The Ghia
Interested in classic (or just plain old) cars? Does the thought of catalytic converters and emissions control make you shudder? Read on about my first car, a 1973 Karmann Ghia.
FeedbackBy Preston Hunt, 01 January 1995

The Ghia and me The Ghia

Whenever I'm forced to play those icebreaker games ("...and tell something interesting about yourself..."), I like to mention that I drive a car older than I am, a 1973 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. Reactions to this statement vary from a nod of approval (or, at the very least, a nod of comprehension) to looks of utter bewilderment ("You mean cars that old still run?!").

Upon learning that I drove a Karmann Ghia, an acquaintance of mine became convinced that I was a Hare Krishna. To this day, I still don't see the connection, but if you do, let me know!

The Ghia doesn't have any of those wussy safety features that are ubiquitous in modern cars: air bags, anti-lock brakes (or even power brakes), power steering, and the rest of that stuff. This car doesn't even have a radiator; it's air cooled.

The lack of modern features doesn't necessarily make the Ghia any more dangerous. It just shifts a few more responsibilities onto the driver. And, as VW says, that's what farvergnugen (oh, I could never spell that - I studied Spanish, not German!) is all about... right?

And just to prove that I'm not alone in loving my Ghia, check out the Karmann Ghia Club of North America.

(Soon to come: Info about the hippie who fixed my car in Austin. Cosmic.)

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Comments

From Jonathan Echipare on 2017-06-02T02:11:14Z:

All-in-one Clock!
I've searched a lot of gadgets in the internet but this one is the best. :)

From presto8 on 2017-06-02T17:59:24Z:

Thanks for the kind words! Which reminds me, I'm overdue for an update to the latest timezone rules...

From Rey Azada on 2016-03-29T04:11:27Z:

I developed world time software for the travel industry and understand the challenges and concept that "time never stops". Thank you Preston Hunt. You are the BEST !!!!!!!!!!! I'm now retired and got a new lousy faster desktop but I'm thankful for finding your clock again. I keep a few of your clocks in the corners of my multiple screens and even the something that looks like your clock from Amazon for the bar and kitchen. Please don't ever stop developing good stuff ... Thanks again!

From presto8 on 2016-03-31T02:19:18Z:

Thank you for your kind words of appreciation. It always makes my day and brings a smile to my face when users tell me how much they enjoy the clock!

From Matt on 2014-11-25T06:02:31Z:

This gadget is great. Thanks for developing it.

From maple syrup on 2014-06-08T19:48:25Z:

thank you for a super product, and thank you for helping UNICEF...have 6 locations on my PC, laptop,...good job

From Doreen Wermers on 2014-03-24T00:27:03Z:

my clock won't stay on top of other windows, can that be fixed? i have checked off 'always on top" thank you for any help

From S.A. Zingelshuher on 2014-01-15T22:51:30Z:

Perfect! Great Job!

From dooma flatchie on 2014-01-05T06:24:04Z:

I'm a currency day trader and follow the world markets day and night. I have 9 of your clocks on my desk top. It saddens me you won't do further development on your gadget. I searched around quite a bit to find a gadget clock that was right for me and your clock is the only one that provided the flexibility and features I needed. I have 9 text scripts for reloading purposes for each time zone because I re-image my boot drive from to time to time. Like you I feel M$ has done a great disservice to users. Note that LA is not a market per se but it's where I live and handy to have one clock for reference at a glance.

From Wyld Black Wolf on 2013-12-27T03:10:36Z:

thank you ever so much for this handy little clock . and I'm glad you're not falling for the win 8 crap. friend of mine got a win 8 surface dealie and MAN what a pita it is. glad I didn't bother :) anyway once again awesome little app and thank you very kindly for it !

From Christopher on 2013-12-18T05:19:27Z:

Hello young man! I've been using your gadget for years, was a contributor to v1.34, and quite frankly it's been a big help because I always need the Julian date. Have you thought about making a tile for Windows 8? All it's really missing (8.1) to make it complete is Presto's Clock. :D

From dypsis on 2013-10-24T07:31:26Z:

This is the best digital clock gadget that I have ever found.
I love the transparent view and the ability to format the time and date as you want.

Thank you.

From Dook on 2013-10-16T13:36:33Z:

This is the perfect clock gadget for Win7, glad I found it before they shut the whole Gadget site down in favour of Apps.

