It seems that the Poorhouse isn't the only clock-watcher in the world. Upon searching for random nonsense, Countdown Clocks International were discovered. Unshockingly, from their name, they sell clocks that count down time to a specific point. A whole lot of identical clocks with different and somewhat tacky facades to be honest.

Most desirable is the retirement clock. It gently counts down the days, hours, minutes and even seconds til that part of your life when you get to start doing the things you actually want to do.

But that's far from the only way to excite, or more likely depress, yourself. E-eeasy ("Home of the BEST Free Software..OK, so maybe it's not the best free software but who searches the web for 'Crap Free Software'?") have similar countdown paraphernalia available on their Friday Fun Software pages. There you can get either a discrete minimisable-to-tray retirement calculator, or a screensaver with built in countdown. The screensaver includes "Job Saver Technology" that apparently lets you start your screensaver up immediately with a keyboard shortcut. Presumably this supposes that your boss would be less angry at seeing you apparently having not done any work on the computer for at least 10 minutes, than viewing the profane nature of your websurfing onscreen.

Extra-restricted people can use the beauty of the web itself to calculate the countdown. In fact, a count-down timer is a classic piece of Javascript malarkey so if you want your very own one without going to much effort just search the web and you'll find plenty. Alternatively websites like timeanddate.com let you use their facilities for that exact task.

(Plus any additional years of penance due to the forthcoming increasing of the retirement age.)