I few days ago I came across this post at Signal vs. Noise. The first item is about a clock that tells you the approximate time – for example 11:59 is “Nearly Twelve”, 12:30 is Half Past Twelve, etc. etc. The idea is, “Do you really need to know it is 12:53?” This clock gives you the amount of precision that you actually need when dealing with time.
I thought it was kinda cool, but I would never buy one. However when I thought about it, I realized it would make a good AIR application.
After thinking about I decided to do it because:
- It’s a simple thing to write
- It could use a database
- I have a Air and SQLite presentation to prepare
All of these things added up to me writing the thing in about a day. Here’s what I did:
- Filled a SQLite database with times and descriptions
- 1 = Just After
- 15 = Exactly Quarter Past
- 59 = Nearly (Next hour)
- Used HTML, JavaScript, and an Image to build the UI
- Got rid of the default Chrome
- Used Air Methods to query the database.
-
Placed taskbar items that allow you to:
- Close
- Force app Always on Top
The amazing thing to me was how easy it was to do. The actual app worked relatively quickly, most of my time was spent getting the details like icons, and text placement correct.
So if you want to know about what time it is, download your copy of About Time.
Disclaimer: This totally is “an Air app that didn’t really need to be”. I get that. I figured someone else might like it, or at least want to look at the source.
tpryan.blog 
Are you presenting at CFUNITED? I’m doing a presentation on building offline apps using Google Gears (SQLLite).
If you’re playing with SQLLite, I think you’ll dig this presentation I’m doing. It’s mostly about rethinking how to build db driven apps so they work offline. All the concepts will apply to an AIR app.
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Actually I’m presenting at Webmaniacs.
Just trying to get some more sample example applications yet.
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