Develop Reference

How to proccess blocking time of a simulated queue in java for an M/M/2 system?

hello guys for simulating the queue blocking time for an M/M/1 I came up with this very solution, but it is not Object-oriented unfortunately, also the problem is I want to simulate it with M/M/2 system,for instance I initialized lambda with 19 and mu with 20 just for ease up the calculation any solution, hint, code example will be greatly appreciated.
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
final int MAX_ENTITY = 100000;
final int SYSTEM_CAPACITY = 5;
final int BUSY = 1;
final int IDLE = 0;
double lambda = 19, mu = 20;
int blocked = 0;
int queue_length = 0;
int server_state = IDLE;
int entity = 0;
double next_av = getArivalRand(lambda);
double next_dp = next_av + getDeparturedRand(lambda);
while (entity <= MAX_ENTITY) {
//Arrival
if (next_av <= next_dp) {
entity++;
if (server_state == IDLE) {
server_state = BUSY;
} else if (queue_length < SYSTEM_CAPACITY - 1) {
queue_length++;
} else {
blocked++;
}
next_av += getArivalRand(lambda);
} // Departure
else if (queue_length > 0) {
queue_length--;
next_dp = next_dp + getDeparturedRand(mu);
} else {
server_state = IDLE;
next_dp = next_av + getDeparturedRand(mu);
}
}
System.out.println("Blocked Etity:" + blocked + "\n");
}
public static double getArivalRand(double lambda) {
return -1 / lambda * Math.log(1 - Math.random());
}
public static double getDeparturedRand(double mu) {
return -1 / mu * Math.log(1 - Math.random());
}
}
EDIT:
check here if u don't know about the queue theory

oh boy you're code needs serious refactoring in order to achieve M/M/2.
I created a gist file here which I think implements what you wanted,
In the gist file I created a Dispatcher class for balancing two queues in two servers and also I've simulated it with two seeds, it is much more Object-Oriented approach,
here is an example code from gist file which is for balancing load of
the tasks
if (server1.getQueueLength() < server2.getQueueLength())
currentServer = server1;
else if (server1.getQueueLength() > server2.getQueueLength())
currentServer = server2;
else if (currentServer == server1)
currentServer = server2;
else
currentServer = server1;

From String to Integer Functions

I am trying to write a program that will receive a function as a String and solve it. For ex. "5*5+2/2-8+5*5-2" should return 41
I wrote the code for multiplication and divisions and it works perfectly:
public class Solver
{
public static void operationS(String m)
{
ArrayList<String> z = new ArrayList<String>();
char e= ' ';
String x= " ";
for (int i =0; i<m.length();i++)
{
e= m.charAt(i);
x= Character.toString(e);
z.add(x);
}
for (int i =0; i<z.size();i++)
{
System.out.print(z.get(i));
}
other(z);
}
public static void other(ArrayList<String> j)
{
int n1=0;
int n2=0;
int f=0;
String n= " ";
for (int m=0; m<j.size();m++)
{
if ((j.get(m)).equals("*"))
{
n1 = Integer.parseInt(j.get(m-1));
n2 = Integer.parseInt(j.get(m+1));
f= n1*n2;
n = Integer.toString(f);
j.set(m,n);
j.remove(m+1);
j.remove(m-1);
m=0;
}
for (int e=0; e<j.size();e++)
{
if ((j.get(e)).equals("/"))
{
n1 = Integer.parseInt(j.get(e-1));
n2 = Integer.parseInt(j.get(e+1));
f= n1/n2;
n = Integer.toString(f);
j.set(e,n);
j.remove(e+1);
j.remove(e-1);
e=0;
}
}
}
System.out.println();
for (int i1 =0; i1<j.size();i1++)
{
System.out.print(j.get(i1)+",");
}
However, for adding and subtracting, since there isnt an order for adding and subtracting, just whichever comes first, I wrote the following:
int x1=0;
int x2=0;
int x3=0;
String z = " ";
for (int g=0; g<j.size();g++)
{
if ((j.get(g)).equals("+"))
{
x1= Integer.parseInt(j.get(g-1));
x2= Integer.parseInt(j.get(g+1));
x3= x1+x2;
z = Integer.toString(x3);
j.set(g,z);
j.remove(g+1);
j.remove(g-1);
g=0;
}
g=0;
if ((j.get(g)).equals("-"))
{
x1= Integer.parseInt(j.get(g-1));
x2= Integer.parseInt(j.get(g+1));
x3= x1-x2;
z = Integer.toString(x3);
j.set(g,z);
j.remove(g+1);
j.remove(g-1);
g=0;
}
g=0;
}
System.out.println();
for (int i1 =0; i1<j.size();i1++)
{
System.out.print(j.get(i1)+",");
}
After this, it prints:
25,+,1,-,8,+,25,–,2,
. What am I doing wrong? Multiplication and dividing seem to be working perfectly