From Roy on 2013-07-19T20:18:13Z:

Still works on Windows 8.1 preview with 8GadgetPack ! Thanks again.

From flyendo on 2013-06-16T01:56:07Z:

Answered my own suggestion by downloading another clock and setting it to local time, Cool

From flyendo on 2013-06-16T01:53:53Z:

Very cool GMT clock with am/pm notation, I would suggest combining two clocks so one can view the local and GMT on the same face. flyendo

From Moonie on 2013-05-10T08:19:30Z:

Loved this clock when I installed it in my old computer. Now I'm downloading again to my new one. Better clock than most others, IMO.

From Roy on 2013-03-10T03:48:05Z:

Works great in Windows 8.    Thanks!   Install 8GadgetPack first to use gadgets in Win 8:
http://8gadgetpack.bplaced....

From Stryker_eng on 2013-01-22T01:41:56Z:

Would it be possible to add the pop-up calendar like on Neptune's Digital Clock?  That would make this perfect.

From immy on 2012-11-23T12:23:16Z:

Immy

Great clock very handy!can't find (CST) - Time in Houston, TX, USA?

From iflyboeing747 on 2012-11-15T09:33:27Z:

Howdy :)
Will the clock be available for WINDOWS 8..?

From Jim Restucci on 2012-10-24T03:46:16Z:

First, great clock gadget.  I have been using it for years and haven't found one I like better.  I have a quick question though.  I recently added a new font (Digital-7) it's a True Type font and displays great in all applications in Windows 7; however, when I attempt to select it in the clock app, it is not present in the list.  Is there something I need to do in order for it to show up?  Thanks again for a great application.

BTW per your request, I have donated to UNICEF on your behalf!

From Vriass on 2012-10-11T22:55:10Z:

Been looking for this for hours. Best Ever.

From Willie on 2012-09-18T19:35:19Z:

 A beautiful, clean, and simple digital clock that compliments my Igor Bushin gadgets quite nicely. A question though... Would you allow me to come into your home without your permission just to see if you've changed your living room clock? I didn't think so! Would love to upgrade from version 1.27 just as soon as you add a "toogle" to the automatic "phone home", (update check) feature! Other than this little privacy peave, yours is the best digital clock gadget out there by orders of magnatude! THANX...
 

From presto8 on 2012-09-18T22:53:43Z:

The automatic update check can be disabled using the checkbox on the "About" tab. This has been there since v1.44.

From Lee Hopper on 2012-09-16T20:58:19Z:

This is the best clock in the whole of windows! A couple of feature requests: Ability to change background colour, or a compendium of background images to choose from. Also DIM for PT, MT, CT and ET. Thanks again!

From presto8 on 2012-09-18T22:47:03Z:

If you can provide recommendations for cities in PT, MT, CT, and ET that are representative of the geography (e.g., central to the time zone) and provide the latitude and longitude for those cities, I will be happy to add dimming!

From Darek334 on 2012-04-18T14:40:52Z:

How can install this clock on Windows 7 ?? There is no installer for this program :(, thx...

From Web Design Melbourne on 2012-03-19T22:21:00Z:


Chinese fonts like traditional make use of Big5 fonts and the simplified format use GB also known as GB 2312 and this is the official language of China. The encoding format contains all the essential characters of Unicode 3. Big5 and GB characters are included in the Unicode.

From jade leth on 2012-02-15T06:13:12Z:

Thankyou for making this Gadget available. That it is so simple and customisable is fantastic - especially since there don't seem to be any others around that offer the same functions.
I don't know if you're still adding features or not but I would like to second the double size request you listed or else change size to custom settings. Another thing I'd like is being able to put line breaks in.. so my date could be, for example, "l\njS F" which would show Wednesday and then below that 15th February. I managed to get them separate by using the label field as well as the date field but that means one is above the time and one is below. A small thing, I know, but it would be cool.

From Wimpanzee on 2012-02-09T12:36:45Z:

This is great. I, like you, prefer a digital clock for my desktop.  This one is far, far better than any other clocks I've seen.

Thank you.

From MJB on 2012-01-31T19:54:49Z:

The best clock widget, period. I've been looking for an effective clock and tried virtually every clock widget available. But none came close to Presto's.

