As a fun little programming and graphics exercise, and because I wasn't completely satisfied with any of the existing predictors (plus because I generally like to do things myself ), I made my own Pod Clock that graphically displays the time of day in all four pods in relation to surface time and predicts portal appearances. It has now matured to the point where I'm comfortable with sharing it, so, with permission from Cyan, here it is! Hope some will find it useful.

Some of its notable features:

• cross-platform offline application
  
• need not rely on built-in data to predict portals (although it can), but you can calibrate it yourself using your own observations (in uncalibrated state, predictions may be off by several minutes, calibration will make it more accurate)
  
• displays local time, UTC, and KI time
  
• can alert you a specified time in advance of a portal
  
• drag the time scale to any date in the future or past

A screenshot for the impatient:


It is written using wxPython and works out of the box on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5. For Windows, a self-contained installer is available, and on other platforms, it runs as long as Python >= 2.3 and wxPython >= 2.5.3 are available.

Download version 1.4 as

• a Mac OS X application
  
• a Windows installer that includes all required libraries, by Darrigan
  
• a simple Python script for all platforms (Python and wxPython must be installed separately)

Since 2009, a version for iPhone and iPod touch exists as well – it is discussed in this thread.


1.4.1, 2010-04-12

• Mac: Fixed failure to launch on Mac OS X 10.6.

1.4, 2010-03-28

• Updated built-in estimates for MO:ULagain. The predictions may still be off by a few minutes though – this is deliberate! Do your own calibration or share calibration points with other explorers to make it more accurate!
  
• Better combination of observations and built-in estimates when there are not enough observations to base everything on them. Adding the first observation will now shift all predictions, not just those for the observed pod.
  
• Calibration files with fractional seconds, as produced by the iPhone version, can now be loaded.

1.3.1, 2008-04-04

• Fixed the KI time scale showing a wrong date when the left edge of the scale was between 0 and 7 UTC.
  
• Adjusted the KI time scale assuming that it will switch to daylight saving time on Sun April 6, in accordance with the US DST rules from before 2005.
  
• Updated built-in estimates from recent data.

1.3, 2008-03-09

• Improved numerical precision, particularly for the error estimates.
  
• Updated the built-in estimates from recent data and removed the artificial error that was introduced to encourage people to do their own calibration. Predictions should be accurate to a few seconds right now.
  
• Adjusted the KI time scale to never again switch to DST, since it hasn't switched today. We'll see in 3 weeks whether another update will be necessary.

1.2.1, 2007-11-01

• Adjusted the KI time scale which has reverted to standard time a week earlier than expected.

1.2, 2007-10-01

• DST transitions should now display correctly on the time scale (for regions where they happen on a full hour)
  
• KI time now correctly follows US/Mountain DST rules, not local ones
  
• added 12 hour clock option

1.1, 2007-08-19

• added estimation of prediction accuracy

1.0.1, 2007-08-01

• fixed predictions not updating on calibration changes when no pod had more than one calibration point
  
• added clarification to calibration window
  
• source distribution now includes Windows icon

By the way, despite a certain similarity, this is completely independent of the web-based graphical pod calendar by Mucol and Modi. I wasn't aware of the latter at the time I started this. It is also completely independent of the recently released portal predictor by Herohtar. See here for a list of other pod calendars and portal predictors.

Last edited by Christian Walther on Tue Apr 13, 2010 7:59 am; edited 12 times in total

Tried it, looks great!

My one suggestion would be to put names as well as symbols on the left, for greater clarity. It's not too hard to work out which pod is which, and that the time zones are local, UTC, and cavern time, but it would be nice if you could see it at first glance.

Looks very good.

Found the libraries it needed at:

http://www.wxpython.org/

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Wow! That's really cool. I find it difficult to read, but I do like the interface, and the ability to calibrate it yourself.

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Nothing to see here, move along.

Hi there. I like this pod clock, so I created a Setup Package for it

Download Windows Setup Package


Have Fun

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Old KI: #06470708 - R.I.P MO:UL
--

"And know, that we will most assuredly meet again, Bobbin Threadbare" - Chaos
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This is my new favourite pod clock

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The ending will never be written as long as the called remain to continue on the path of those who came before

VERY NICE! I so wanted to do a project like this, but I simply haven't had time.

I have a suggestion of something really cool you could add to this project with only minimal effort: D'ni time. Doing so would elevate the tool well beyond simply being a pod predictor. There are two particularly obvious (and complementary) ways to represent that:

1) the current Pahrtahvotee (same as the Bevin clock)

2) a cool multi-strip display of the current D'ni time and date (representing this sort of information 00:21:12:01, Leesahn 23, 9663)

mdoudoroff wrote:

I have a suggestion of something really cool you could add to this project with only minimal effort: D'ni time. Doing so would elevate the tool well beyond simply being a pod predictor. There are two particularly obvious (and complementary) ways to represent that:

Trust me, it takes some effort to write and integrate D'ni time into an application. I did it for my Python 2.5 and PyQt4 program: http://gallery.cheimes.de/uru/pymoul/pmoul_dnitimeclock.png.html

Christian Walther: I hope you got permission from Cyan's legal devision to release your program. I'm still waiting for permission since January.

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[KI again #01792364]| Uru images | KI guide

end of his first paragraph

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The ending will never be written as long as the called remain to continue on the path of those who came before

Samsbase wrote:

end of his first paragraph

Doh, I missed it.

Anyhow I wonder what is taken Cyan's legal so long to approve my app ...

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[KI again #01792364]| Uru images | KI guide

Tiran wrote:

Trust me, it takes some effort to write and integrate D'ni time into an application.

Indeed, fun for all the family.

If it helps, the source for my signature which contains the date and time calculations is here.

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Very well done. Dragable interface scrolls very nicely.

I agree it is nice. But I am noticing it is also off like the rest of the clocks. Looks like there is an 8 minute discrepancy compared to the 6 minute discrepancy of the Pod Age Calendar at uru-reallife.com

Raniass'i wrote:

I agree it is nice. But I am noticing it is also off like the rest of the clocks. Looks like there is an 8 minute discrepancy compared to the 6 minute discrepancy of the Pod Age Calendar at uru-reallife.com

None of the predictors are 100% correct. Also, the default times in this program have intentional error added to them in order to encourage you to calibrate the clock on your own. (The comments in the source code say so)

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Nothing to see here, move along.

Uhm I have the Windows installer put together by Spellbreaker, thanks btw.
I know nothing about python scripting and would probably do more harm than good in trying to adjust it myself.