You have 2 problems:
1) g=0; statements after if and else blocks will make you go into an infinite loop.
2) From the output you gave, the first minus (-) is Unicode character HYPHEN-MINUS (U+002D), while the second minus (–) is Unicode character EN DASH (U+2013), so (j.get(g)).equals("-") fails for the second minus as they are not equal.

Going for an answer that doesn't help with your exact specific problem, but that hopefully helps you much further than that.
On a first glance, there are various problems with your code:
Your are using super-short variable names all over the place. That saves you maybe 1 minute of typing overall; and costs you 5, 10, x minutes every time you read your code; or show it to other people. So: dont do that. Use names that say what the thing behind that name is about.
You are using a lot of low-level code. You use a "couting-for" loop to iterate a list (called j, that is really really horrible!) for example. Meaning: you make your code much more complicated to read than it ought to be.
In that way, it looks like nobody told you so far, but the idea of code is: it should be easy to read and understand. Probably you dont get grades for that, but believe me: in the long run, learning to write readable code is a super-important skill. If that got you curious, see if you can get a hand on "Clean code" by Robert Martin. And study that book. Then study it again. And again.
But the real problem is your approach to solve this problem. As I assume: this is some part of study assignment. And the next step will be that you don't have simple expressions such as "1+2*3"; but that you are asked to deal with something like "sqrt(2) + 3" and so on. Then you will be asked to add variables, etc. And then your whole approach breaks apart. Because your simple string operations won't do it any more.
In that sense: you should look into this question, and carefully study the 2nd answer by Boann to understand how to create a parser that dissects your input string into expressions that are then evaluated. Your code does both things "together"; thus making it super-hard to enhance the provided functionality.

You can use the built-in Javascript engine
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception{
ScriptEngineManager mgr = new ScriptEngineManager();
ScriptEngine engine = mgr.getEngineByName("JavaScript");
String code = "5*5+2/2-8+5*5-2";
System.out.println(engine.eval(code));
}

Primarily Don't Repeat Yourself (the DRY principle). And use abstractions (full names, extracting methods when sensible). Static methods are a bit cumbersome, when using several methods. Here it is handy to use separate methods.
Maybe you want something like:
Solver solver = new Solver();
List<String> expr = solver.expression("5*5+2/2-8+5*5-2");
String result = solver.solve(expr);
A more abstract Solver class would do:
class Solver {
List<String> expression(String expr) {
String[] args = expr.split("\\b");
List<String> result = new ArrayList<>();
Collections.addAll(result, args);
return result;
}
String solve(List<String> args) {
solveBinaryOps(args, "[*/]");
solveBinaryOps(args, "[-+]");
return args.stream().collect(Collectors.joining(""));
}
The above solveBinaryOps receives a regular expression pattern or alternatively simply in some form the operators you want to tackle.
It takes care of operator precedence.
private void solveBinaryOps(List<String> args, String opPattern) {
for (int i = 1; i + 1 < args.length; ++i) {
if (args.get(i).matches(opPattern)) {
String value = evalBinaryOp(args.get(i - 1), args.get(i), args.get(i + 1));
args.set(i, value);
args.remove(i + 1);
args.remove(i - 1);
--i; // Continue from here.
}
}
}
private String evalBinaryOp(String lhs, String op, String rhs) {
int x = Integer.parseInt(lhs);
int y = Integer.parseInt(rhs);
int z = 0;
switch (op) {
case "*":
z = x * y;
break;
case "/":
z = x / y;
break;
case "+":
z = x + y;
break;
case "-":
z = x - y;
break;
}
return Integer.toString(z);
}
}
The above can be improved at several points. But it is readable, and rewritable.

