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 Post subject: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 8:33 pm 
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It would appear that there aare at least a couple of anti-clockwise analogue clocks available for Android! Alas, none for Windows, and even if there were we couldn't use them within the Windstep environment if we hide everything Window desktop.

Also available, I'm told, is a 24hr analogue clock, with 1/4hr sub-divisions.

Of course, there also seems to be a pretty lively trade in physical analogue anti-clockwise clocks, but they're the cheap-and-nasty battery-driven wall clock variety.

And really, the idea is not as novel as all that. Counter-clockwise moving clocks are something of a Jewish tradition actually.

But, is there any support for an analogue anti-clockwise clock here? All those who'd like one, say a very loud 'Aye' here! :)

Or even a 24hr one would be nice.... :)

Oh, and I will be doing a Dali-like 'soft clock' skin for an ordinary clock sometime. (Much as I hate Dali generally - not a true surrealist, never was and got kicked out of the movement quite early on.

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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Sun Aug 12, 2018 4:32 pm 
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Oh and the 'other' Rick (Ric, where are you!? Counting sand grains in your desert? ;) ) will be pleased to learn that the theme with 'backwards' meter modules (inc. battery) is currently under development and making good progress, and it even has a - no, alas, no anti-clockwise clock (sniff, sniff), clock that appears to go backwards. :)

IOW, the face is that of an anti-clock, but of course it moves in a 'normal' clockwise direction. (That should confuse a few people. :P ) It's one of my Dada clocks - happened to fit in perfectly, much better than the original, just had to change the background and numbers (font colour) layers for new ones. At least the numbers are in the right order - some I've done have them all mixed up.

I always do everything with smoke and mirrors. ;)

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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Sun Aug 12, 2018 7:29 pm 
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Nexter, If you REALLY want an anti-clockwise clock, there is one (at least) for Rainmeter (which is programmed in C#, by the way) here: https://www.deviantart.com/osricwuscfrea/art/Reverse-Clock-1-2-375099059

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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Sun Aug 12, 2018 10:04 pm 
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nexter wrote:
Oh and the 'other' Rick (Ric, where are you!? Counting sand grains in your desert? ;) ) will be pleased to learn that the theme with 'backwards' meter modules (inc. battery) is currently under development and making good progress, and it even has a - no, alas, no anti-clockwise clock (sniff, sniff), clock that appears to go backwards. :)


Cool beans! Sadly, I don't count sand grains.

We moved here from Minnesota when I was 10 years old (41 years ago...oy!). We all, mom and dad included, envisioned a Sahara-like desert. Little did we know it was much more vibrant, rich, and interesting than the Sahara. There are mountains and cactus and large rocks and little rocks and shrubs and succulents and the ground is mostly gravel, not sand. This was in 1977 way before the advent of the modern Internet by Sir Tim Berners-Lee who invented the world wide web and who is, apparently, Al Gore's alter-ego, by which I mean we were unable to pull up Google Images and see gorgeous photos of the stunning American Southwest. I blame Google for their inability to provide us those pictures decades before their existence.

As for the anti-clockwise movement, I'm sure we'll get there. We'll just keep discussing this until Jorge gives up and puts something in the code that simply tells the hand-movement function "go backward, not forward, you fool!"

nexter wrote:
IOW, the face is that of an anti-clock, but of course it moves in a 'normal' clockwise direction. (That should confuse a few people. :P ) It's one of my Dada clocks - happened to fit in perfectly, much better than the original, just had to change the background and numbers (font colour) layers for new ones. At least the numbers are in the right order - some I've done have them all mixed up.


I should find one for my smartwatch. Strangely, I prefer digital watch faces for my wrist more than analog.

nexter wrote:
I always do everything with smoke and mirrors. ;)


As every aspiring gentleman is wont to do.

(And it's Ric, same as my godfather, Richard "Ric" Johnson. When I grew out of my "Ricky" phase as a youngster, I asked my godfather over a game of chess how he spelled his and he told me. I liked that. It was different without being complicated, unlike chess. I'm not much of a player and neither is he. He was just teaching me the basics.)


