The Dogpatch (now CyberJerry) Seconds Calculators started out as a means of teaching myself javascript programming. The story really started some time ago, as the following historical synopsis illustrates:
Date |
Time |
Event |
|---|---|---|
1957-58 (??) |
My older brother Jim teaches me that one billion is such a large number that no human can live to be a billion seconds old. This amazing fact wows me. | |
Sun. Apr. 15, 1979 |
Approx. 6:30 am CST |
I realize that Jim's assertion is incorrect. |
Sun. Apr. 15, 1979 |
Approx. 8:00 am CST |
After calculating longhand one billion seconds in terms of years, days, hours, minutes, and seconds, I produce my first billionth birthsecond calculator: On one side of a single 8½ x 11 sheet of scrap paper, a sort of perpetual calendar table for determining one's billionth birthsecond, complete with adjustments for leap years. |
1996 (?) |
In DOS, I write a C program to calculate the difference in seconds between two dates & times. My primary focus is to easily compute a person's billionth birthsecond, and to watch one's personal seconds odometer tick by in real time. | |
Wed. Oct. 18, 2006 |
I write a letter to Jim, informing him that his assertion was inaccurate, and that he is about to turn two billion seconds old. | |
Wed. Nov. 01, 2006 |
Jim turns two billion seconds old. | |
Mon. Nov. 06, 2006 |
I receive a response from Jim thanking me for telling him how old he is. | |
Wed. July 11, 2007 |
I acquire a small personal website. | |
Mon. July 16, 2007 |
I begin to teach myself javascript, and decide to try creating a javascript version of my C seconds calculator. | |
Fri. Aug. 03, 2007 |
10:21 pm CDT |
In response to two emails from my godson and nephew Chris, I send him an email with the link to my new javascript routine. The significance is obvious: Chris will soon turn one billion seconds old. |
August, 2007 |
Through visit & emails, Chris helps me to uncover and fix several bugs in the beta version. He bookmarks the Calc 1 page. | |
Fri. Sep. 07, 2007 |
2:01:40 pm CDT |
Chris turns one billion seconds old, becoming (perhaps) the very first human to observe his own personal birthsecond odometer roll over to one billion seconds, in real time. |
Thu. Nov. 08, 2007 |
12:04 pm CST |
Having worked out most remaining bugs, and attaining (more or less) broad compatibility and functionality, I upload the seconds calculators as finished release 1.0.000. |
Date |
Revision |
Description |
|---|---|---|
Mon. Dec. 3, 2007 |
1.0.001 |
Add e.g. buttons and data, and correct minor display boof for some time zone labels. |
Tue. Jan. 1, 2008 |
1.0.002 |
Add Blogger and private user feedback links, to facilitate bug reports, suggestions, and other user comments. |
Sat. Mar. 1, 2008 |
1.0.003 |
Fix calc #2 (It had start/end dates reversed [blush]) |
Tue. Mar. 4, 2008 |
1.1.000 |
Replace browser-dependent timezone and daylight saving logic with my own logic, for browser independence. Also dynamically refresh daylight saving status when date/time changes. |
Fri. May 2, 2008 |
1.1.001 |
Fix daylight saving error in Now times (Calc 1,2,3, & 4). |
Fri. Sept. 12, 2008 |
1.1.002 |
Correct minor timezone autoselect anomaly in Calc 5,6, & 7, and error message alignment in Calc 7. |
Thur. Nov. 5, 2009 |
1.1.003 |
Add extra javascript diagnostics, and disable calculations for unreliable browser / javascript interpreters. |
Holy Week, 2013 |
|
Blue Mountain Internet, apparently under new management, decides to trash the server hosting the Seconds Calculators, with no apology or amends. I can no longer in good faith recommend Blue Mountain Internet. |
Fri. Apr. 12, 2013 |
2.0.000 |
In response to the above, move the Seconds Calculators to a better hosting site, and rename it CyberJerry Seconds Calculators. This represents a new release level, but no major changes in logic. |
Wed. Mar. 19, 2014 |
2.1.000 |
Add leap second logic. Also fix a minor bug related to Dec. 31 of a leap year. |
Tue. Nov. 18, 2014 |
2.2.000 |
Add Spanish translation. |
Mon. Dec. 8, 2014 |
2.2.001 |
Minor textual corrections. |
Thur. Dec. 11, 2014 |
2.2.002 |
More textual corrections. |
Sat. Jan. 24, 2015 |
2.2.003 |
Add leap second for June 30 2015. |
Mon. Feb. 09, 2015 |
2.2.004 |
For the Android onscreen keyboard (and other mobile devices?), restrict most fields to numeric input. |
Mon. Apr. 13, 2015 |
2.3.000 |
Reformat layout for Android and other mobile devices. |
Fri. June 19, 2015 |
2.3.001 - |
Miscellaneous corrections. |
Mon. June 29, 2015 |
2.3.005 |
Correct Windows compatibility problem. |
Thu. Nov. 03, 2016 |
2.3.006 |
Add leap second for December 31 2016. |
Tue. Jan. 03, 2017 |
2.3.007 |
Pre-stuff some variables for leap second logic. |
Fri. Oct. 27, 2017 |
2.4.000 |
No changes. Just moved to a new site and new domain name. |
Fri. Dec. 22, 2017 |
2.4.010 - |
Miscellaneous corrections. |
Tue. Nov. 26, 2019 |
2.4.100 |
Minor change to page layout; copyright (GPL) footnote. |
Sat. Apr. 19, 2025 |
2.5.000 |
No changes. Just moved to a new site and new domain name. |
As the above suggests, the observance of one's billionth birthsecond is of particular interest to me. I have written briefly about it on one of my blog posts, if you're interested. (Well, even if you're not interested, I have in fact written the blog post.)
Of course, besides billionth birthsecond observance, the seconds calculators can be used in many other fun, interesting, and (who knows?) useful ways. Each form suggests an example for the calculation, and you may let your imagination invent others.
The only other general observation I can think of is that the whole idea of calculating seconds between two distant dates may be extremely impractical. Especially when you consider that, before the railroad era, there was no such thing as standardized time. Sure, we now have a standardized system of timekeeping and extremely accurate methodologies for defining and measuring time, but such was not the case before the modern era. The very definition of a second and its exact duration is a recent phenomenon. Ironically, just when we were getting used to the idea of standardized time and accurate timepieces, Einstein informed us that there really is no such thing as universally constant time. According to his theory of relativity, time is variable and relative to one's frame of reference, so the whole idea of calculating the precise quantity of seconds elapsed between two distant events is illusory.
For example, could anyone say exactly when 10:00 am occurred in Rome on March 15, 102 A.D.? Was there even a March 15 of that year? In fact, the people back then would not have referred to the year as 102. You see my point. But, then again, there was a point in time in Rome some 60+ billion seconds ago, and there was a date that would correspond, in our current calendar, with the 74th day of the 102nd year A.D., and there was a time, according to our present accurate timepieces, two hours before midday. If for some reason you want to ignore Einstein and calculate the exact number of seconds elapsed, here's the tool you need. No applause necessary.