Tuesday 23 August 2005

Delays

People who know me well will know that one of my little foibles is that I hate being late. I even have a big digital clock which checks with a radio beacon on a regular basis to make sure it's bang on time.

Right now my laptop is without a working screen but it's my primary PC so I am using it through the desktop screen and thus upstairs in the box room.

The radio reception in the valley is appalling.

Now you are struggling to tie these things together so here goes. I listen to the radio all day while working and when downstairs it's fine as I have a digital radio. Now I'm stuck upstairs it's a tad trickier so I listen to the BBC on the Internet. I already know that there is a slight delay between the normal analogue signal and the digital signal but the lag between the digital signal and the Internet broadcast is amazing. I know the technical reasons, they have to scrunch up all those words and crush them down so that they will fit into cyberspace but I have one question - what use are the bloody time checks? When someone says "It's six o'clock and here's the news" which six o'clock is it? Is it analogue, digital or Internet?

5 careful considerations:

Ang said...

Okay now, I thought I was anal about what time it is, but you ... oh boy! LOL I figured, as long as I'm 15 minutes early to everything, it doesn't matter what time time it is, it's still early!

kat said...

I can't handle being late for anything so like Angie I turn up early and hang around. If I don't want to show up before time I sit in the car by the roadside or call into a shop. People who are habitually late without good reason are either lazy or inconsiderate or just a plain nuisance. Nogbad - next time someone tells you it is 6 o'clock assume they are wrong and set your watch for 3 minutes past. Seconds don't matter when you are already ahead of time.

Nogbad said...

Nooooooooo! That really doesn't work for me! I hate hanging around doing nothing! I know someone who has clocks set at different times in each room of their house and that wouldn't work for me either - I simply remember which clock is fast by how much and "translate" whenever I look at that clock.

kat said...

Who said anything about doing nothing!!!

Books, PDA's, laptops, work!!!

francessa said...

Who said "punctuality is disappointing if no one is there to appreciate it?"

In addition to the disappointment we punctual people so often have a damaged spine from shlepping and carrying things like books, laptops, mp3-players, and the like in order to fill in the waiting time gaps with rich content ;-)