[conspire] cheap-*ss Casio watches, logs, ...

[Michael Paoli]

Okay, I'm behind on my conspire reading 8-O (well, have some major gaps
to catch up on anyway).

Yes, ye olde Casio watches .. and wrist watches, ... do one function,
do it well, well connect to other processes will well defined, clean
simple quite standard interface, etc. ... yes, quite like Unix
design philosophy.  The basic watch covers that pretty well.
Alas, watches have gotten fancier, ... some of us dip into that
a bit ... or even more so.  So, sure, I've got models that do
quite a bit more than just tell the time, but regardless, they still
do very well at telling the time, and using a quite reliable standard
interfaced to do that.  I'm also finding as time passes, I use the watch
much more so for telling the time, and close to never use it for its
other functionality - most of which I rarely to about never used anyway,
or has been supplanted by functionality elsewhere (e.g. my contacts
info. far too large and complex and unwieldy for the simple "database"
storage on such a watch.  Oh, and of course, major bonuses ...
I don't have to recharge the thing every overnight or so ... more
like new battery about every 5 years or so.  Heck, I don't even
have to wind it daily.

$ fgrep -i batt $(ls -tr */log)
Casio_DBX-102/log:2003-06-27 watch showed BATT indicator while on  
wrist in hot sun (indicator returned to normal when cooled slightly).
Casio_DBX-102/log:2005-08-04 old battery finally wore out completely  
(no display at all), replaced and set 9:01 A.M. PST8PDT
Casio_EDB610D-8C/log:2011-10-08 noticed BATT indicator started flashing
Casio_EDB610D-8C/log:2012-07-01 watch battery failed, original  
battery: Panasonic CR 2016 3V
Casio_EDB610D-8C/log:2012-08-06 watch battery replaced
$

Oh, ... I (and others) did say something earlier about keeping some type
of log records, eh?  Okay, maybe not for one's watches ;-) ... but heck,
why not that too?  (Sometimes good habits are hard to kill off ... and why
would one want to, anyway?).  Many moons ago, notably when I had few
computers, data was comparatively hard to access, quickly back up in
quantity, etc., I keep a log book of sorts, ... very useful that,
especially when the hardware has failed, or system is down, etc. -
hardcopy has some distinct advantages.  But for many years now, I do
something that has *most* of the advantages of hardcopy, plus many
other practical advantages - notably very easy to search, copy, and
genearaly access.  Straight ASCII text file ... in suitable format
(notably mostly chronological, with some standardization of where
and how dates/times are noted, etc.).  Sure, computer has to be up
to read that ... but ... *any* computer ... easily backed up, copied,
simple to read, not all that huge ... so it's pretty easy to get to
(at least up to fairly current) even if/when computer is down - just
read it on *some other* computer - much more feasible these days than
the days of old.  But other than that, the practice of keeping such log
stuff still pretty much remains.  E.g. the BALUG VM not only has such logs,
but one of 'em (and generally principle/primary one) is even publicly
accessible & readable (anything sufficiently sensitive to not go there
goes elsewhere).

Also, reminds me, ... not too long ago, coworker was showing me
their smartwatch ... but one they actually quite liked, and I too
thought was a pretty good design.  Okay, yeah, there's the frequent
recharge issue, but it did, by default, always have the time on the
display, nice, large, easy to read ... and negligible power
consumption for the watch to do that part of the function ... no
need to push a button or anything else to get the watch to show the
time.  Sweet!  Alas, the company that was making those watches went
out of business :-/ ... but maybe some other *smart* smartwatch
company will actually pick up that idea and bring it to their products.

> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2017 00:03:25 -0800
> From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
> To: conspire at linuxmafia.com
> Subject: Re: [conspire] (forw) [DNG] Life After Firefox 56
> Message-ID: <20170224080325.GB32472 at linuxmafia.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):
>
>> Since smart phones have a clock ap, there is no need for stand-alone
>> wristwatchs.
>
> Funny, that.  Last year, I was out with friends, and one of the ones
> I've known longest called to me and archly said 'Rick!  You have one of
> those "wrist clocks" [pantomiming the quotation marks].  Pray tell, what
> time is it?'  I gave him the time from my cheap-ass Casio watch, and
> on a hunch looked around.  Sure enough, nobody else was wearing a watch.
> The world had changed yet again, and once again I hadn't really noticed.
>
> But I continue to love my cheap-ass Casio watches.