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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 2:37 pm 
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DanDaBear wrote:
Nexter, If you REALLY want an anti-clockwise clock, there is one (at least) for Rainmeter (which is programmed in C#, by the way) here: https://www.deviantart.com/osricwuscfrea/art/Reverse-Clock-1-2-375099059

Thanks a lot Dan! Will have a very close look at this and give it a shot if it can show up with Winstep hiding the desktop. It looks like it's skinnable too.

And what a wonderful old English name, Osric! Consists of two Old English words, ós meaning a god, and ríc (pr. 'reech') meaning ruler, i.e., Godruler. :)
DesertDwarf wrote:
nexter wrote:
Oh and the 'other' Rick (Ric, where are you!? Counting sand grains in your desert? ;) ) will be pleased to learn that the theme with 'backwards' meter modules (inc. battery) is currently under development and making good progress, and it even has a - no, alas, no anti-clockwise clock (sniff, sniff), clock that appears to go backwards. :)

Cool beans! Sadly, I don't count sand grains.

Glad to hear it. ;) Good for you. Oops, didn't realise I'd typed 'Rick' the first time instead of 'Ric'! Of course 'Richard' being an old Germanic/Anglo-Saxon name consisting of two words (like the vast majority of these), ríc (see above!) 'ruler', and héh-ard, 'brave', it was pronounced very differently from the modern way. (In old English, a 'c' following an 'i' or 'e' (or preceding one) was pronounced like mod. Eng. 'ch'.)
DesertDwarf wrote:
We moved here from Minnesota when I was 10 years old (41 years ago...oy!). We all, mom and dad included, envisioned a Sahara-like desert. Little did we know it was much more vibrant, rich, and interesting than the Sahara. There are mountains and cactus and large rocks and little rocks and shrubs and succulents and the ground is mostly gravel, not sand. This was in 1977 way before the advent of the modern Internet by Sir Tim Berners-Lee who invented the world wide web and who is, apparently, Al Gore's alter-ego, by which I mean we were unable to pull up Google Images and see gorgeous photos of the stunning American Southwest. I blame Google for their inability to provide us those pictures decades before their existence.

LOL! So from the frying pan of the freezing north into the searing heat of the south-west, as it were. :) Yeah, I'd have loved to have seen Az for real, fantastic scenery etc., and 4-state corner area too. Also happen to love cacti and other succulents as well as all reptilians.
DesertDwarf wrote:
As for the anti-clockwise movement, I'm sure we'll get there. We'll just keep discussing this until Jorge gives up and puts something in the code that simply tells the hand-movement function "go backward, not forward, you fool!"

LOLOL! Hmm, would be nice of course.... :) Meanwhile, I've also thought up a way of doing a nice 24hr clock that won't need any change to the Winstep code. I simply do the standard numbers with the additional 24hr numbers above them, and 1/4 hr sub-divisions (i.e., one every 7.5 degrees), then do custom hands where the min and sec hands are 'invisible', i.e., just a transparent bitmap. OK, not the same as a full single-sweep 24hr division, but better than nothing. :) And it's well on the way. But one thing's certain - I won't even attempt to do any elliptical, hexagonal, octagonal, square etc. ones - strictly round only. Getting the placements of divisions just right for anything other than round would be a bit of a nightmare, far morre work than it's worth. :)
DesertDwarf wrote:
nexter wrote:
IOW, the face is that of an anti-clock, but of course it moves in a 'normal' clockwise direction. (That should confuse a few people. :P ) It's one of my Dada clocks - happened to fit in perfectly, much better than the original, just had to change the background and numbers (font colour) layers for new ones. At least the numbers are in the right order - some I've done have them all mixed up.

I should find one for my smartwatch. Strangely, I prefer digital watch faces for my wrist more than analog.

