Psync Time Synchroniser Version 2.9 & 2.7-64bit

Core libraries and systems
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Sylvander
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#46 Post by Sylvander »

1. Hmmm, now we're in danger of losing the beautiful simplicity of version 0.5
Are the gains worth it?

(a) Previously you just clicked one of the buttons on offer, and there was little to no doubt which one to click.

(b) Now the user must scroll down the list.
Will the choosing be easy?
Then the user must click the "Apply" button.
More to do than previously, which may or may not be worth it.
Best to try it and see I guess.

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tasmod
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#47 Post by tasmod »

I was thinking just that myself. Version 5 looks better too.

I think I will do a 'version' of version 5 whereby it uses pool servers of my choice in the code.

NTP ask strongly that you don't hard code the addresses, hence why I was working on this version 6.

The program ntpd is to be used at some point in the future to replace ntpdate which has the development stopped.

I'm not keen on ntpd though, as it is designed to regulate the clock to a high degree of accuracy over
a period of hours, if not days, by polling the servers regularily. Not ideal.
Rob
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tasmod
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#48 Post by tasmod »

Version 0.6.1 released. (Version number in title)

The window looks just the same and in fact the code has just minor mods, but, more importantly it uses a full country pool of servers for each button.

Originally I selected pool 1. I found sometimes this could be empty for some countries.
Rob
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Sylvander
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#49 Post by Sylvander »

1. Before installing 0.6.1 I uninstalled 0.5 and rebooted.

2. Installed 0.6.1 and rebooted.

3. Once into BoxPup...
There were two menu entries in "Menu->Desktop" for Psync.

4. See the screenshot below of the two desktop files in "/usr/share/applications".

5. Moved elsewhere Psync_0.5.desktop and will now reboot.

6. That done and there is now only 1 item in the menu.

7. Ran that and it seems to work just fine.
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tasmod
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#50 Post by tasmod »

Hi Sylvander,

I left a note in the instructions on first screen.

Seems to be a problem for me with petget or dir2pet, it leaves a menu entry on uninstall. Can't seem to trace the problem though, everything looks just the same in the files :? .

Rob
Rob
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tasmod
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#51 Post by tasmod »

Version 0.6.2 bugfix

I had introduced a couple of bugs in 0.6.1, but nothing serious, now sorted.

Finally got to bottom of the 'remaining menu item'. It appears that petget doesn't like _ in the name. :? Changed it to -

The petget install splash screen also shows correct entry for menu item.
Last edited by tasmod on Tue 09 Jun 2009, 08:08, edited 1 time in total.
Rob
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Sylvander
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#52 Post by Sylvander »

1. Uninstalled 0.6.1
Menu item wasn't removed, so moved the desktop file out of "/usr/share/applications" and rebooted.
The menu item was now gone, so deleted the desktop file.

2. Downloaded the 0.6.2 PET file and installed it and restarted the window manager ["Ctrl+Alt+backspace" then xwin command].

3. Psync 0.6.2 was now in the menu.
Clicked that and it ran OK.
Clicked the "Europe" button and the time was synchronized OK. :D

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tasmod
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#53 Post by tasmod »

I've removed the pet for the time being.

Something is wrong that has been introduced. The app appears normal to previous users and in fact will probably work OK as it did for me.

It's fresh users it won't work for.

I had to do a re-install of Puppy after many problems and discovered that it errors in the background and doesn't sync on this version.

I had been having problems, which I traced to dual pupsaves with same name. There was obviously a conflict every time.
Rob
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tasmod
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#54 Post by tasmod »

Version 0.7

Added server test.

Double, triple checked before uploading but please report anything odd.
Rob
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Sylvander
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#55 Post by Sylvander »

1. Uninstalled 0.6.2 and rebooted.
Menu entry was gone.

2. Installed 0.7 and rebooted.
New menu entry was present.
Ran the program and clicked the United Kingdom button.
Small problem!
The zone was set at GMT-8 , and the time was therefore set to a wrong value.

3. Reset the timezone to London, "Ctrl+Alt+backstep" then xwin command and back into BoxPup, and ran Psync.
TZ Variable now Europe/London, and the time was near correct.
Clicked the United Kingdom button and it seemed to work OK. :D

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tasmod
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#56 Post by tasmod »

There's nothing in the program that I'm aware that will change the timezone. Odd one that.

Yes, menu problem seems to have been fixed just by changing the name.

This should really be a final version. There's nothing left to do, I think.
It checks system and checks servers, so it's execution is slightly slower but more definite.

I made a final test by altering my system and hardware clock, with times set apart from 'expected' time by a few minutes.