From Akoddus on 2011-11-09T16:44:05Z:

Thank you very very very much. This is what I have been looking for. The best clock ever.

From gonzo on 2011-11-08T14:26:09Z:

tnx 4 this awsome gadget the best one out there

From RMX on 2011-09-20T06:49:41Z:

It would be awesome if an LCD or LED display (digital font) could be simulated!
I have been looking for a gadget that would only display the day of week, and this is the ONLY clock gadget that does that!
I like the ability of the gadget can be user programed to my liking.

I have three open right now -> Day of week -> Month and Date -> Current Time.

From Murray on 2011-08-10T00:18:56Z:

like your clock m8,  it would be good if it was transparent thou

From Nicholasdanger40 on 2011-08-04T00:18:39Z:

Hey Preston!

Love the clock! I am having a problem with the "set picture to background" feature. Once I set it up, it looks and works fine. Once I restart/shut down the computer it either doesn't load the picture(box is empty in options) or it displays it wrong (To large). Any suggestions? I've tried the "backup to clipboard" option BUT that doesn't seem to work either.

Thanks
Nicholas

From Me on 2011-06-14T10:14:11Z:

Really the best clock ! Thanks !

From Steve on 2011-04-30T11:30:17Z:

Looking really good, thank you!

Any chance you could add alarm features to this?

From Kevin Paterson on 2011-04-29T08:15:36Z:

Best clock gadget I've ever seen!
But can you add a function to show sunrise/sunset as a time?
I would have one clock showing the real time, when another clock tells me when sunset will occur today. Thanks :D

From Ascar on 2011-04-05T17:16:26Z:

Does anybody know how ti upgrade the existing gadget rather than installing a new version alongside the existing one? I have just installed 1.46 and I have a new Gadget now. All settings are in the previously installed 1.45! Create new clocks again?

From presto8 on 2011-04-16T15:02:54Z:

For now, the easiest thing to do is to open the old clock, go to the "About" tab, and select the "Backup settings to clipboard". Then open the new gadget, go to the same tab, and select "Restore settings from clipboard". Unfortunately, there are very few alternatives to this approach given the way that Windows implements the gadgets.

From Ascar Omarov on 2011-05-01T17:30:46Z:

Thanks for the tip. Do I have to do this for every clock I have on my desktop? Let me try...

Yeap, pasting the contents of the clipboard into a text file shows only one city. Still this might be a little shorter that setting the the things from scratch.... :)

From iflyboeing747 on 2011-04-04T07:16:14Z:

Hi again Presto,
Just to summarize:
My computer is set to timezone 'Brussels, Copenhagen, Paris, Madrid'
America/Los Angeles is dimming at night
America/Argentina/Buenos Aires is dimming at night
Pacific/Honolulu is dimming at night
All cities (those I have checked) in Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe are not dimming at night.
Hope this helps.
Krgds

From presto8 on 2011-04-05T02:46:22Z:

Hi! Thanks for the additional info. I just pushed a new version 1.46 today, can you please download it and see if it fixes the problem? Thanks!

From iflyboeing747 on 2011-04-05T15:12:09Z:

I installed 1.46 - and it is same situation as mentioned in my summary above

From presto8 on 2011-04-06T00:15:09Z:

Sorry to hear it's still not fixed. This is getting a little complex to handle in the comments. Would you mind e-mailing me at [email protected] and, if you are willing, we can try and debug this a bit. Thanks!

From presto8 on 2011-04-09T15:38:41Z:

Hi again, can you please try this version and see if it's still happening? Thank you! http://bit.ly/g4JdRc

From Ascar on 2011-04-03T17:43:59Z:

Hello, Preston. Thanks for your beautiful gadget. This is one of those things which if you try once you then don't know how to live without. Feature request, please, if I may : can you code a change so that the gadget would allow to make something like a stripe which you can put multiple clocks onto and make them act as one clock with multiple dials for different cities. Reason - if you use a laptop with a docking station and an external LCD or if your screens resolution changes regularly (connecting projectors, TVs etc) then every time the resolution changes the clocks get messed and they move to the awkward parts of the screen or overlap each with another. I have to put them back were they were before.

