Ah - Dates, again :)

[YouBelieveWHAT?]

05/06/07 = Sixth of May?

After me - Oh, no it doesn't!

That's the fifth of June!

:)

YBW

[UnrepentantSinner]

The military has some crazy configurations for dates/times but it was from them that I picked up a system that no one ever has problems with assuming they know the months of the year in English. 6 May 07 or 5 Jun 07, etc.

[to.by]

It is not true that it won't happen again. Exactly the same situation will pop up agin in a 100 years time.

[Nick Bogaerts]

Our units of temporal measurement, from seconds on up to months, are so complicated, asymmetrical and disjunctive so as to make coherent mental reckoning in time all but impossible. Indeed, had some tyrannical god contrived to enslave our minds to time, to make it all but impossible for us to escape subjection to sodden routines and unpleasant surprises, he could hardly have done better than handing down our present system. It is like a set of trapezoidal building blocks, with no vertical or horizontal surfaces, like a language in which the simplest thought demands ornate constructions, useless particles and lengthy circumlocutions. Unlike the more successful patterns of language and science, which enable us to face experience boldly or at least level-headedly, our system of temporal calculation silently and persistently encourages our terror of time.

... It is as though architects had to measure length in feet, width in meters and height in ells; as though basic instruction manuals demanded a knowledge of five different languages. It is no wonder then that we often look into our own immediate past or future, last Tuesday or a week from Sunday, with feelings of helpless confusion. ...

Robert Grudin, Time and the Art of Living.

[YouBelieveWHAT?]

Still - the world's going to end, right?

:)

YBW

[Cuddles]

It is not true that it won't happen again. Exactly the same situation will pop up agin in a 100 years time.

Unless there's something Scot Morris knows that he's not telling us...

[Beady]

Exactly the same situation will pop up agin in a 100 years time.

Wrong. It'll happen next year: 06/07/08.

[alfaniner]

It is not true that it won't happen again. Exactly the same situation will pop up agin in a 100 years time.

Yes, perhaps if he'd said "It won't happen again in your lifetime." Of course, there could be some kids reading the Commentary for whom that will prove incorrect as well...

Whenever I have to save a file with a common name, with a date, I always save it in the format 070506 (YYMMDD) for sorting purposes.

We used to have a cable TV traffic cam with a clock on the screen. About ten seconds before it occurred, I realized I should have recorded the moment of 01/01/01 01:01:01, but I didn't have enough time to put the tape in. (New Year's Day, I was up anyway).

[SimonD]

At three minutes and four seconds after 12 AM on the 6th of May this year, the time and date will be 12:03:04 05/06/07.

[slyjoe]

Yes, perhaps if he'd said "It won't happen again in your lifetime." Of course, there could be some kids reading the Commentary for whom that will prove incorrect as well...

Whenever I have to save a file with a common name, with a date, I always save it in the format 070506 (YYMMDD) for sorting purposes.

We used to have a cable TV traffic cam with a clock on the screen. About ten seconds before it occurred, I realized I should have recorded the moment of 01/01/01 01:01:01, but I didn't have enough time to put the tape in. (New Year's Day, I was up anyway).

You may want to use the full date (YYYY). I used to save files the way you did, but then 99 went to 00! :)

[tsg]

On my way into work this morning, I saw a license plate that said KJX-97Y. What are the odds of that happening?

[Beady]

On my way into work this morning, I saw a license plate that said KJX-97Y. What are the odds of that happening?

Big deal. My car's licence plate number is my mother-in-law's birthday.

[Blue Bubble]

You may want to use the full date (YYYY). I used to save files the way you did, but then 99 went to 00! :)

Sigh ... this is an example of sloppy thinking and lack of foresight that got us into the Y2K mess. Now you're getting us all into a Y10K mess.

Tut, tut. Shame on you, Slyjoe.












P.s. ;)

[slyjoe]

Sorry- what was I thinking. Actually, we should probably worry about the 2038 mess first.

