clock

British and U.S. scientists have confirmed that an atomic clock at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) near London is the most accurate long-term timekeeper in the world, the NPL said.

The NPL-CsF2 is a cesium fountain clock that's used as a standard for International Atomic Time and Universal Coordinated Time.

The machine is apparently accurate to within two 10 million billionths of a second. Not bad, I guess.

The NPL's Krzysztof Szymaniec joined scientists from Pennsylvania State University in evaluating the clock. The team published its results in the journal Metrologia.

The analysis concludes that the clock will lose only a billionth of a second every two months, and represents an unprecedented accuracy. Cesium clocks are usually expected to lose or gain a second over tens of millions of years.

"Together with other improvements of the cesium fountain, these models and numerical calculations have improved the accuracy of the U.K.'s cesium fountain clock, NPL-CsF2, by reducing the uncertainty to 2.3 × 10-16--the lowest value for any primary national standard so far," Szymaniec was quoted as saying by the NPL.

In the U.S., the National Institute of Standards and Technology operates the NIST-F1 cesium fountain clock, which as of summer 2010 had an uncertainty of 3 x 10-16, meaning it would take more than 100 million years to lose or gain a second.

That will be billions of years before the sun dies, taking the Earth with it, so I expect an update on this from a future blogger. … Read more

GENEVA, Switzerland--If you're the kind of person who understands that watches can be art, you would be wise to make your way to this city of the world in order to check out what has to be one of the best collections of historical timepieces on the planet.

Housed at the Patek Philippe Museum, hundreds of watches spanning nearly 600 years greet visitors to this stately early-20th century mansion. While much of the museum is dedicated to famous watchmaker Patek Philippe's own works, it is the historical archives that truly reward those who take the time to visit. … Read more

The iHome iA63 is a clock radio with a twist--or more precisely, a clock radio that has a motorized rotating iPod/iPhone dock that allows you to turn your device from portrait to landscape mode for video watching with a touch of a button.

It's relatively light and compact, measuring 8 inches high, 6.7 inches wide, and 4 inches deep. Yes, it looks odd without a device docked in it (think mini satellite dish), but it's actually kinda cool with your iPhone or iPod Touch charging. (Like all "Made for iPhone" products, the iA63 is … Read more

Many users prefer an alternative to the system tray clock, and a Windows gadget is the ideal platform. We looked at Digital Clock GT-7, a simple gadget that displays 24-hour time in hours and minutes. If you prefer to tell time in the military fashion, it's for you. But it's also great for anyone who needs a 24-hour display of their system time.

Digital Clock GT-7 installs easily. We right-clicked the desktop and selected Gadgets, which called up the Windows gadget manager. This page let us open or uninstall the gadget. Digital Clock GT-7 opened with the time … Read more

Desktop time and date displays are nothing new to Windows, which traditionally lags behind the aftermarket when it comes to timekeeping. There is no shortage of such displays; most are free, and many reproduce analog clock faces, though most use digital displays. Some are simple and straightforward yet almost completely customizable, like DS Clock from Duality Software. It displays the time and date in a wide range of formats in an unobtrusive, compact linear window. It synchronizes with atomic clocks and time servers around the world. It also displays pop-up reminders using Calendarscope, and it's compatible with Swatch Internet … Read more

Free time clock programs tend to fall into one of two categories, those that track a self-employed individual's time and those that keep track of a number of employees. MRO WorkingTimeClock is optimized for individuals such as freelancers, but it's suitable for small businesses, too, as well as organizations, clubs, or anyone who can use a free utility that accurately records and reports daily working hours. You can evaluate any period and save and export report data as HTML for use in other programs or online. It includes a stopwatch, countdown timer, and an optional screensaver that displays … Read more

The current No. 1 best seller in Amazon's parenting and families category is a children's book for adults titled "Go the F**k to Sleep." Clearly, sleep issues are big on parents' minds.

Zazoo Kids has come out with a gadget that would be a perfect companion for that book. The Zazoo photo clock looks like a small tablet, but its main purpose is to serve as a clock that keeps your young ones in bed longer so you can get a few more minutes of precious sleep in the morning.

The $89 photo clock is geared toward little angels who are too young to tell time. It shows a sun image to let them know it's time to get up. If the clock shows a moon, they little ones are supposed to stay in bed and wait for the image to change.

The Zazoo photo clock doesn't settle for being just a fancy timepiece. It can also act as a digital photo frame, has a nap-time setting, and can play music and video. You can customize the visual alarm with your own photos. Perhaps a photo of exhausted, baggy-eyed mom and dad might help drive the point home?

If you want to get fancy with it, you can load a children's audiobook onto the Zazoo photo clock and let the gadget handle the parenting for an evening. Ah, blissful slumber.… Read more

Vector Clocks is a desktop alarm clock with a set of freeware analog alarm clock faces that you can customize and pin anywhere on your desktop. You can change the size, transparency, behavior, and other aspects of the clock; rotate and manipulate the clock face; and hide it with a mouse gesture. The clock also features digital time and date displays, and it can even function as a stopwatch. The alarm plays sounds from MP3, WAV, and MIDI files.

Vector Clocks' installer gave us the choice of a standard Windows installation or a portable installation on a USB stick or … Read more

Stock Index News Clock may not be the most imaginative name, but it's certainly an accurate description of this interesting freeware. A rotating globe displays the time and stock prices for exchanges around the world, while a scrolling ticker displays news and business headlines along the bottom edge. It accesses all major global exchanges, too.

Stock Index News Clock, or SINC, is portable freeware, so it requires no installation. We extracted the compressed program file and opened SINC's compact, two-piece interface. A small window displayed a rotating animated globe with latitude and longitude lines as well as national … Read more