I have a prayer clock that was an early product of one of the companies I
worked for. You entered your latitude and longitude and it displayed the
heading to Mecca. There were a number of pre-set alarms for each prayer
time. It had a removable floating needle compass in the top that could be
removed. They sold 10,000 or so of these I think. Pretty sophisticated, at
the time. I think it has an 8031 processor in it, although I've never taken
it apart. Has an LCD display, and Arabic writing on it (instructions, I
guess).
I informally collect clocks. If I see really neat or odd ones, I'll aquire
it. I've also built a number of clocks, all microprocessor based, but using
varying display technologies.
--John
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of Sellam Ismail
Sent: Thursday, October 24, 2002 13:04
To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Even stranger classic software
On Thu, 24 Oct 2002, Rob Hamadi wrote:
> A friend of mine once worked in a factory in the UK where they made
> clocks in the shape of minarets that not only did that 5 times a day but
> also had an electro-magnetic compass on top which would light up a green
> LED showing the direction of Mecca. As there were only 8 LEDs I guess
> the accuracy was to within 45 degrees.
I've got one of those! Well, minus the digital compass. I was visiting a
very good friend a few years back and his dad had bought one, probably
because he thought it was as funny as I did. We got some serious chuckles
out of it. My friend insisted I take it with me. My parents got a kick
out of it too, so I left it at their house.
I haven't heard it in a while (it gets so annoying you just have to leave
the batteries out because it has no on/off switch), but everytime I hear
it belt out the call to prayers I have to bust out laughing.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer
Festival
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Received on Thu Oct 24 2002 - 12:23:00 BST