Archive for the ‘SF & Fandom’ Category

The Fourth Street photos show some promise, I think.  And so does the software, though it wasn’t until Sunday afternoon that I got it reliably running all the way through the chain without being kicked manually (does that sound any better than “kicked by hand”?).  Last night I dropped a batch in incoming and crashed, and it went through, and this morning I added a bunch more from the music session last night, and those went through, so I’m cautiously optimistic.

Friday Saturday Sunday

And fish fest yet to come (probably not a lot of photos from that).

A few SF writers have amused themselves by having their far-future space-faring characters abandon our “months” and “years”, and do everything in days or hours. This makes a certain sense when you get away from Earth; the daily rhythm is the one most deeply built into us, and we probably will keep something like 24-hour days on ships. And we’ll certainly keep the “second”, if it’s really “us” spreading out to the stars, because it’s basic to all our science and engineering; and completely arbitrary, so it’s as good as anything else.

I’ve wanted a table of time conversions for decoding such stories for some time, and finally wrote a Perl script to create one. So, for amusement, reference, and so forth, here they are.

The actual difficulty is primarily deciding how to format them. I don’t think this is optimal yet, but it’s much better than some things I tried.

The “year” length is the official solar year. All calculations are done from seconds.

The first set of tables are powers of 10 in one of the units.

Seconds    Minutes      Hours       Days      Weeks      Years
 1e+03       16.7      0.278     0.0116    0.00165   3.17e-05
 1e+04        167       2.78      0.116     0.0165   0.000317
 1e+05   1.67e+03       27.8       1.16      0.165    0.00317
 1e+06   1.67e+04        278       11.6       1.65     0.0317
 1e+07   1.67e+05   2.78e+03        116       16.5      0.317
 1e+08   1.67e+06   2.78e+04   1.16e+03        165       3.17
 1e+09   1.67e+07   2.78e+05   1.16e+04   1.65e+03       31.7
 1e+10   1.67e+08   2.78e+06   1.16e+05   1.65e+04        317
 1e+11   1.67e+09   2.78e+07   1.16e+06   1.65e+05   3.17e+03
 1e+12   1.67e+10   2.78e+08   1.16e+07   1.65e+06   3.17e+04
 1e+13   1.67e+11   2.78e+09   1.16e+08   1.65e+07   3.17e+05
 1e+14   1.67e+12   2.78e+10   1.16e+09   1.65e+08   3.17e+06

 Seconds    Minutes      Hours       Days      Weeks      Years
 6e+04      1e+03       16.7      0.694     0.0992     0.0019
 6e+05      1e+04        167       6.94      0.992      0.019
 6e+06      1e+05   1.67e+03       69.4       9.92       0.19
 6e+07      1e+06   1.67e+04        694       99.2        1.9
 6e+08      1e+07   1.67e+05   6.94e+03        992         19
 6e+09      1e+08   1.67e+06   6.94e+04   9.92e+03        190
 6e+10      1e+09   1.67e+07   6.94e+05   9.92e+04    1.9e+03
 6e+11      1e+10   1.67e+08   6.94e+06   9.92e+05    1.9e+04
 6e+12      1e+11   1.67e+09   6.94e+07   9.92e+06    1.9e+05

 Seconds    Minutes      Hours       Days      Weeks      Years
 3.6e+03         60          1     0.0417    0.00595   0.000114
 3.6e+04        600         10      0.417     0.0595    0.00114
 3.6e+05      6e+03        100       4.17      0.595     0.0114
 3.6e+06      6e+04      1e+03       41.7       5.95      0.114
 3.6e+07      6e+05      1e+04        417       59.5       1.14
 3.6e+08      6e+06      1e+05   4.17e+03        595       11.4
 3.6e+09      6e+07      1e+06   4.17e+04   5.95e+03        114
 3.6e+10      6e+08      1e+07   4.17e+05   5.95e+04   1.14e+03
 3.6e+11      6e+09      1e+08   4.17e+06   5.95e+05   1.14e+04
 3.6e+12      6e+10      1e+09   4.17e+07   5.95e+06   1.14e+05
 3.6e+13      6e+11      1e+10   4.17e+08   5.95e+07   1.14e+06

 Seconds    Minutes      Hours       Days      Weeks      Years
 8.64e+04   1.44e+03         24          1      0.143    0.00274
 8.64e+05   1.44e+04        240         10       1.43     0.0274
 8.64e+06   1.44e+05    2.4e+03        100       14.3      0.274
 8.64e+07   1.44e+06    2.4e+04      1e+03        143       2.74
 8.64e+08   1.44e+07    2.4e+05      1e+04   1.43e+03       27.4
 8.64e+09   1.44e+08    2.4e+06      1e+05   1.43e+04        274
 8.64e+10   1.44e+09    2.4e+07      1e+06   1.43e+05   2.74e+03
 8.64e+11   1.44e+10    2.4e+08      1e+07   1.43e+06   2.74e+04
 8.64e+12   1.44e+11    2.4e+09      1e+08   1.43e+07   2.74e+05
 8.64e+13   1.44e+12    2.4e+10      1e+09   1.43e+08   2.74e+06