Also, if you could share whether it is possible to change the default fonts, sizes and colors somewhere in the code? I have 10 clocks on my desktop (yes, I need to be in touch with people from San Jose to Sydney) and I prefer different colors and sizes than what you set as default. Changing 10 clocks is really tiresome. Reason - I have just lost my settings because I installed the upgrade to 1.45 and it did not really upgrade my 1.43 but installed a new instance alongside it. Either I did not have to upgrade and kept using the older version or accept the schema of the new version .... since it installed with the default colors/font sizes. I guess I did not know how to instal the upgrade correctly.

Other than that I said above I have never used a Vista/Windows 7 gadget that would be as useful to me as yours!
Thanks

From Sylvie on 2011-03-31T06:45:31Z:

Hi! Just posted that gadget did not show city! I did not realize I had to add the city - all is well! Thank you! LOVE the clock!

From presto8 on 2011-04-01T01:13:22Z:

Thanks and I'm glad that everything is up and running for you. And also glad to hear that you like the clock!

From Sylvie on 2011-03-31T06:39:42Z:

Love the clock, but it does not display the city (as shown on download page). I've uninstalled and re-installed. Same problem. I have Windows 7 Home Premium. Any suggestions? Thx!

From iflyboeing747 on 2011-03-31T06:41:51Z:

you need to write the name of the city/location in the Bottom Label

From Rich Armstrong on 2011-02-03T18:57:25Z:

The clipboard backup/restore doesn't appear to work in version 1.44. I was running 1.40, uninstalled it, then installed 1.44. Any attempt to restore earlier settings produces a message, "Clipboard does not contain valid settings." If I backup settings for a 1.44 clock gadget, nothing is placed on the clipboard.

I reinstalled 1.40, and it restores and backs up settings just fine.

From presto8 on 2011-02-05T02:31:36Z:

Oops! Good catch, thanks Rich. It looks like somewhere along the way, a critical file got deleted. I'll fix it in the next release (should be up in a day or two).

From Rich Armstrong on 2011-02-10T20:04:14Z:

Thanks for the quick fix! I was able to play with the new dimming feature, which looks very nice. Some observations:

• Immediately after restoring the settings for a time zone where it’s currently night, the clock is dimmed, in spite of the setting suggesting otherwise.

• A clock set to “Local time” isn’t dimmable—no coordinates, I suppose—but you probably knew that.

• If the clock digits aren’t white, the 70% dimming can make them rather hard to read. Perhaps a setting to adjust the dimming factor—or logic that compensates for darker fonts automatically. :-)

• There’s an entry for “Asia/Kolkata” giving its time zone info, but the latitude/longitude for that city are under “Asia/Calcutta.” Although I yearn for the non-PC days of yore, I changed both to Kolkata in my gadget and my clock for India can now be dimmed.

From presto8 on 2011-02-15T06:43:07Z:

Thanks Rich! I'll take a look at fixing some of these issues in the next release. I appreciate your kicking the tires on the new feature -- at least I know that somebody is using it :-)

From iflyboeing747 on 2011-03-30T07:02:17Z:

hi,
excellent gadget!
i now use 1.45 and the shading of night-time works fine with the us timezones - but not with the european and asian timezones 24 hour format..
krgds

From Ascar on 2011-04-06T15:50:29Z:

Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Sydney are not dimming. San Jose (CA) does.

From presto8 on 2011-04-09T15:38:16Z:

Thanks for the bug report! I think I fixed it, can you please try this version and let me know? http://bit.ly/g4JdRc

From Madoaks on 2011-01-13T18:35:14Z:

Does this have an hourly chime option? This would be so helpful if it does. Great clock btw! Thx.

From presto8 on 2011-01-13T18:48:53Z:

I'll add it to the features requested list!

From ayjay on 2011-01-12T03:36:13Z:

G'day Preston

I think your clock is great. I like your "changing the background colour" to reflect the time of day. Mac OSX has this and I miss it when on Win7. Their simple approach, which I think is quite adequate, is to make the face dark after 18:00 until 06:00. Not to elaborate but gives you the idea that its night where you may be about to ring or txt!! :)

Thanks mate look forward to it.
--
AJ

From presto8 on 2011-01-13T18:48:36Z:

Thanks for the suggestion -- I like this approach! I'm going to roll it out on a trial basis in the next release. Evening hours will change the face color to gray, daylight will be white.

From Ron on 2010-07-24T03:44:23Z:

Add me to the list of people who'd love to see a larger version. A little hard to read on a 1920x1200 screen.