public class Solver {
public static void main(String args[]) {
operation("5+2*5-6/2+1+5*12/3");
}
public static void operation(String m) {
ArrayList<Object> expressions = new ArrayList<Object>();
String e;
String x = "";
for (int i = 0; i < m.length(); i++) {
e = m.substring(i, i + 1);
if (!(e.equals("*") || e.equals("/") || e.equals("+") || e
.equals("-"))) {
x += e;
continue;
} else {
if (!x.equals("") && x.matches("[0-9]+")) {
int oper = Integer.parseInt(x);
expressions.add(oper);
expressions.add(m.charAt(i));
x = "";
}
}
}
if (!x.equals("") && x.matches("[0-9]+")) {
int oper = Integer.parseInt(x);
expressions.add(oper);
x = "";
}
for (int i = 0; i < expressions.size(); i++) {
System.out.println(expressions.get(i));
}
evaluateExpression(expressions);
}
public static void evaluateExpression(ArrayList<Object> exp) {
//Considering priorities we calculate * and / first and put them in a list mulDivList
ArrayList<Object> mulDivList=new ArrayList<Object>();
for (int i = 0; i < exp.size(); i++) {
if (exp.get(i) instanceof Character) {
if ((exp.get(i)).equals('*')) {
int tempRes = (int) exp.get(i - 1) * (int) exp.get(i + 1);
exp.set(i - 1, null);
exp.set(i, null);
exp.set(i + 1, tempRes);
}
else if ((exp.get(i)).equals('/')) {
int tempRes = (int) exp.get(i - 1) / (int) exp.get(i + 1);
exp.set(i - 1, null);
exp.set(i, null);
exp.set(i + 1, tempRes);
}
}
}
//Create new list with only + and - operations
for(int i=0;i<exp.size();i++)
{
if(exp.get(i)!=null)
mulDivList.add(exp.get(i));
}
//Calculate + and - .
for(int i=0;i<mulDivList.size();i++)
{
if ((mulDivList.get(i)).equals('+')) {
int tempRes = (int) mulDivList.get(i - 1) + (int) mulDivList.get(i + 1);
mulDivList.set(i - 1, null);
mulDivList.set(i, null);
mulDivList.set(i + 1, tempRes);
}
else if ((mulDivList.get(i)).equals('-')) {
int tempRes = (int) mulDivList.get(i - 1) - (int) mulDivList.get(i + 1);
mulDivList.set(i - 1, null);
mulDivList.set(i, null);
mulDivList.set(i + 1, tempRes);
}
}
System.out.println("Result is : " + mulDivList.get(mulDivList.size() - 1));
}
}

load a world asynchronously or without blocking the main thread

I'm working on a minigames plugin. After an arena finishes it should be regenerated - I use the unload and load trick. It has an obvious disadvantage - it freezes the server for a while to prepare spawn areas. I decided to put the arena reset code into an runnable asynchronous task runTaskAsynchronously(). However, when the server tries to run the code inside the thread, it throws an exception:
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Asynchronous entity world add!
Here's a part of my code:
getServer().getScheduler().runTaskAsynchronously(this, new Runnable()
{
#Override
public void run()
{
String w_name = world.getName();
getServer().unloadWorld(world.getName(), false);
world = getServer().createWorld(new WorldCreator(w_name));
}
});
Any suggestions how to deal with this problem?

Bukkit doesn't like it when you try to edit anything through the API in an async task. Reading and processing is fine but bukkit enforces nothing when it comes to thread safety and thus affecting the world with more than 1 thread can cause issues.
Try splitting up your arena reset into smaller chunks and spreading out the operation over several ticks with a series of synchronous tasks, might help with the performance.
This isn't my code but it does a decent job of demonstrating the idea https://gist.github.com/aadnk/5443172

