Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/21/the-awesomely-simple-timeflip2-can-keep-your-entire-day-on-schedule.html
…
It’s got stickers!
4 Likes
OK, according to the app, I spent 17 hours yesterday “light bulb-ing”. Does anyone know what that was?
4 Likes
Either you had a whole series of brilliant ideas, or you kept sticking your finger in a light socket.
2 Likes
I’m glad I didn’t post any of the glib answers that popped into my mind, because they were all much, much more disgusting than that.
2 Likes
6 Likes
Does Gene Ray get a credit for this Time Dodecahedron?
Nah, Imma just keep using my Magic 8 Ball
5 Likes
I write down so many projects I’m happy to get even one of them done. Putting them on a glorified 12-sided timer is of limited benefit. They take as long as they take. What I really need is more time or fewer pursuits.
2 Likes
It’s always fascinating the time people invest in proclaiming how pointless something is for them.
I struggle with ADHD… and I could use something that helped snap me out of hyperfocus that was devoted to something of minimal benefit. I’m intrigued (not sure I’m $60 intrigued…) by the possibility of having empirical evidence to back up various techniques in improving my focus.
3 Likes
While hoping for a “tear down”, log(12)/log(2) = 3.584… so that means there must be at least four gravity sensors inside to decode which side is up…? But with what sort of arrangement? (“tetrahedral!” “it’s always the tetrahedrons with you, in’t it?” “well they’re the simplex for our level of dimensionality is’all i’m say’n” “but don’t we live in four (or eleven?) dimensions?” “nah that’s just Einstein having you on for a lark”)
1 Like
You could instead have a system of 3 orthogonal gyros. Measure the component of earth’s spin rate in the x, y, and z axis for any given orientation and you can tell which face is up. The rms value will always be 15 degrees per hour as a check.
This method would work well so long as you are not moving quickly along a north-south axis.
2 Likes
You could instead put a touch-sensitive sensor underneath each facet. As the article says,
When you’re about to start a meeting, turn the meeting side of the TimeFlip2 face-up and tap it–and that’s it.
4 Likes
Where’s the fun in that?
2 Likes
IDK if people are being serious here, but with a probability of 1 this thing uses a MEMS accelerometer. That’s the one where itty bitty weights are mounted on teeny tiny springy levers, such that the deflection of the levers measures acceleration (e.g. due to gravity). With three orthogonal sticks, you have a 3D vector and can tell what way gravity is pointing. It can’t strictly distinguish gravity from being shot out of a cannon, but gravity is very constant and violence isn’t, so in practice it is trivial to isolate the gravity vector using signal processing. The sensitivity and time domain resolution are good enough that you can even use the same process to sense the force and direction of light taps, which can save you time and effort on capacitive touch sensors.
These devices are a genuine sci-fi miracle – the moving parts are too small to see under a microscope – but they’re as cheap as actual dirt due to the volume in which they’re produced for phones.
(If the BOM for the linked product exceeds $10 I’d be surprised)
2 Likes
I for one was not being terribly serious.
1 Like
Especially a die
If this thing could be carried in one’s pocket I could at least begin to think about using it.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
