The Next Three Days are the x86 Days

Pinky wrote in to note that "Today, tomorrow and the next day are the only days we'll get dates like this: 2/8/6 3/8/6 4/8/6 like the x86 computers :-)" And yes folks, in the August news cycle vortex, even this strikes my fancy. In recent years we've seen numerical giants like 3/1/4, 6/6/6 and 1/2/3, but now really, what do any of us have to look forward to? Is our future dull and meaningless without cool numbers in dates? Oh the humanity of it all ...

Re:what about the lucky sevens?

[Murodese]

But would you rather a three-day celebratory holiday, or three one-dayers? :o

What?

[UbuntuDupe]

Where's the link to an article? Oh, this was just some guy rambling about something while high.

Februrary, March and April

[TobascoKid]

"today, tomorrow and the next day are the only days we'll get dates like this: 2/8/6 3/8/6 4/8/6 like the x86 computers :-)"

That all depends on your locale settings - other people had thier x86 days several months back

Re:Except..

[Pharmboy]

Like the USA? I thought Slashdot was unappologetically US centric.

(insert "We don't use dates like that, you insensitive clod" comment here)

Psht!

[Anonymous Coward]

A real nerd uses a logical date format - yyyy/mm/dd. What kind of a date format puts the 1st of February before the 2nd of January when sorted?

Re:what about the lucky sevens?

[Moby Cock]

I've lived in Canada my entire life, and everyone I know uses dd/mm/yy.

In fact, I recall being taught to do it that way in grade 2.

Re:SORRY!

[Spad]

Sorry, but here in Europe, where the current calendar system was invented, we put the day first, so today is 2/8/6!

What about the 586?

[eno2001]

The i586 DOES exist. Same as the i686. I don't care what Intel marketing pushed down people's throats, I still call them 586 and 686 systems. So does the Linux kernel...

Re:what about the lucky sevens?

[grub]

YYYY-MM-DD is the best. I keep logs, pics, whatever named like that so a date sort by name is simple.

ISO date vs DoD date

[DragonHawk]

"That's what the military and most "with it" government organization use. I've also adopted myself because (a) it is completely unambiguous and (b) I'm an asshole."

You don't say whose military or government. The US DoD, at least, is large enough that there are multiple "standards". I've seen MM/DD/YY (08/02/06) and YYYY-MMM-DD (2006-AUG-02) most often, I think. The ISO date form is YYYY-MM-DD (2006-08-02) or YYYYMMDD (20060802).

Personally, I find the mixed number/letter forms like "2006 AUG 2" and "2 Aug 2006" work best when dealing with other humans who speak the same language. It's unambiguous -- there's only one sane way to interpret it -- and the letter/number distinction stands out more than dashes. For computers and other kinds of filing, though, the ISO form definately wins. It makes sorting so much easier.

Re:what about the lucky sevens?

[araemo]

"The month then day format is much nicer though. Every try to sort a list of files that are similar but have a different date. Good luck sorting them nicely by that date."

Actually, neither m-d-y nor d-m-y are good for that. y-m-d is the simplest way to sort by date when you are naming files, that way they're all sorted by year first, then month, then day. d-m-y makes logical sense, but in america most people say/see august 2nd, 2006... so we get confused when we see 2-8-06. ;P

Re:The trouble with 'AUG' or 'SEP'

[Thundarr Trollgrim]

The trouble with 'AUG' or 'SEP' is that these make no sense in many languages, whereas the numbers translate well. YYYY-MM-DD makes the most sense. Most significant digits first, just as in the rest of our entire number system.

Re:what about the lucky sevens?

[1u3hr]

If you knew how much hassle I've had with American software that always defaults to MDY dates, and somtimes can't be changed, you might excuse my getting a dig in. If Americans spent a few minutes to consider that their way isn't the only way of doing things, a lot of problems could be avoided, and I'm not just talking about software.

Re:Donald Becker quote

[Anonymous Coward]

What the hell happened to 7?

Replacing code dates with international dates

[GodWasAnAlien]

Again, don't confuse international dates (ISO 8661) with European dates.

Sometimes when I am updating some code documents with dates, I will replace the US Y99 dates with international dates,

So:

01/02/03 - code creation

becomes:
2003-01-02 - code creation
2006-08-02 - fixed a bug

International dates are significantly in order, as times are.

Re:what about the lucky sevens?

[cvdwl]

I've been brainwashed in california to use ddMMMyy (eg. 02Aug06) for all my dates. They do that in the international Pharmacuetical/BioTech industry to cut down on this exact confusion.

Which begs the question: is 02Aug06 the 2nd of August 2006 or the 6th of August 2002. Are my pills just expiring or 4 years out of date? Any possible format that leaves ambiguity WILL be misunderstood. Two digit years are an abomination!

And, to reply to a previous poster, do you alphabetize your dictionary by last letter of the word? yyyy-mm-dd is, by systems of ordering that have been around for millenia, the most logical.

Re:what about the lucky sevens?

[kimvette]

In software one should sort using this date format:

YYYYMMDD-HHMM

Also: HH should be military/24-hour time, NOT HHMM(a|p)

Re:what about the lucky sevens?

[setirw]

No, because it is the 24th of November. November the 24th just sounds weird.

Re:what about the lucky sevens?

[Anonymous Coward]

being canadian, I'm going to have to correct, or in the very least amend what metasecure said. the federal standard in canada is actually YYYY-MM-DD and has been since 1989 (CSA Z234.5 is the standard name if interested) and ultimately if you work for a multinational company (or at least one that complies with some ISO standards) you follow ISO 8601 which is the same as above. if MM/DD/YYYY is still used it's because your headquarters is in the USA, or perhaps because one never enjoyed the simplistic DD/MM/YYYY nomenclature thats so easy to understand. (ascending numberic groups and so forth)... ANYWAYS being so wildly off topic as I seem to be... aweasome dates... but your all wrong. no one uses d/m/y nomenclature anymore.

Re:what about the lucky sevens?

[La Fortezza]

As a fellow USian, I hate American software/devices that won't let me use a 24-hour clock.

I bet the Thai hate everyone though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6_hour_clock [wikipedia.org].