-- You can load worlds async using this: http://pastebin.com/K9CuVMS5 --
No you cannot, and if you tried it would have a high chance of world corruption. But if you don't care about it this is what you can do:
Bukkit loads worlds via Bukkit.createWorld(WorldCreator) which activates Server.createWorld(WorldCreator) which activates:
Validate.notNull(creator, "Creator may not be null");
String name = creator.name();
ChunkGenerator generator = creator.generator();
File folder = new File(this.getWorldContainer(), name);
World world = this.getWorld(name);
WorldType type = WorldType.getType(creator.type().getName());
boolean generateStructures = creator.generateStructures();
if(world != null) {
return world;
} else if(folder.exists() && !folder.isDirectory()) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("File exists with the name \'" + name + "\' and isn\'t a folder");
} else {
if(generator == null) {
generator = this.getGenerator(name);
}
WorldLoaderServer converter = new WorldLoaderServer(this.getWorldContainer());
if(converter.isConvertable(name)) {
this.getLogger().info("Converting world \'" + name + "\'");
converter.convert(name, new ConvertProgressUpdater(this.console));
}
int dimension = 10 + this.console.worlds.size();
boolean used = false;
do {
Iterator sdm = this.console.worlds.iterator();
while(sdm.hasNext()) {
WorldServer hardcore = (WorldServer)sdm.next();
used = hardcore.dimension == dimension;
if(used) {
++dimension;
break;
}
}
} while(used);
boolean var25 = false;
ServerNBTManager var24 = new ServerNBTManager(this.getWorldContainer(), name, true);
WorldData worlddata = var24.getWorldData();
if(worlddata == null) {
WorldSettings internal = new WorldSettings(creator.seed(), EnumGamemode.getById(this.getDefaultGameMode().getValue()), generateStructures, var25, type);
internal.setGeneratorSettings(creator.generatorSettings());
worlddata = new WorldData(internal, name);
}
worlddata.checkName(name);
WorldServer var26 = (WorldServer)(new WorldServer(this.console, var24, worlddata, dimension, this.console.methodProfiler, creator.environment(), generator)).b();
if(!this.worlds.containsKey(name.toLowerCase())) {
return null;
} else {
var26.scoreboard = this.getScoreboardManager().getMainScoreboard().getHandle();
var26.tracker = new EntityTracker(var26);
var26.addIWorldAccess(new WorldManager(this.console, var26));
var26.worldData.setDifficulty(EnumDifficulty.EASY);
var26.setSpawnFlags(true, true);
this.console.worlds.add(var26);
if(generator != null) {
var26.getWorld().getPopulators().addAll(generator.getDefaultPopulators(var26.getWorld()));
}
this.pluginManager.callEvent(new WorldInitEvent(var26.getWorld()));
System.out.print("Preparing start region for level " + (this.console.worlds.size() - 1) + " (Seed: " + var26.getSeed() + ")");
if(var26.getWorld().getKeepSpawnInMemory()) {
short short1 = 196;
long i = System.currentTimeMillis();
for(int j = -short1; j <= short1; j += 16) {
for(int k = -short1; k <= short1; k += 16) {
long l = System.currentTimeMillis();
if(l < i) {
i = l;
}
if(l > i + 1000L) {
int chunkcoordinates = (short1 * 2 + 1) * (short1 * 2 + 1);
int j1 = (j + short1) * (short1 * 2 + 1) + k + 1;
System.out.println("Preparing spawn area for " + name + ", " + j1 * 100 / chunkcoordinates + "%");
i = l;
}
BlockPosition var27 = var26.getSpawn();
var26.chunkProviderServer.getChunkAt(var27.getX() + j >> 4, var27.getZ() + k >> 4);
}
}
}
this.pluginManager.callEvent(new WorldLoadEvent(var26.getWorld()));
return var26.getWorld();
}
}
Now by creating you own world loader, you can make it so it only generates a chunk every tick or so.

