Tom had a lot of anxiety about his email inbox and couldn’t stop checking his email compulsively while working. So he embodied his anxiety in a clock that compulsively checks his email for him, and worry over the amount continually coming in, so he wouldn’t have to. This clock would run at a normal pace when there is no email waiting, but every new kilobyte of email would drive it hyperactively forward. A java application living on an application server checks his email accounts, noting when new data arrived. Link.
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