My StarDate Clock

Many years ago I realized I was having some challenges keeping track of tasks that were time critical – mainly baking. It was very difficult to just watch the timer on the oven and if I went into another room to do something more interesting I couldn’t hear the oven alarm.

Many ‘clever’ solutions were offered but none of them were practical for my lifestyle or relevant to me.

So I took on a challenge. Make My Own  timer.

I had been ‘playing’ with some Python coding as a ‘dare’ from my son, so I experimented with using Python to create a timer application. I soon came to the conclusion that it was not going to work for me so I fell back onto a programming language I had been familiar with in the past, Visual Basic.

Not the most trendy or currently popular programming languages but one I could work with. Just prior to my diagnosis about 10 years ago while working with other and newer programming languages I found myself slipping back into good old V.B. So I thought it might still work for me.

I was right! After a few weeks (perhaps months) of coding and experimentation I programmed my own Timer application.

This program works for me! Not only does it track time critical tasks but it tells the time. Not just the boring old Eastern Standard Time but more meaningfully it gives me the StarDate.

I made a decision to calculate the StarDate based on the moment Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the moon  at 12:56 pm Monday 21st July 1969 (Australian Eastern Standard Time – because that’s were the Dish was and is, that received the transmission and re-broadcast it to the world).

So here is a short video of my ‘Clock’ starting up and a short demonstration of some of its features.

Click here to see My Clock

(Note: I hope to add a few features to this to make life harder for some neurologists 😊. To calculate the StarDate you need to divide the number of milliseconds that have elapsed from the moment Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon and divide if by the number of milliseconds in an average year – then do a little bit more 👍😊👍😂👌)