Multithreading in java - 4 threads that do the same automatically

I've written a program to scan for amicable numbers (a pair of 2 numbers that the sum of all devisors of one equals to the other) It works ok and I'll include the entire code below.
I tried to get it to run with several threads so I moved the code to a class called Breaker and my main looks as follows:
Breaker line1 = new Breaker("thread1");
Breaker line2 = new Breaker("thread2");
Breaker line3 = new Breaker("thread3");
Breaker line4 = new Breaker("thread4");
line1.scanRange(1L, 650000L);
line2.scanRange(650001L, 850000L);
line3.scanRange(850001L, 1000000L);
line4.scanRange(1000001L, 1200001L);
Now this does shorten the time noticably, but this is not a smart solution and the threads end each on very different times.
What I'm trying to do, is to automate the process so that a master thread that has the entire range, will fire up sections of short ranges (10000) from the master range, and when a thread ends, to fire up the next section in a new thread, until the entire master range is done.
I've tried understanding how to use synchronized, notify() and wait() but after several tries all ended with different errors and unwanted behaviour.
Here is Breaker.java:
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class Breaker implements Runnable{
Long from, to = null;
String name = null;
Thread t = new Thread(this);
public Breaker(String name){
this.name = name;
}
public void scanRange(Long from, Long to){
this.from = from;
this.to = to;
t.start();
}
#Override
public void run() {
this.scan();
}
private void scan() {
ArrayList<ArrayList<Long>> results = new ArrayList<ArrayList<Long>>();
Long startingTime = new Long(System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000L);
Long lastReport = new Long(startingTime);
System.out.println(startingTime + ": Starting number is: " + this.from);
for (Long i = this.from; i <= this.to; i++) {
if (((System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000L) - startingTime ) % 60 == 0 && (System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000L) != lastReport) {
System.out.println((System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000L) + ": " + this.name + " DOING NOW " + i.toString() + ".");
lastReport = (System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000L);
}
ArrayList<Long> a = new ArrayList<Long>();
a = getFriendPair(i);
if(a != null) {
results.add(a);
System.out.println(this.name + ": FOUND PAIR! " + a.toString());
}
}
System.out.println((System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000L) + ": " + this.name + " Done. Total pairs found: " + results.size() +
". Total working time: " + ((System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000L) - startingTime) + " seconds.");
}
/**
* Receives integer and returns an array of the integer and the number who is it's
* pair in case it has any. Else returns null.
* #param i
* #return
*/
private static ArrayList<Long> getFriendPair(Long i) {
Long possibleFriend = getAndSumAllDevisors(i);
if (possibleFriend.compareTo(i) <= 0) return null;
Long sumOfPossibleFriend = getAndSumAllDevisors(possibleFriend);
if(sumOfPossibleFriend.equals(i)) {
ArrayList<Long> pair = new ArrayList<Long>();
pair.add(i);
pair.add(possibleFriend);
return pair;
}
return null;
}
private static Long getAndSumAllDevisors(Long victim) {
Long sum = new Long(1);
Long i = 2L;
Long k = new Long(0);
while ((k = i * i) <= victim) {
if ((victim % i) == 0) {
sum += i;
if (k == victim) return sum;
sum += (victim / i);
}
i++;
}
return sum;
}
}

Consider ExecutorService, which is backed by a thread pool. You feed it tasks and they get shuffled off to worker threads as they become available:
http://www.vogella.com/articles/JavaConcurrency/article.html#threadpools

What you need is a "Fixed Thread Pool". See http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/concurrent/Executors.html#newFixedThreadPool%28int%29

I would go for a ExecutorService with a fixed thread pool size. Your master thread can either feed directly to the executor service or you can disconnect them via a BlockingQueue. The Java Doc of the blocking queue describes the producer-consumer pattern quite nicely.