Well, diff'rent strokes and all that Ric. :) Myself, I hate digital watch faces and even any sort of battery-driven watch. But then I hate almost anything digital and/or battery-dependent. :)
DesertDwarf wrote:
nexter wrote:
I always do everything with smoke and mirrors. ;)

As every aspiring gentleman is wont to do.

(And it's Ric, same as my godfather, .....)

:MrGreen: As re: name, see above. :)

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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 3:16 pm 
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And more news - backwards anti-clockwise clock looking good though haven't finished custom hands yet, and meter bars going right to left also looking good. :) Screen grab of theme (very dark, and still work-in-progress - something that's been in my head and on paper for at least 15-18 years) coming up soon.

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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:22 pm 
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Ét voila - theme with 'backwards' moving anti-clockwise clock, right to left moving meter module bars (pity we can't set the histos the same way!). Still work in progress of course, and the grab looks a bit greenish on here - there's none of that in the original, no hint of it. Still to do - NeXus running apps indicator, desktop clock hands (sec hand likely to be invisible), and taskbar. Oh and a few minor details inc. secondary Net Out net mod twin.

The swirly, spirally thing is essentially the original NeXT Black Hole Recycler, painted red and fully animated both on desktop and in-shelf/-dock, and it glows brightly as it feeds and when fed, i.e., full.

All bitmaps except that annoying pregnant fish and of course meter bars are translucent (about 66%) btw. And yes, it's pretty dark - quite oddly relaxing really - but perfectly user-friendly.

Bugger, just discovered another problem - the in-dock/-shelf clock's hand colours don't get saved, along with, it seems, the CPU font colour even though it's defined in the .wsm file. Better report that.
Attachment:
20180814ScreenshotRM7.png
20180814ScreenshotRM7.png [ 436.13 KiB | Viewed 24018 times ]

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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2018 1:00 pm 
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DanDaBear wrote:
Nexter, If you REALLY want an anti-clockwise clock, there is one (at least) for Rainmeter (which is programmed in C#, by the way) here: https://www.deviantart.com/osricwuscfrea/art/Reverse-Clock-1-2-375099059

Dan, I've taken Rainmeter for a spin, including the above anti-clockwise clock theme! Was surprised how simple it is to use, and everything does show under Winstep, but.... 'Skinning' in the ordinary sense of using bitmaps for everything doesn't seem to be possible (although it can use bitmaps for some things, essentially it's all vector based - which in and of itself is actually not a bad idea, makes for - virtually - unlimited scalability and more), and the configuration is very complex at anything more than the most basic level.

So, given that the clock is basically poo-ugly in its supplied form and that changing it to anything that would fit in with even just one of my Winstep setups would be a bit of a nightmare with a very steep learning curve and all, I'll sadly have to pass on it and Rainmeter and wait till enough of us can beg, persuade, blackmail, force or whatever it takes, Jorge into giving us a proper anti-clockwise Winstep clock. ;)

Same I suppose goes for a proper 360-degree, single-sweep 24 hour clock, although I'm fairly sure this could be done as an option with the current clock module. (I am in the process of creating a double-sweep 24hr clock theme, which basically is simple enough, with only 1/4hr sub-divisions and just an hour-hand - the min and sec hands will simply be made invisible, i.e., just fully transparent bitmaps - but it's not quite the same thing really.)

Anyway, thanks a lot again for the tip, Dan, much appreciated.

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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 1:38 am 
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Hi Nexter, Try this one out! I created it from one of my "Bordered 2 Tears" rainmeter suite clocks!

https://www.deviantart.com/dabdabear/art/Reverse-Shape-Clock-1-0-761140511?ga_submit_new=10%3A1535246977

It's all done with vector shapes, but yeah, you can use images in rainmeter as well as image fonts and numbers.