[SphereGuy]

You all missed this:
"1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9"

It's gotta mean something.

[rjh01]

Us Australians have to wait another month for the 5/6/7 date. To us it says 5 June 2007. So Randi is doubly wrong. It will happen again in one year. Not to mention 07/07/07. At seven past seven then the world ends. Twice in one day.

[rehn]

Just use:
ISO Standard 8601 for Datesand Times as we do i Sweden and the confusion will go away....

check:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

[rjh01]

The link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601
rehn. You now have 15 links. Congratulations. Now you can go and edit your post and put in the link yourself.

I do agree with your conclusions. I sometimes use that format to save files.

[allanb]

The only conclusion I can come to is that the end of the world will happen in different places on different dates.

I am making my travel plans.

[Stir]

Have you ever noticed that the so-called "natural" numbers occur in order? I mean ... what are the chances of that happening? What's 'natural' about that? Scary!!

[EHLO]

How about February 13th, 2009 at precisely 23:31:30 UTC the Unix/POSIX time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_timestamp) will be 1234567890!

AND it's Friday the 13th!

Now if that's not an omen I don't know what is...

[rjh01]

I just done the maths and EHLO is right. It even is Friday 13. Is this the end of the world?

Oh sorry that was 1/1/1900 the day after 31/12/1999. I spent ages getting work computers Y2K compliant.

[YouBelieveWHAT?]

The trouble is we seem to get the end of the world every few weeks.

It's remarkable how much the post- world resembles the ante- world, isn't it?

I wonder - if we get an end of the world this Friday, for example, then another one week later, does the second one restart everything?

That might explain. :)

YBW

[tsg]

I wonder - if we get an end of the world this Friday, for example, then another one week later, does the second one restart everything?

No, no, no. That's just ridiculous. The world was created on Friday? Preposterous.

It happened Thursday (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Thursdayism).

[SphereGuy]

I just realized that tonight the time will 02:43.29 on 05/10/2007. Also, next week we will have 12:44.31 on 05/16/2007. When will those ever happen again?

[YouBelieveWHAT?]

Starman - stop scaring people :)

YBW

[Aepervius]

All start of all century will have date like that, and there are 8 of them ascending :
01:02:03 at 4/5/06
02:03:04 at 5/6/07
03:04:05 at 6/7/08
04:05:06 at 7/8/09
05:06:07 at 8/9/10
etc...
08:09:10 at 11/12/13
And as much descending
06:05:04 at 3/2/01
07:06:05 at 4/3/02
etc...
16:15:14 at 13/12/11 (yeah on a 24 hours clock :P).

This happens at every start of century. So within our lifetime, unless you are living longer than 100 years *AND* were born shortly before such date you will see it only once.

But for humanity, it will happens every century. In 1900, 1800, 2000 2100...

There is nothing special for humanity in 02:03:04 5/6/7 *AND* there is nothing special in starting with 2 to 7, as next year we will ahve a 3 starting to 8.

Number are funny, you can associate all sort of meaningless stuff to them.

PS: about living a century I hope very soon to wish good birthday to my Grand Mother. Which is 98 years old. I wish I could live as old as her with as much brain as she still have...

[gtc]

For files I always use 20070511 to represent 11 May 2007. It is interesting to see this is an ISO standard.

I also use zeros where data is missing or irrelevant. For instance, 20070500 for May 2007 and 00000101 for New Years Day in an unknown year (many public transport timetables are poorly presented).

I guess I will have to renumber everything in December 9999.

[Big Al]

Dates I've already lived through in my lifetime (and am still here to talk about), and ditching leading zeroes to make them seem more portentous:

12:34:56 7/8/90
1:23:45 6/7/89

Twice within a year! It's a wonder I'm still alive!

[BillyJoe]

PS: about living a century I hope very soon to wish good birthday to my Grand Mother. Which is 98 years old. I wish I could live as old as her with as much brain as she still have...


I think that is already too late.