Jon's Binary Clock Applet

by:

Telsa Gwynne


Table of Contents
Binary Clock

Binary Clock

Jon's Binary Clock (or jbc_applet for short) is an applet which shows the time in an unusual form: binary coded decimal. It has twenty-four LEDs which represent the hours, minutes and seconds by illuminating the appropriate LED.

You can start the binary clock by clicking button 3 on an empty part of the panel and following the sequence Applets->Clocks->JCB Binary Clock or you can type the following command at a command line: jbc_applet --activate-goad-server=jbc_applet

The binary clock applet was written by Jon Anhold (. Please report bugs in it to the GNOME bug tracking system. You can do this by following the guidelines on that site or by using bug-buddy from the command-line. For the package, put gnome-applets.

Usage

You don't need to do anything special to this clock. It just sits there and flashes lights at you. Some of the standard applet mouse options are available:

  1. Pressing mouse button 1 has no effect.

  2. Holding down mouse button 2 allows you to move the clock about in the same way you move anything on the panel

  3. Pressing mouse button 3 brings up the standard choices available for applets, including an About box, but no preferences menu.

Deciphering the lights

BCD stands for binary-coded decimal, a way of representing normal denary (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) numbers as what programmers call "a set of binary numbers in four bits, thus removing the numbers A to F". If this doesn't make sense, just be aware that this clock is an amusement for programmers, and serves no really useful purpose!

It helps to read this clock upside-down! Start at the bottom and read up to the top.

The right-hand pair of columns shows the two digits of the seconds: the units on the right, the tens on the left. The centre pair of columns shows the two digits of the minutes. The left hand pair of columns shows the two digits of the hours.

You add up the values of the illuminated LEDs in each column. You should get a number between zero to nine for each. That's the time.

  1. The bottom LED represents 1 when it is illuminated.

  2. The next LED represents 2 when it is illuminated.

  3. The next LED represents 4 when it is illuminated.

  4. The top LED represents 8 when it is illuminated.

It is probably simplest to decipher the hours and minutes first before trying to follow the seconds, which are always changing.

Bugs and limitations

  1. It's extremely silly.

  2. If you add it to a vertical panel, it is a nice size. If you then move it to a horizonal panel, it changes size in the horizontal panel. If you move it back to a vertical panel, it doesn't change size back, and forces the panel to widen itself.