Facebook invents a new unit of time: the flick (frame-tick)

[HEXUS]

One flick is exactly 1/705600000 of a second. It was devised for content creators.

Read more.

[Sunderas]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMJVy_9s5GM

[scaryjim]

Flick is a portmanteau word for frame-tick

And where, exactly, in "frame-tick" did they get an 'L' from?

[chinf]

If it's really a portmanteau, surely it should be "frick"? It's fake news, I tell you...

[mtyson]

It's a quantum 'L' - it gets disrupted if you try and observe it.

[Corky34]

smallest unit of time which is larger than a nanosecond

That sentences really got my pedantic side going nuts as a microseconds is the next smallest unit of time that's larger than nanoseconds.

[scaryjim]

That sentences really got my pedantic side going nuts as a microseconds is the next smallest unit of time that's larger than nanoseconds.

well, not by their definition, as 1 flick is less than 1 microsecond. OTOH 1.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 ns is both smaller than 1 flick and larger than 1ns, so.....
</pedantry>

[Saracen]

It's a quantum 'L' - it gets disrupted if you try and observe it.

Nice. I actually, physically LOL'd at that.

[3dcandy]

sod the maths....just why?

[Corky34]

well, not by their definition, as 1 flick is less than 1 microsecond. OTOH 1.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 ns is both smaller than 1 flick and larger than 1ns, so.....
</pedantry>

At least i know I'm not alone, someone raised it as an issue on their github page, or at least i think they did, I'm getting confused with all those zeros.

[ik9000]

Nah, it should be a fick not a frick, and definitely not a flick. But anyway, who gives one? The world is littered with bad acronyms/abbreviations. One more isn't going to matter. It'll just get lost in the noise.

[cheesemp]

sod the maths....just why?

I read on the register (I think) that the frame accuracy really helps with VR keeping everything in sync more accurately than previous methods that relied on floating point maths and rounding issues that introduces...

[Noli]

well, not by their definition, as 1 flick is less than 1 microsecond. OTOH 1.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 ns is both smaller than 1 flick and larger than 1ns, so.....

Yes that one got me weirded out too. Apart from the excessive zeros in your example, we could just say 1/705600001 is smaller instead. But Corky's got it right - they don't mean unit as in an amount (2 vs 3), they mean it as a standard of measure (yards vs meters). But seeing as they just invented it, it's a bit obnoxious to boast about it vs the nanosecond when it isn't even *narrowly* adopted yet. Hey, I've just invented a new unit of time which is faster than a flick but slower than a nanosecond! I call it the Noli and it's exactly 1/705600001 seconds! Ha Ha! I win! I win!

[scaryjim]

... I call it the Noli and it's exactly 1/705600001 seconds! Ha Ha! I win! I win!

I do sometimes wonder if my various flavours of jim on the internet have a size precedence order...