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Coders' Watches

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Mark0:
And now for something completely different! :D

Just out of curiosity: what kind of watch did you wear usually/now?

Personally, I always had inexpensive digital watches. There were always a new low-end Casio whenever the last one stopping functioning - usually because the battery reached the end of his life, and a new cheap watch's cost was about the same as a new battery.
For me a watch is just a tool, and I think that if I had a more expensive one on my wrist I would always be worried about scratching it, damaging it and so on.  :o :(

I bought my last watch 3 weeks ago, and got someting a bit better. I had this fascination with radio controlled / atomic clock synced watches, so after some researches on line, I end up with one from the G-Shock like of Casio. This way, I still haven't to worry about destroying it, since it can resist to a good amount of physical stress! :) Since I don't like watches that are too big, this is also the thinner of the line. As a bonus it have an accumulator that is continuously recharged trough a photovoltaic cell, so hopefully there will be no worries about dead batteries.

Here it is: Casio G-Shock GW056A-1V - A batter pic here.

Another interesting watch - from a coder point of view - would be a Timex Datalink USB, since you can code things for it in Assembly. There's a lot of documentations around, including a Yahoo Groups of developers, additional tools, etc.  :Thmbsup:

Another thing: watches prices here in Italy - at least for this brand - were about 2x to witch I end up paying for this, trough a eBay shop from Germany (the watch off course is brand new, with perfectly sealed packagin, warranty, et all)!!  :o

What's about your watch?

Bye!

f0dder:
Heh, program your wristwatch in assembly? Sounds like overkill :)

I haven't used wristwatches for several years, I've used my cellphone instead - almost always have it on me. I don't even use a normal alarm clock either these days, my Sony-Ericsson K750i is a lot more effective since it can play back MP3s... nothing like Dimmu Borgir: Purithanical Euphoric Misanthropia: Sympozium to get me started in the morning ;)

But if I used a watch, it would be an inexpensive, small, neutral-looking digitla watch.

We've had at least one thread about watches in the past, btw :)

Mark0:
nothing like Dimmu Borgir: Purithanical Euphoric Misanthropia: Sympozium to get me started in the morning ;)-f0dder (October 28, 2007, 01:16 PM)
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 ;D ;D :D

We've had at least one thread about watches in the past, btw :)
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Ops! Didn't see that. Maybe a mod can move / split this one to that.

Bye!

Ralf Maximus:
The other thread looks like a generic "look at these cool/complicated watches" discussion.

This thread could be about programmers' wristwatches and the very special geeks who love them.  Or something.

Most developers I know have $10 watches, if they wear one at all.  It's just not important -- their computer knows what time it is, and they're usually in direct line of sight.

Another class of developers -- I'll call them the Rockstars -- act like the project exists as a showcase for their talent.  They always have the most expensive/complicated toys, and fight over who has the best workstation in the office.  Their wristwatches cost thousands of dollars, are built using exotic materials like magnesium and depleted uranium, and sport names like Tag Heuer, Ebel, Weil, and Oris.  They won't have diamonds, but WILL be certified to work at the bottom of the Mariana Trench and absorb g-forces that would kill a space shuttle.  One guy I knew had three uber-watches and wore them in rotation.  What?  So as to not wear them out??

Incidently, these guys often have very expensive cars.  One day when returning from lunch we walked through the parking lot and started counting Rockstar cars: Porsche, Mercedes, Porsche, Supra, NSX, Porsche.  How could you tell them apart from the other expensive cars in the parking lot, the ones driven by the top-floor mega-executives?

Easy!  The developers' cars were almost always filthy dirty.  The executives' cars were recently washed.  Leave it to a programmer to buy a $90,000 sports car and never wash it.

Back on topic.  My current watch?  A $39 Casio G-Shock solar/atomic. 



And yes, if it were launched on shuttle Atlantis and crashed into the Mariana Trench it would continue to keep dead-accurate time.  Until the lack of sunlight starved it...

Mark0:
Here are a couple of links about the Timex Datalink USB:

Datalink Wristapps - Virtual Datalink - Lots of tools & info, including a Virtual watch with debugger!
GlennMoller.com - Timex Data Link USB Watch #T5C291 - A review on a blog, with lots of photos

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