I then ran the program, on UK servers and it re-synched both clocks and altered them to 'expected' time.
Rob
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tasmod
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#57 Post by tasmod »

For those interested in my adventures in 'time' here's some fascinating reading I found.:-
Britain (United Kingdom) and Ireland (Eire)

From Peter Ilieve (06-07-1994):

On 17 Jan 1994 the Independent, a UK quality newspaper, had a piece about historical vistas along the Thames in West London. There was a photo and a sketch map showing some of the sightlines involved. One paragraph of the text said:
`An old stone obelisk marking a forgotten terrestrial meridian stands
beside the river at Kew.
In the 18th century, before time and longitude was standardised by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, scholars observed this stone and the movement of stars from Kew Observatory nearby.
They made their calculations and set the time for the Horse Guards and Parliament, but now the stone is obscured by scrubwood and can only be seen by walking along the towpath within a few yards of it.'

I have a one inch to one mile map of London and my estimate of the stone's position is 51 deg. 28' 30" N, 0 deg. 18' 45" W. The longitude should be within about +-2". The Ordnance Survey grid reference is TQ172761.

[This yields GMTOFF = -0:01:15 for London LMT in the 18th century.]

From Paul Eggert (18-11-1993):

Howse writes that Britain was the first country to use standard time.
The railways cared most about the inconsistencies of local mean time,
and it was they who forced a uniform time on the country.
The original idea was credited to Dr. William Hyde Wollaston (1766-1828) and was popularized by Abraham Follett Osler (1808-1903).
The first railway to adopt London time was the Great Western Railway
in November 1840; other railways followed suit, and by 1847 most
(though not all) railways used London time. On 22-09-1847 the
Railway Clearing House, an industry standards body, recommended that GMT be adopted at all stations as soon as the General Post Office permitted it.
The transition occurred on 12-01 for the L&NW, the Caledonian,
and presumably other railways; the January 1848 Bradshaw's lists many railways as using GMT. By 1855 the vast majority of public clocks in Britain were set to GMT (though some, like the great clock
on Tom Tower at Christ Church, Oxford, were fitted with two minute hands, one for local time and one for GMT).
The last major holdout was the legal system, which stubbornly stuck to local time for many years, leading to oddities like polls opening at 08:13 and closing at 16:13.
The legal system finally switched to GMT when the Statutes (Definition
of Time) Act took effect; it received the Royal Assent on 02-08-1880.

From Paul Eggert (27-09-2003):
Summer Time was first seriously proposed by William Willett (1857-1915), a London builder and member of the Royal Astronomical Society who circulated a pamphlet ``The Waste of Daylight'' (1907)
that proposed advancing clocks 20 minutes on each of four Sundays in April, and retarding them by the same amount on four Sundays in September.
A bill was drafted in 1909 and introduced in Parliament several times,
but it met with ridicule and opposition, especially from farming interests.
Later editions of the pamphlet proposed one-hour summer time, and
it was eventually adopted as a wartime measure in 1916.

A monument to Willett was unveiled on 1927-05-21, in an open space in a 45-acre wood near Chislehurst, Kent that was purchased by popular subscription and open to the public. On the south face of the monolith, designed by G. W. Miller, is the the William Willett Memorial Sundial, which is permanently set to Summer Time.

From Winston Churchill (28-04-1934):
It is one of the paradoxes of history that we should owe the boon of
summer time, which gives every year to the people of this country
between 160 and 170 hours more daylight leisure, to a war which
plunged Europe into darkness for four years, and shook the foundations of civilization throughout the world.


Date: 4 Jan 89 08:57:25 GMT (Wed)
From: Jonathan Leffler
[British Summer Time] is fixed annually by Act of Parliament.
If you can predict what Parliament will do, you should be in politics making a fortune, not computing.
Rob
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tasmod
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#58 Post by tasmod »

Updated Psync 0.8
Rob
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#59 Post by tasmod »

Update Psync 0.9

Will handle wrong date and a large time offset.
Rob
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#60 Post by trio »

Rob,

/usr/share/applications/psync.desktop:

Code: Select all

Exec=/usr/local/psync/
to

Code: Select all

Exec=/usr/local/psync/psync
Other than that, it's fine :)

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#61 Post by tasmod »

Hi Trio,

oops, all OK now, changed line in pet.

If there are going to be any more changes I assume they will be cosmetic and it will be full version 1 then.

It has been tweaked now to handle large offsets as it starts with date first not time. Before, if there was a date discrepency it would hold computer for quite a while as it crept everything up to time.
Rob
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#62 Post by Pizzasgood »

tasmod wrote:Strangely, if the offset is different by an amount larger than say 3 minutes then the time set will blank the display for some time whilst it resets the time. It can be minutes or so before desktop returns.
Just wiggle the mouse and it will come right back.
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
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tasmod
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#63 Post by tasmod »

Posted version 1.0 just a small change to display text and to help file.

I assume this will be the final version as I can see no further alterations required.
Rob
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#64 Post by Lobster »

Hi Tasmod

Am I here too late - or too soon?
I set the time zone (London)
then ran the program.

I had lost an hour
clocks here don't go back until 25 October
I had to check with a live BBC news feed to get the time

Is there something that your program needs to do
or can I now close down the tmxxine project? :)
and know I am in the past watching a future BBC broadcast . . .
http://tmxxine.com/www/FaqsTmxxine
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

Sylvander
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#65 Post by Sylvander »

Set your timezone to Europe/London; NOT to GMT.

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