#!/usr/bin/perl

# I will be going to Wellfleet MA for my summer vacation (1.5 week) an
+d I wrote
# a little perl script that I can run in VA that emulates the Wellflee
+t's Town
# Clock.
# 
# The following is from the chamber of comerece web page at 
# http://www.wellfleetchamber.com/history.html
#
# The Town Clock
# "The only Town clock in the world that strikes on ship's time" is lo
+cated in
# the steeple of the First Congregation Church. Money to install this 
+unique
# device was appropriated at the annual meeting in 1952 and the instal
+lation 
# was made that year. Selectman Lawrence R. Gardinier sponsored the mo
+ve in 
# town meeting and built and assembled the mechanism. The story of the
+ clock 
# appeared in Ripley's Believe It or Not and the above quotation is fr
+om this 
# syndicated feature. The story also appeared in the Associated Press 
+and other
# news agencies and also in two magazines of national circulation.
# 
# Ship's Time may be a bit confusing for many people, and the followin
+g table 
# is appended for the convenience of the inexperienced.
# One, five and nine o'clock are "two bells."
# Two, six and ten o'clock are "four bells."
# Three, seven and eleven o'clock are "six bells."
# Four, eight and twelve o'clock are "eight bells."
# The half hours are struck by adding one stroke to the corresponding 
+even hours.
#

# Let's get the current date & time.
($sec,$min, $hour) = localtime(time);

my $num_bells = (($hour % 4)?($hour % 4)*2:8)+($min>=30);

printf "Current Time: %i:%02i\n",$hour,$min;
print "Number of bells: $num_bells\n";
[download]

----
Zak
"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism" ~ Theodore Roosevelt (1915)