> The display shows a free-running simulation of Jupiter and 63 of its moons. For convenience, I just plot the X/Y coordinates of each moon in the ecliptic plane. The ephemerides come from the HORIZONS server that NASA operates, at a specified date and time. The J90 just dumps a new frame whenever the Teensy has pulled the previous one, so with a teensy (ha!) bit of calibration on the micro controller side, it would be pretty easy to have the frames dumped in ‘real time’, which, knowing the starting time and date, would allow you to not-at-all-easily infer the current time by looking at the positions of Jupiter’s moons.
Someone finally came up with a time system more difficult for people to use than Star Trek's stardates.
> But what is a Nixie Watch? How does it function? These are some questions worth exploring with this distinct and idiosyncratic wristwatch. So—let’s continue!
> ....
> Without getting into the weeds too much, the watch harvests electricity from said battery; deploys that electricity through currents; then the currents are switched off-and-on at exact times via a circuit board—which governs the electrical currents.
While this certainly isn't "in the weeds", it does rather feel that this is not even within visual range of any plant at all.
At the risk of eating the Onion, though it's not inaccurate, it doesn't seem like a very useful description, to anyone, even if the reader has never encountered electricity. The juxtaposition of that sentence with the earlier airily unelaborated-upon "a Nixie tube is a cold cathode tube" is pure art.
Someone finally came up with a time system more difficult for people to use than Star Trek's stardates.