I ended up taking none of the answers but rather Marko's comment and implemented my solution using a Fork/Join framework. It works and runs almost at twice the speed of the none optimized version.
My code looks now like so:
main file (runner)
public class runner {
private static Long START_NUM = 1L;
private static Long END_NUM = 10000000L;
public static void main(String[] args) {
Long preciseStartingTime = new Long(System.currentTimeMillis());
ForkJoinPool pool = new ForkJoinPool();
WorkManager worker = new WorkManager(START_NUM, END_NUM);
pool.invoke(worker);
System.out.println("precise time: " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - preciseStartingTime));
}
WorkManager
I've defined here 3 class variables. from and to are set from a constructor which is called from the main file. And threshold which is the maximum amount of numbers the program will assign a single thread to compute serially.
As you can see in the code, it will recursively make the range smaller until it is small enough to to compute directly, then it calls Breaker to start breaking.
import java.util.concurrent.RecursiveAction;
public class WorkManager extends RecursiveAction{
Long from, to;
Long threshold = 10000L;
public WorkManager(Long from, Long to) {
this.from = from;
this.to = to;
}
protected void computeDirectly(){
Breaker b = new Breaker(from, to);
b.scan();
}
#Override
protected void compute() {
if ((to - from) <= threshold){
System.out.println("New thread from " + from + " to " + to);
computeDirectly();
}
else{
Long split = (to - from) /2;
invokeAll(new WorkManager(from, from + split),
new WorkManager(from + split + 1L, to));
}
}
}
Breaker (is no longer an implementation of of Runnable)
public class Breaker{
Long from, to = null;
public Breaker(Long lFrom, Long lTo) {
this.from = lFrom;
this.to = lTo;
}
public void scan() {
ArrayList<ArrayList<Long>> results = new ArrayList<ArrayList<Long>>();
Long startingTime = new Long(System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000L);
for (Long i = this.from; i <= this.to; i++) {
ArrayList<Long> a = new ArrayList<Long>();
a = getFriendPair(i);
if(a != null) {
results.add(a);
System.out.println((System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000L) + ": FOUND PAIR! " + a.toString());
}
}
}
/**
* Receives integer and returns an array of the integer and the number who is it's
* pair in case it has any. Else returns null.
* #param i
* #return
*/
private static ArrayList<Long> getFriendPair(Long i) {
Long possibleFriend = getAndSumAllDevisors(i);
if (possibleFriend.compareTo(i) <= 0) return null;
Long sumOfPossibleFriend = getAndSumAllDevisors(possibleFriend);
if(sumOfPossibleFriend.equals(i)) {
ArrayList<Long> pair = new ArrayList<Long>();
pair.add(i);
pair.add(possibleFriend);
return pair;
}
return null;
}
private static Long getAndSumAllDevisors(Long victim) {
Long sum = new Long(1);
Long i = 2L;
Long k = new Long(0);
while ((k = i * i) <= victim) {
if ((victim % i) == 0) {
sum += i;
if (k == victim) return sum;
sum += (victim / i);
}
i++;
}
return sum;
}
}

Android - clock lags

i have a problem with my self-written-in-app-clock...
it freezes sometimes. once it freezes for 2 seconds another time for up to 10 seconds. The time is shown correctly, but not fluently...
Here my Code:
CDT_2 = new CountDownTimer(250, 250) {
#Override
public void onTick(long millisUntilFinished) {
{
getDate();
int C_hours_output = C_hours - C_hours_basic;
int C_minutes_output = C_minutes - C_minutes_basic;
int C_seconds_output = C_seconds - C_seconds_basic;
if (C_seconds_output < 0) {
C_seconds_output = C_seconds_output + 60;
C_minutes_output = C_minutes_output - 1;
}
if (C_seconds_output < 10) {
STR_seconds = "0"
+ Integer.valueOf(C_seconds_output).toString();
} else {
STR_seconds = Integer.valueOf(C_seconds_output)
.toString();
}
if (C_minutes_output < 0) {
C_minutes_output = C_minutes_output + 60;
C_hours_output = C_hours_output - 1;
}
if (C_minutes_output < 10) {
STR_minutes = "0"
+ Integer.valueOf(C_minutes_output).toString();
} else {
STR_minutes = Integer.valueOf(C_minutes_output)
.toString();
}
if (C_hours_output < 0) {
C_hours_output = 0;
}
if (C_hours_output < 10) {
STR_hours = "0"
+ Integer.valueOf(C_hours_output).toString();
} else {
STR_hours = Integer.valueOf(C_hours_output).toString();
}
((TextView) acti.findViewById(R.id.TV_time_e01))
.setText(STR_seconds);
((TextView) acti.findViewById(R.id.TV_time_e0))
.setText(STR_minutes + ".");
((TextView) acti.findViewById(R.id.TV_time_e1))
.setText(STR_hours + ":");
}
}
#Override
public void onFinish() {
CDT_2.start();
}
}.start();
thanks in advance

The CountDownTimer class does not run on a separate thread, so it is splitting time with UI events and work. See this post for details.
You are better off implementing this with a Handler or Runnable. You can update your TextView elements using Activity.runOnUiThread
See these posts for similar solutions:
Android: How do I display an updating clock in a TextView
Android - implement a custom timer/clock