Time, precious time!

Time: this four letter word has many implications in our life; we need time to work, sleep, catch a break, go shopping and so on. Timing is the factor that makes the difference: what if you go shopping at 3 a.m. or what if you go to the Red Sox vs. Knicks game five hours late?

The same applies to your computer. You can never trust your computer to handle the correct time and date, since it's not specialized to do this. But there are institutions that are created to keep track of the correct time.

Mechanical clocks and watches use oscillating balance wheels, pendulums, and tuning forks to record the time. Much greater accuracy can be obtained when using the oscillations of atoms or molecules. Atomic clocks have become an unbeatable standard in time measuring. Their precision is supposed to be nearly perfect!

How would you like to have all those atomic clock servers at your ease, telling you their version of the correct time?

Working with the program

PTBSync is an application that will help you synchronize your system's time with the one indicated by an atomic clock server.

This operation is done by Windows too, but it's not as customizable as PTBSync allows it to be.

The program does not stop here, and it offers several other features that will improve your time management.

First of all, after installing the program you will notice that your desktop has a significant different look. Nothing is changed or removed, but PTBSync adds some extra items:
Analog desktop clock, Digital desktop clock with international display, Mini calendar for desktop, PC Info, Big date display for desktop, Moon phase display on desktop, Menstruation calendar, Desktop Info for new users, Event list for the desktop, Desktop note, Shortcuts, To do list, and Borrow list.

For each of these items you can set a different level of transparency ranging from zero, and up to 90%. This means that your desktop will gain extra functionality, and it will not have to suffer greatly for it.

When set to opaque, all components besides the analog clock have a nice and smooth look. But a 50% transparency level will take care of any inconvenience.

The desktop info shows relevant information for first users, in order for them to get along with the program.

The digital clock shows you the time in a digital format, for six different timezones (including the local one). You can work on the text and background, and you can change each time zone (as well as the reference location).

The Mini calendar gives you a desktop view on the current month, and shows you the holydays that follow. You can navigate through the months using the previous and next arrows.

The PC Info section shows relevant information about your computer, such as: computer name, current user, processor name and speed, boot time, uptime, and so on.

The big date display shows you the current date, containing the current day of the week, month and year. You can adjust the font size, either shrinking or enlarging it to suit you better.

The moon phase display shows you the current moon phase in a textual and graphical view (you get information such as exact time and date of the next full moon, plus moonrise, sunrise, twilight and day length for London; also, in order to see images of the moon's phase you have to download the add-ons archive.)

The menstrual calendar calculates the date when the female users should expect their menstrual cycle to come, depending on the start date of their last period and average period lengths in recorded in the past 6 months. This tool will help you know when ovulation takes place, and is mainly designed for couples that want to have a baby, or for ones that want to avoid this.

The event list shows you a number of holidays and events that will come in the near future; you can select the maximum number of items to be shown in this section - decrease it if you think it takes up too much of your desktop.

The Desktop note, Shortcuts, To do list, and Borrow list are the result of the same feature, which allows you to save notes straight onto your desktop. You an add Rich text formatting to the text that's shown in this category, as well as add links, and more advanced formatting utilities.

PTBSync changes the time and date format that's shown in the system tray, organizing it in three columns: the top one for the time, the middle one for the day of the week, and the bottom one for the date.

The good

The program's main purpose is to synchronize your system's time with the time indicated by an atomic clock server. But the additional features that PTBSync offers make it much more functional and needed for your computer.

The bad

The fonts and graphics that PTBSync uses aren't so smooth, but using the transparency feature will take care of this issue.

The truth

The information that the program offers is useful, and handy, as it's placed right on the desktop. The fact that you can set a different transparency for each item gives it a nice look, and prevents it from bothering you when working on your desktop. Try it out, and see for yourself!


Check out the screenshots below to get a glance at the program in action: