a degree, and often hundreths or even thousanths.

I agree that Fahrenheit works better in casual conversation. Its borders basically run from uncomfortably cold at 0° to uncomfortably hot at 100°. Anywhere from 40° to 80° is generally comfortable, but is a reasonably large enough range to provide easily understandable differences in ten degree gradients.

Celsius is pretty crap at that. The banding is a bit too compressed.

 

[Chauncey Gardener]

Our oldest spawn speaks in Celsius. It drives me crazy.

 

[jtr1962]

Yeah, if someone uses Celsius for things like outdoor temperatures I have to mentally convert to Fahrenheit first to get a get a handle on how cold or warm it is.

 

[dc38]

22C +/- 5 degrees is generally within sustained tolerable temps for most **first world** humans.

 

[aznsx]

This may be the most highly derailed thread I've ever seen;-)

I also find discussing the fine points of temp and time measurement standards in the same discussion a bit like what the Brits would refer to as 'chalk and cheese'.

On second thought, maybe this actually does pertain directly to the thread title. If so, the answer may not be encouraging.

 

[IMA SOL MAN]

This may be the most highly derailed thread I've ever seen;-)

I also find discussing the fine points of temp and time measurement standards in the same discussion a bit like what the Brits would refer to as 'chalk and cheese'.

On second thought, maybe this actually does pertain directly to the thread title. If so, the answer may not be encouraging.

...which leads me to the question: "If the forum was dead, would we realize it?"