[time-nuts] Parking Time - was US New Year countdown - accurate?

[Robert Atkinson]

Hi Jim,
Well done, on the parking. Earlier this year I noticed that a new "pay and display" meter in the city center (Cambridge UK) has what appears o be a GPS patch antenna on top. Presumably a GPS receiver is cheaper than manually setting time or arguing it out in court. Anyone got information on this application? I suppose it could also be a data antenna.
My pet parking hate is "pay and display" meters that charge odd amounts for fixed time periods and no change. e.g. 80p for 1/2 hour, £1.60 for an hour. If you only have a pound coin you get 1/2 hour, not 37 minutes.
 
Robert G8RPI.
 
 

________________________________
 From: Jim Palfreyman <jim77742 at gmail.com>
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement <time-nuts at febo.com> 
Sent: Monday, 2 January 2012, 1:46
Subject: [time-nuts] US New Year countdown - accurate?
 
Hi folks,

Ignoring the travesty of a lyric change on John Lennon's classic song, did
anyone check to see if the clock countdown in Times Square was actually
accurate?

In times gone past countdowns have been notoriously off (worst I saw was a
tv personality using his own watch and it was 25 seconds out).

Oh and why we're at it here is my worst time-nut story...

Pulled up in a "Loading Zone 8-6pm" at 18:00:10. Got out, came back 4
minutes later to find a parking officer giving me a ticket.

Me: "Look at the time (showing my watch) - it's 6:04"

Him: "Not by my watch" (which said 5:59 at that point).

Me (massive sarcasm voice): "So. Let me get this straight. Despite
worldwide time standards keeping clocks accurate to billionths of a second
and costing millions of dollars, all that is now been binned and we now
keep world official time by your watch. Is that right?".

Him: "Bu..."

Me (interrupting and pulling out mobile): "Let's listen to the national
time standard shall we?" (I dial and put on speaker - his watch is a good
solid 5 minutes slow).

Him: Walks off screwing up ticket.

The sheer arrogance of the "Not by my watch" comment irks me to this day.

Jim
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