Dear dialists, It is remarkable that the clocks in computers costing several thousands of dollars are so inaccurate as to rival the earliest mechanical timepieces, when an inexpensive wristwatch can be found for a few dollars that keeps extraordinarily good time, by comparison. For several years I've been using two interesting programs to partially alleviate this problem. The main one is Timeset, by Life Sciences Software, 8925 271 St., NW, Suite 112, Stenwood, WA 98292, USA, phone 206-387-9788. This little DOS program automatically dials either the U.S. Naval Observatory time number in Washington, DC or NIST's time number in Boulder, Colorado, depending upon user preference.
Timeset connects to the time signal and in very few seconds it resets the master clock in the computer, either immediately exiting Timeset or returning to Timeset's main screen with a big digital clock display ticking off the seconds (and hundredths) on the screen. The time it is connected long distance is only a few seconds and my phone bill for these connections generally runs at about $.14 US. I believe I originally obtained this program as shareware, but it's been so long I don't remember where it came from. It was so useful that I then purchased it. There's a companion program called RighTime, which I use less often, and which is available from GTBecker, Air System Technologies, Inc., 14232 Marsh Lane, Suite 339, Dallas, TX 75234, phone: 214-647-0670. This program runs in background, monitoring the system clock. It also keeps track of all the changes Timeset makes to this clock and calculates the drift errors in the clock from the dates, times, and magnitudes of the corrections. After a period of gathering clock drift errors, it then starts correcting the clock itself periodically, according to the measured drift. There are a number of settings for controlling how it does this. I find it less useful, sometimes interfering with other programs, and haven't used it for some time now. I prefer to run Timeset more often instead. These programs are probably overkill for this group, but thought I'd provide the information anyway. By the way, I haven't received any response to my request for a copy of the thread about marking sundials. I'd really appreciate it if someone could send me this thread, directly to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks, Ross McCluney
