jonathan jay on Sat, 9 Jun 2001 12:44:29 +0200 (CEST)


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<nettime> Re: FW: [NeXttime] use XTime! ;) (fwd)



If net.congestion were using XTime(xtm), there would be NO TIME DIFFERENCES, and
we would not have this multiple time-zone confusion.  I urge you to check out
XTime @ www.xtime.org and see how you might utilize XTime to advance more
rapidly your organisation's goals and coordinate your activities with others
by trancending time zones with XTime.


What is XTime(xtm)? It is a single time-zone for the entire world in a base-ten
or *decimal* structure and format developed over a period of several years
starting in '96, working with about 25 folks over the web.  XTime does not use
seconds, minutes or hours.  Instead XTime is based entirely on the decimal part
of the day equal to 1/1000th of 1% of the day, and is set to midnight on the
international date line.

This way, intead of a single local time taking precidence for the whole world
(GMT/UTC is actually local London time), instead XTime displays the percentage
of the world is allready in tomorrow -- the percentage of the world allready
using the next global date.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ the simple version ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


XTime starts @ 00.XT with morning in America (8am EDT, 5am PDT), which is midday
in Europe (12:eUT), and moves forward by one kx every 14.4 minutes. Midday here
in Seattle on the left coast of america comes at 29.XT (PDT) and 33.XT (PST), by
which time allready 1/3 of the world is using the next calendar date.  In Europe
at this XTime, it is early in the evening.

There is no daylight savings time in XTime.  XTime does not do anything silly
like springing forward, or falling back.  It just keeps on ticking, 100% of the
time.  Local midnight here in Seattle occurs during 79.XT (since right now we
are on day light savings time), and one hour later when we are on standard time
at 83.XT   For Europeans, it is time to wake up and start the local day.

By the time XTime gets all the way up to 99.XT, 99% of the world is on the same
calendar date.  It is 4:45am PDT, and lunchtime in Paris (11:45 eUT).  The next
global day is 1 kx away from starting.  Bon appetite!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~for the slightly technical~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The duration of .00001 (10^-5) of the mean solar day is known as the "Chi
Duration."  Chi, (rhymes with pi), is the first letter of the greek word
'chronos' meaning time, and is equal to of 0.864 'seconds' of archaic
Babylonian/Sumerian time.  This duration was used by the ancient Chinese over
2,200 years ago, and breifly re-discovered by the French during the French
Revolution when they were using metric time.  This decimal subset of the day is
very close to the ancient Babylonian/Sumerian 'second' that many people are more
familiar with, there bing roughly 70 chi/minute vs. 60 seconds.  As there are
84,600 seconds in each day of archaic time, so too are there 100,000 chi in each
24 hour period.  The chi-tempo of XTime @ roughly 70 chi/minute is 'adagio'

If you are familiar with the the metric system, you will readily understand that
1,000 chi (864 seconds) = 1 kilo-chi (1 kx) exactly 1% of the day (.24 hours)
or just under 15 minutes (14.4 miuntes... 14 minutes, 26.4 seconds exactly)

Unit Name     Symbol	Duration	Duration in Days

1 Giga-chi	Gx	27.4 years	10,000 days
1 Mega-chi	Mx	1.43 weeks	10 days
1 kilo-chi	kx	14.4 minutes	0.01 mean solar day
1 chi		x	0.864 seconds	0.00001 mean solar day


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ the pitch ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I am now actively seeking beta testers for XTime(xtm) in small creative
comunities of artists and technologists, colloborating over multiple timezones
(such as is the case right here!).

Please pass this email on to anyone you know of who might be interested, and
feel free to examine and temporarily adopt XTime, and give me feedback after
working with XTime in some interesting capacity, so i can feature your use, or
your XTime discoveries on the www.XTime.org website, and push the XTime project
to the next level; the third millenium of time.

As you may know, after XTime was alpha released in the spring of 98, later in
November of the same year, the Swiss Swatch Watch Corporation released their
proprietary global decimal time standard based on local Swiss Time they call
internet time. Clearly global decimal time is in the air.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ please help ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Please help XTime powered by chi, and backwards compatable with the 150 year old
astronomical Julian Date system:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/help/timedate.html#Julian *beat* out those two
second millenial time structures so that we can have a truly open source
post-colonial time system for a open source post-colonial world.

Technology and transport are squeezing the world to grow smaller still, and as
we wade more deeply into a post-wired world and the digital future, sooner
rather than later 24 times zones will become clearly seen by many as being 23
timezones too many.  Please help shape this process so it does not shape you.

I really would like your assistance with expanding and refining and distributing
XTime, becuase i think is it will become very important in the future, and i
would like you to help me shape the future of time.

please examine and explore www.xtime.org and tell me what you think.

thanks much.


cheers,
jonathan jay, seattle
47.six degrees north
america, pacific coast
www.xtime.org



On Thu, 7 Jun 2001, Mike Weisman wrote:

> DUE TO THE TIME DIFFERENCE, THE DISCUSSION WILL BEGIN AT 11 AM SEATTLE TIME.
> WE WILL GO ON AIR FROM SEATTLE SOMETIME AROUND NOON. COME EARLY AT AROUND 11
> AM IF YOU WANT TO ENJOY THE COMMENTS FROM THE OTHER GROUPS. SORRY FOR THE
> MIXUP.
>
> MIKEW, Mr. Time Zone Confuser
============================ 2001.06.08 74:318.XT =============================
                    don't have the time? try xtime instead!
                             http://www.xtime.org/
===============================================================================

============================ 2001.06.09 28:127.XT =============================
                    don't have the time? try xtime instead!                    
                             http://www.xtime.org/                             
===============================================================================

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