The Lunchtime Clock Gives You 12 Extra Minutes

The Lunchtime clock is a hacked clock that pulls a sneaky little trick to get you a longer lunch. In this instructible, [Randofo] shows us how he uses an Atmega168 and a realtime clock kit from Adafruit to slow the clock down 20% starting at 11:00 and then speed it back up at 11:45, gaining you an extra 12 minutes of sweet delicious lunch. Not really sure how noticeable this would be? Check out the video after the break. This is pretty hilarious and we can actually think of a few offices where this might work. However, many offices rely on their main network server for actual time keeping leaving this as just an amusing novelty. Still, those with luddite bosses can rejoice in your new-found extended lunch.

[via Gizmodo]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SKzo9FfSxk&w=470]

41 thoughts on “The Lunchtime Clock Gives You 12 Extra Minutes

  1. I’m only wondering what it does afterwards? does it speed up from 12h to 14h or what? kinda sucks if you still need to work as long afterwards. + After a week the bloody thing would be an hour late..

    Besides that this is a great hack, implementing a temporary speed up starting after the lunch until your working day is over would make this THE most awesome thing ever.. (besides real time traveling)

    I also see kids who might see good opportunity to exploit this :p

  2. Yeah, umm, I don’t know a single place that this would work. Everyone has these devices called “cellular telephones” now, they are personal communication devices that can also keep time!

    So no. Just no.

  3. @woutervddn: No, it wouldn’t be late at all ’cause it speeds up again in order to get back the right time after lunch. So the 12 minutes would be taken from the mourning, gained on lunch and then the clock would get back on the right time.

  4. In the video it shows the clock speeding up at 11 o’clock, buying you the extra twelve minutes at the beginning of lunch, not at the end. Lunch starts at 12 o’clock on the Lunchtime clock (11:48 real clock), and ends at 1 o’clock on both, so no worries about your end of work time.

  5. Devices that keep time should always be constant and accurate. Daylight savings time should also be done away with. Want more time? Get up earlier, go to bed later, drink more coffee.

  6. @Daid

    If you are going to copy our work, at least credit the authors appropriately by stating our user names and providing a link to our profiles. You are not currently doing the authors of these articles any favors.

  7. The only way this would work over an extended period of time (assuming you work with old people who only check the actual clock) would be if it sped itself back up to catch up to real-time every night.

  8. Last year I managed a CNC shop, I would have loved to have this on the shop floor, not a problem, would give them extra 12minutes for lunch, but I also want it to slow time down from 8am to 1pm, then speed it up from 1pm to 5pm, for some reason, everyone slowed down the last 3,4 hours of work, so if time apeard to be rockin the that half of the day, these guys would have been more productive!! hmmm, social engineering meets technology!

  9. @Author whose work has been copied

    Daid isn’t trying to steal anyone’s work, he has just created a website that stripes all the annoying parts of instructables away. If I understand how it works correctly, you can pass any instructables address as a variable in his website’s address and get a converted version. I personally hate instructables, thats why I created hackhut.com as a place just for hackers without the need for solutions like daids.

  10. @”Author whose work has been copied who might go by the name of Randofo or Randy Sarafan”:
    Didn’t even think about it. Added the author, with link. It’s not about stealing content, it’s about making it accessible.
    ‘Mission statement’ can be found at: http://daid.mine.nu/instructabliss/ also contact details if you want me to take down articles written by you.

  11. I too get a sinking feeling when a cool looking project on here ends up being hosted on “instructables”. I hate that site. Please if you’ve got a project invest some time in making a real web site for it. There are plenty of free hosting sites out there.

  12. @Michael Bradley
    That would be a wonderful social engineering/social experiment. I’d bet most people would work harder given those conditions.

    Maybe put one in the gym, too. I know lots of people could use an extra 15-20 of workout time.

  13. There’s one of those built into my Mac…

    “Time left: About five minutes”
    … time passes …
    “Time left: About a minute”
    … six minutes later …
    “Time left: About a minute”

  14. After me and an idiot boss got into a fight over when I was leaving work, I set the clock to world standard (GM time) and almost got fired for changing the clock by about 10/15 seconds “so I could leave early.”

    Some bosses are REALLY particular about their time clocks, no matter how much “over time” you put by going in early.

    Here’s a tip for those starting out in the corporate life. If you work extra hours, do it late. They don’t care how early or how hard you work when you go in early. But stay late (even if you do nothing) and you’re a work-a-holic.

    I got more work done in an hour by going in early than I did in 4 hours in regular time. But they didn’t care.

  15. Did something like this when working up north. Put our watch ahead 1/2 hour before lunch then reset it during lunch giving us a nice leisurely break Worked out great until the foreman thought we were going to be late and raced back to the bunk house in time for coffee break. He always remembered to wear his watch after that.

  16. Is it just me, or does the lunchtime clock actually move faster than the realtime clock in the video?

    Maybe I am crazy, but the video is stopped at 0:07 and the lunchtime clock shows 11:40 and the realtime clock shows 11:32. Isn’t the point of the clock to gain time, not lose it?

  17. @Hmmm: The point is to lose time before lunch, so you get to leave for lunch sooner, and then gain that time back during lunch. If you watch the video all the way through, it ends at 12:00 at the same time as the regular clock.

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