Internet Time and PSO

[Neifirst]

I recently purchased a Swatch .beat watch due to my deep love of everything Phantasy Star - including their inclusion of Internet Time. Now I can just look at my wrist to check out the current Internet Time and coordinate with my friends from around the globe... or not.

What I would like to know from the PSO World community is this - do you use the Internet Time? It seems that most people just use standard time with their Time Zone tagged on when setting up meetings.

Was the inclusion of this Internet Time, this .beat time, just a useless gesture. It seemed like such a cool idea when I read about it in the PSO previews, and I still think it is, but that doesn't matter much if no one uses it.

Let me know whatcha think.

[Fubuki]

I have hunted and hunted for a dern .beatr watch since the I first read about PSO using it during the preveiw times. but other than ordering online (which I ain't to keen on) it seems no place in my neck of the woods carries swatches anymore... and the one kiosk in a mall that actually was a 'swatch dealer' had no idea what .beats were...

so I would luv to be able to talk in beats.. but can't. PSO should have a little .beats time built into sat the CHAT menu or something.

[Neifirst]

I agree. I think that PSO should feature the .beats a little more prevalently. I bet most people have seen it in their menus and haven't given it a lick of thought.

BTW, this reply was posted @651 .beats. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif

[Zero101]

Yeah, the .Beat time is an awesome idea. I went to the Swatch website and downloaded a little app for my desktop so I could see what time it was while at work. Currently, the time is: @711

My question... I found a really cool looking .beat watch on the Swatch website, but they don't seem to have an online store. Do you know where I can get one of the .beat watches online?

[Neifirst]

I had a Swatch dealer in town order mine for me, but I also checked on the Internet for them and found a couple of sites that sell them:

www.watchzone.com has some of the .beat collection

http://store.yahoo.com/galleryone-sandiego/swatch.html has the one I own - the "Silverize" Digital Swatch Skin Watch

Hope this helps!

Posted: @676

[Zero101]

Muchas gracias... I think I might order one today.

But what is up with the difference in our beat times? Why are you still at @611 and I am into the 7 hundreds? One of us must have the wrong time zone or something. I live in MD and my time is set for GMT -5 hours (which is EST)... I am pretty sure this is right. Weird http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_wink.gif

Well, thanks again for the links
@722

[Neifirst]

Hey Zero, I think I've been wrong about my .beat time. I now have it as @733. On the Swatch website, I wasn't sure if the date format they were using for conversion was month.day.year or day.month.year. To get @733 I used day.month.year.

Oh, well.

[Zero101]

Heh.. ok.. cool. Well at least we are all in sync now. (did I just say n'sync!?? ACK)

I think I am going to get this watch:
http://store.yahoo.com/galleryone-sandiego/yqs1000al.html

Looks cool... I am guessing it's worth the $100 bucks. Too bad the .beat system isn't more widely used though.

[Neifirst]

Slick watch.

It's okay if you like N'Sync. I wouldn't tell too many people though...

[Fubuki]

grrr.. i hate ordering watches online.. I like to try them on first cause pictures of watches just never do them justice... that gallery-one swatch site is pretty nifty though..

must resist temptation to order..!

[Xaken]

There should have been some sort of cool Beat time clock hanging in the lobbies. Nothing distracting, but something cool enough to get your attention so that you at least took the time to learn about it.

If the beat time was something that you just SAW as you played the game rather than something you have to go "look up" in the menu, I think it would get far more used.

[Manifest]

dude beat time is rad. just not very widely accepted.

[Ukyou]

I hate having to constantly use my computer to figure out the .beats. I'm a math person so I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to convert between the two. That way I could just do it in my head. ^_^

[Zero101]

Ukyou, it would be moderately difficult to do the math in your head. A beat is the equivalent of 1 minute, 26.4 seconds. So converting it in your mind would be tedious, to say the least.

Here is some more info:
www.swatch.com/itime_tools/itime.php?color=black&textcolor=white (http://www.swatch.com/itime_tools/itime.php?color=black&textcolor=white)

and a converter to play around with, if you like:
www.swatch.com/itime_tools/converter.php?color=black&textcolor=white (http://www.swatch.com/itime_tools/converter.php?color=black&textcolor=white)

[Neifirst]

Ukyou, you might want to try this Swatch site:

http://www.swatch.com/alu_beat/fs_converter.html

and then view the source. You should be able to cypher what they are doing from the Javascript. Hope this helps!

[EDekar]

I've been wondering for quite a while now just what that BEAT time was...I'm glad someone finally piped up about it. But now it brings up more questions.

What exactly is it? Is it for the Internet in general? Or is it only for PSO? Because it seems like a really good idea to make a time that is universal to everyone. I'm glad someone finally thought of it...

Also, does it follow any particular format? Or do we have to find a convertor or something to keep track of the time? Or perhaps one of those Swatch's that you people keep mentioning...

Well, now that I've been thoroughly confused, I think I'll stop asking questions now. Thanks for anyone who answers...

[Ukyou]

Thanks Neifirst, I've give it a try.
As for Zero's remark. I've got a totally logical type of brain. I love doing logic puzzles, brain twisters, and I'm a major math geek. Heh, it's my favorite subject, and I love constantly improving my mind to process these things faster and faster. Tedious? Hmph, I call it a challenge, and I enjoy challenges =)
Yeah, call me a geek, I already did =P

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ukyou on 2001-03-09 16:32 ]</font>

[Neifirst]

EDekar, you may want to go to

http://www.swatch.com/alu_beat/fs_itime.html

It pretty much sums up the whole idea of .beat time. I don't know how many people are using it, but if more online games continue using it, maybe it'll catch on. I think it is a great idea.

Reply posted: @970 http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif

[Acel]

Good post Neifirst, I've been wondering as well...it seems that even the time for the gathering is posted in EST...WHAT IS EST?!?!? Over here I use GMT. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_razz.gif

[Ukyou]

Eastcoast Standard Time (i think that's what the 'E' stands for anyways, proly wrong =P)

EST is GMT-5hrs, or PST+3hrs for me =)