From NX on 2010-06-13T13:53:02Z:

Can you make an even bigger clock or a clock with a resize ability?

From presto8 on 2010-06-14T14:59:37Z:

Sorry, no plans for a bigger clock at this time (too busy with other projects currently). Maybe in a future release!

From NX on 2010-06-21T16:29:53Z:

Thanks. Will wait for future release!

PS: Also, please add ability to change background, or add dark blue color.

From bill on 2010-05-24T15:49:05Z:

This is such an elegant solution to time/date issues. Thank you!

A small request, in the "Date format:" section, I use the standard "D M d" set of variables but also discovered that I could get automated information about plus/minus hours from GMT by using the "P I" variables. However, it seems that I am only able to reference these variables for the computer system time even though my "clocks" is set to different timezone than the system timezone. Any ideas?

From presto8 on 2010-06-08T17:40:55Z:

Please check out the latest version 1.40, which fixes the problem you are seeing with the P variable. Unfortunately, due to the current implementation, "I" is not possible. I have updated the online documentation to clarify that "I" is not supported.

From dpinsf on 2010-05-20T16:46:43Z:

Fantastic clock. Exactly what I was looking for and a great complement to Win 7. Love the simple, elegant interface and ability to tweak all the formatting around date and time. Very impressed.

From presto8 on 2010-06-08T17:40:04Z:

Thanks, rustyboy and dpinsf, glad to hear you like it!

From rustyboy on 2010-04-13T11:20:06Z:

I have tried all the digital clocks I could find for Win7 but this one is the best of all of them. And quite configurable, too. Well done, Presto!

From KuroiKaze on 2012-05-24T08:44:06Z:

I completely agree, this is the best clock ever made.  I can't live without it!

From HappyPappy on 2010-03-20T06:23:47Z:

Now the cops can have a nice familiar sight to rest their eyes on while they sit next to the road 'watching the clock'.Don't be mad at me guys,cops are supposed to be able to take a hit.There is no special reason that I'm picking on you,it's just that the first humorous thing that I thought of was that stupid line about cops.Also,I wanted to put more up here in this comment than just 'great friggin' job,man'! The license plate look really is the coolest thing that you could use for this gadget... T, clear,brite lights allow me to actually get all of the info that I want in one quick glance. The personal color preference for those characters is just icing on the cake or a match to the bong!!!

From presto8 on 2010-03-10T13:50:32Z:

Laura, sorry black is it for the time being! (Please see the FAQ for a way to change the background manually however.) For instructions on how to change the date, open the gadget options and click "Format help". To backup your settings, go to the "About" page and click "Backup settings to the clipboard".

From Laura on 2010-03-09T10:35:03Z:

Is possible change the color ? Don't like black :(
Is possible show the complete date, don't like the abbreviation
I don't find the option for save settings, where is?

Many thank's :)
Laura

From Michael Johnson on 2008-09-20T22:38:00Z:

Great Clock! I have request or suggestion. I run two separate clocks one a 12 hr clock the other a 24 hr. I would be great to be able to add clocks to the one gadget. Second suggestion would to allow for 24hr indication like the PM instead of using the lower label. One last question. I tried to space out the syntax with spaces and it would work I had to use underlines ex: d __ M m/d/y.Is there a character I can use that wont be visible?

From Chul on 2008-09-13T05:04:00Z:

Hey thanks for the new features, especially the date/label position swap!

From Alonso Diaz on 2008-04-16T06:27:00Z:

Great gadget! It looks amazing.

Maybe a future version could have multi-font selection.

From Simon on 2007-12-31T10:35:00Z:

Brilliant. Just what I wanted. Perhaps a few more skins would add icing on the cake.

From Paul on 2007-12-19T17:10:00Z:

Doh, per your FAQs...

Where is the time zone for India? Please select Asia/Calcutta.

From Paul on 2007-12-19T17:05:00Z:

Great gadget, thanks. However, it appears to be missing IST (GMT +5:30) which covers Bangalore. Is there a way to manually add this? If not, can you create a patch?

From Serg on 2007-09-14T16:14:00Z:

Well done! It will be good idea to apply work hours identity to this gadget be changing background colours.
Thanks!

From Grego on 2007-04-10T17:04:00Z:

Love your clock...looks great..simple,attractive design..thanks for sharing