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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:10 pm 
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DanDaBear wrote:
Hi Nexter, Try this one out! I created it from one of my "Bordered 2 Tears" rainmeter suite clocks!

https://www.deviantart.com/dabdabear/art/Reverse-Shape-Clock-1-0-761140511?ga_submit_new=10%3A1535246977

It's all done with vector shapes, but yeah, you can use images in rainmeter as well as image fonts and numbers.

Wow, very impressive Dan! Well done! Looking much, much better. Only had a quick look so far. The theme I'm currently working in is quite dark, so it's almost invisible on that wallpaper qndd I only see a second hand, not the minute/hour atm, but I'll fiddle with all the settings when I get a chance. This should earn a place on my personal desktop till we get Jorge to submit. ;) Thanks Dan for letting me know.

:Edit: Oh, and I suppose there would be a way to get rid of the digital inset? (Kind of spoils the effect for me. :) ) :/Edit:

On the whole I'm quite impressed with Rainmeter and the possibilities it offers. Now, if only it were skinnable with vector and also raster images directly, it would be really fab I guess. (I love the flexibility of vector gfx and sometimes start some gfx as vector images before converting or merging them.)

Jorge, can you see the possibilities of vector gfx - think of the whole scalability thing! Internally, it would seem that you use vector gfx anyway? How do you scale up bitmaps that are too small to scale up to any degree in PS and other gfx apps and often come up with such smooth results?

Oh, and surely it would seem to be quite a simple matter to add an option to run anti-clockwise for the clock module, much as say bar meters can run L-R, R-L, upward, downward? :)

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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 12:28 am 
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Well, you could go into the .ini file and remove (or comment out with a semi colon) the four sections that start with "Digital" ([DigitalTimeBack], [DigitalTime], [DigitalDateBack] and [DigitalDate]) or just re-download the file on DA as I have updated it with a no digital variant.
Either way removes the digital stuff.

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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 1:19 am 
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DanDaBear wrote:
Well, you could go into the .ini file and remove (or comment out with a semi colon) the four sections that start with "Digital" ([DigitalTimeBack], [DigitalTime], [DigitalDateBack] and [DigitalDate]) or just re-download the file on DA as I have updated it with a no digital variant.
Either way removes the digital stuff.

Yep, tried that already, commenting out the digital size bits, thanks Dan. :) But shall d/l the latest again also. It's a real neat 'trick' that it takes on the predominant colour of the background - now wouldn't it be really cool if we could selectively set that up in Winstep themes? Love that bit.

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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Thu Aug 30, 2018 1:01 pm 
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Downloaded your complete theme actually, Dan, very interesting, very neat. Have you considered adding a 24-hour analogue clock (i.e., full 24 hrs in 24x 15 degree steps, with sub-divisions for half and quarter hrs), and the same as reverse clock? ;)

Now if only we could have those options right here in Winstep! :)

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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Thu Aug 30, 2018 8:21 pm 
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And here's a quickie preview of one of my 24-hour clocks, with just an hour hand and divisions into 1/4 hrs only. The outer, 'swirly' bit is translucent so here ends up looking a bit pale on a/c of the plain background. The layers (8 in total!) with the divisions and numbers are not final yet (and of course the hand is only present by way of illustration of course), in particular I'm still not happy with the font.

Time itself is passing the event horizon and being sucked into a Black Hole! It is slowing down and seems to sit there fixed for all eternity while it is being ripped apart. Space time is approaching the Big Crunch! ;)

There's a famous 24-hr clock in the Czech Republic IIRC, spectacular beast. Wish we could copy that here in Winstep! :) Ideally also going anti-clockwise. :)
Attachment:
24HrDTAClock-Preview.png
24HrDTAClock-Preview.png [ 64.34 KiB | Viewed 23727 times ]

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 Post subject: Re: More On Anti-Clockwise Clocks
PostPosted: Fri Aug 31, 2018 2:48 am 
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So, Nexter. You installed 'Bordered 2 Tears Suite' and it looked OK?

I got someone on the Rainmeter forum saying all they got was a white background and text.

Sorry, Jorge for hijacking you forums. :oops:

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