 Seconds    Minutes      Hours       Days      Weeks      Years
 3.16e+07   5.26e+05   8.77e+03        365       52.2          1
 3.16e+08   5.26e+06   8.77e+04   3.65e+03        522         10
 3.16e+09   5.26e+07   8.77e+05   3.65e+04   5.22e+03        100
 3.16e+10   5.26e+08   8.77e+06   3.65e+05   5.22e+04      1e+03
 3.16e+11   5.26e+09   8.77e+07   3.65e+06   5.22e+05      1e+04
 3.16e+12   5.26e+10   8.77e+08   3.65e+07   5.22e+06      1e+05
 3.16e+13   5.26e+11   8.77e+09   3.65e+08   5.22e+07      1e+06

Or, in a variant presentation, sorted by actual length of each period:

  Seconds    Minutes      Hours       Days      Weeks      Years
    1e+03       16.7      0.278     0.0116    0.00165   3.17e-05
  3.6e+03         60          1     0.0417    0.00595   0.000114
    1e+04        167       2.78      0.116     0.0165   0.000317
  3.6e+04        600         10      0.417     0.0595    0.00114
    6e+04      1e+03       16.7      0.694     0.0992     0.0019
 8.64e+04   1.44e+03         24          1      0.143    0.00274
    1e+05   1.67e+03       27.8       1.16      0.165    0.00317
  3.6e+05      6e+03        100       4.17      0.595     0.0114
    6e+05      1e+04        167       6.94      0.992      0.019
 8.64e+05   1.44e+04        240         10       1.43     0.0274
    1e+06   1.67e+04        278       11.6       1.65     0.0317
  3.6e+06      6e+04      1e+03       41.7       5.95      0.114
    6e+06      1e+05   1.67e+03       69.4       9.92       0.19
 8.64e+06   1.44e+05    2.4e+03        100       14.3      0.274
    1e+07   1.67e+05   2.78e+03        116       16.5      0.317
 3.16e+07   5.26e+05   8.77e+03        365       52.2          1
  3.6e+07      6e+05      1e+04        417       59.5       1.14
    6e+07      1e+06   1.67e+04        694       99.2        1.9
 8.64e+07   1.44e+06    2.4e+04      1e+03        143       2.74
    1e+08   1.67e+06   2.78e+04   1.16e+03        165       3.17
 3.16e+08   5.26e+06   8.77e+04   3.65e+03        522         10
  3.6e+08      6e+06      1e+05   4.17e+03        595       11.4
    6e+08      1e+07   1.67e+05   6.94e+03        992         19
 8.64e+08   1.44e+07    2.4e+05      1e+04   1.43e+03       27.4
    1e+09   1.67e+07   2.78e+05   1.16e+04   1.65e+03       31.7
 3.16e+09   5.26e+07   8.77e+05   3.65e+04   5.22e+03        100
  3.6e+09      6e+07      1e+06   4.17e+04   5.95e+03        114
    6e+09      1e+08   1.67e+06   6.94e+04   9.92e+03        190
 8.64e+09   1.44e+08    2.4e+06      1e+05   1.43e+04        274
    1e+10   1.67e+08   2.78e+06   1.16e+05   1.65e+04        317
 3.16e+10   5.26e+08   8.77e+06   3.65e+05   5.22e+04      1e+03
  3.6e+10      6e+08      1e+07   4.17e+05   5.95e+04   1.14e+03
    6e+10      1e+09   1.67e+07   6.94e+05   9.92e+04    1.9e+03
 8.64e+10   1.44e+09    2.4e+07      1e+06   1.43e+05   2.74e+03
    1e+11   1.67e+09   2.78e+07   1.16e+06   1.65e+05   3.17e+03
 3.16e+11   5.26e+09   8.77e+07   3.65e+06   5.22e+05      1e+04
  3.6e+11      6e+09      1e+08   4.17e+06   5.95e+05   1.14e+04
    6e+11      1e+10   1.67e+08   6.94e+06   9.92e+05    1.9e+04
 8.64e+11   1.44e+10    2.4e+08      1e+07   1.43e+06   2.74e+04
    1e+12   1.67e+10   2.78e+08   1.16e+07   1.65e+06   3.17e+04
 3.16e+12   5.26e+10   8.77e+08   3.65e+07   5.22e+06      1e+05
  3.6e+12      6e+10      1e+09   4.17e+07   5.95e+06   1.14e+05
    6e+12      1e+11   1.67e+09   6.94e+07   9.92e+06    1.9e+05
 8.64e+12   1.44e+11    2.4e+09      1e+08   1.43e+07   2.74e+05
    1e+13   1.67e+11   2.78e+09   1.16e+08   1.65e+07   3.17e+05
 3.16e+13   5.26e+11   8.77e+09   3.65e+08   5.22e+07      1e+06
  3.6e+13      6e+11      1e+10   4.17e+08   5.95e+07   1.14e+06
 8.64e+13   1.44e+12    2.4e+10      1e+09   1.43e+08   2.74e+06
    1e+14   1.67e+12   2.78e+10   1.16e+09   1.65e+08   3.17e+06

You may download a zip file containing the script.

Tomorrow, hotel load-in starts.

Minicon Work Session

(click through for gallery)

Minicon 45 is starting Friday.

I am facilitating a short “taking things apart” session at 3:30pm Saturday for half an hour.   I know we’ll have multiple disk drives, and no doubt other things.  (If you have anything interesting to take apart that you could contribute, please let me know; note that putting things back together is not in the plan!)

Children and adults are welcome.  Some pieces removed are likely to be too small to be safe for toddlers, so parental discretion is advised!