Mini-Rant: the American Method of abbreviating dates. - Page 2

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Mini-Rant: the American Method of abbreviating dates. (Page 2 of 3)

Posted: 10/18/2008 6:49:57 PM EDT

[#1]

I seem to remember you claiming that you want to move to the United States. Please don't. I don't want you jacking up everything we hold dear, damnit.

Posted: 10/18/2008 6:54:41 PM EDT

[#2]

I work with people who write dates both ways, so I always write "DD Mon YY" for clarity. YYYYMMDD for computers, of course.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:00:10 PM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
10/19/08.

How the fuck does this make sense?

The reason that the date should be written DD/MM/YY, like the rest of the sane world does, is because you go from the smallest time increment to the largest. Why? Because it's most useful to know which day it is, because most of us can keep track of the month. The most important feature in a date is the day, which is why it should come first. When you stick it in the middle dates become clunky and hard to read. The most frequently changing number in a series should be at the start or the end. Not in the middle.

Americans are nuts. Write your dates logically. 19/10/08

Sorry Bud,

It's Canada too.

October 18th, 2008

10/18/08

Except for .gc.ca and military.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:03:43 PM EDT

[#4]

The whole day/ month/ year method sucks. Trust me I've been stuck in "jolly" old England for almost 3 months now. It's fucking queer.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:04:15 PM EDT

[#5]

It drives me nuts too. I usually write out the abreviation for the month just to avoid confusion. 11 Sep 01 for example.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:07:01 PM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
October 19, 2008. That's how everybody says it. I think that's why we carry it over to the abbreviation.

QFT

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:11:49 PM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
20081018

Win.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:14:18 PM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
19/10/08

You have a 19th month in Australia?!? Whoa. We only have 12 here.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:16:19 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
Maybe because common speech here is October 18th when spoken.

Just a guess.

Oh, and FUCK OBAMA!!

FUCK OBAMA!!!

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:17:02 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:

Quoted:
10/19/08.

How the fuck does this make sense?

You're from the land that gave the world the Koala 'bear', the 'Kangaroo' and 'Waltzing Matilda', and you give us shit over how we abbreviate the date?

You guys need to get north of the equator more often.

Don't forget the platypus. Seriously, what the fuck is up with that!

Fuck Obama on 10/18/08.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:18:28 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
It drives me nuts too. I usually write out the abreviation for the month just to avoid confusion. 11 Sep 01 for example.

+1

I also write my "7" with a crossbar. Does that make me a Euro-weenie?

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:19:32 PM EDT

[#12]

I do it DD-MMM-YYYY

18-OCT-2008

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:20:41 PM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:

Quoted:
It drives me nuts too. I usually write out the abreviation for the month just to avoid confusion. 11 Sep 01 for example.

+1

I also write my "7" with a crossbar. Does that make me a Euro-weenie?

Pretty much yes.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:20:58 PM EDT

[#14]

Well everyone knows...however it is done in USA is the right way. All others should change to our method. Scrap that metric system too while you are at it.

Actually, I always wondered why we don't use dd/mm/yy too.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:23:25 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
That how I do it in my classroom. The students have never said anything about it.

BTW, what other things ought we do to catch up with the countries that are behind us.

I don't know whether other countries use it, but I think we should be using a 24 hour clock. I much prefer that, no possibility of getting AM and PM mixed up.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:24:08 PM EDT

[#16]

The military way is the most precise. It's the way I always do it.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:25:40 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
The military way is the most precise. It's the way I always do it.

You talking about date or time or both?

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:25:49 PM EDT

[#18]

Use the Julian date.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:34:26 PM EDT

[#19]

You fucking Australians would be writing your dates like this if it wasn't for the US Marines:

C'mon, you knew it was coming.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:36:24 PM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:
Use the Julian date.

The U.S. military (and a small subset of civil servant bean counters) is the only organization that I know that use the Julian calendar.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:50:56 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
I prefer my dates as 18OCT08 or 27JUL03, etc so on and so forth

This is how I do it, it's the Canadian method. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:57:34 PM EDT

[#22]

We will stop writing in American and take suggestions from penal colony residents when they start sending us quality oranges.

Every orange I see in the market is from Australia and they all suck. Bitter and without flavor.

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:03:19 PM EDT

[#23]

You all fail. The proper military way is YYYYMMDD.

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:07:50 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
I also write my "7" with a crossbar. Does that make me a Euro-weenie?

I do too, and I'm definitely not a Euro-weenie. I write my dates mm/dd/yyyy, unless I save something on the computer, then I use yyyy/mm/dd.

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:10:03 PM EDT

[#25]

This is America, learn the rules

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:11:07 PM EDT

[#26]

Quoted:
I don't know whether other countries use it, but I think we should be using a 24 hour clock. I much prefer that, no possibility of getting AM and PM mixed up.

You get AM and PM mixed up? How?

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:12:30 PM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
19OCT08

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:13:03 PM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
You all fail. The proper military way is YYYYMMDD.

Sorry, you fail. I just pulled out a copy of my DD214. All the dates are DD (numeric) MMM (alpha) YY (numberic), such as 01JUL71.

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:13:24 PM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Use the Julian date.

The U.S. military (and a small subset of civil servant bean counters) is the only organization that I know that use the Julian calendar.

It's the ordinal date.

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:24:21 PM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:

Quoted:
You all fail. The proper military way is YYYYMMDD.

Sorry, you fail. I just pulled out a copy of my DD214. All the dates are DD (numeric) MMM (alpha) YY (numberic), such as 01JUL71.

Interestingly enough, when I filled out all my papers for signing up with the Army (done 2 weeks ago), I was told to write YYYYMMDD, however all the paperwork that I was given (contract, shipping date, etc.) had the date written DD (numeric) MMM (alpha) YY (numeric).

ETA: I just looked over my paperwork again, it's mostly YYYYMMDD but it's the other way in a couple of places.

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:28:31 PM EDT

[#31]

I work in aviation so it is MM/DD/YR , in the military it was DD/MM/YR.

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:31:18 PM EDT

[#32]

Quoted:
The whole day/ month/ year method sucks. Trust me I've been stuck in "jolly" old England for almost 3 months now. It's fucking queer.

The Brits also say things like "half ten" instead of "half past ten" or just simply "10:30". I always look at my watch and inform them it isn't 5:00. For those of you who don't get that, in US English saying "half ten" would be implying that you are dividing ten in half.

Another thing that is annoying; in my work I deal a lot with VHF antennas. However, for some unknown reason the Brits call all antennas 'aerials'. I can't tell you how much that confuses our Mexicans who always have a tendency to look upwards when the Brits say that.

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:41:10 PM EDT

[#33]

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:46:49 PM EDT

[#34]

I always put YYYYMMDD on my log files when I'm writing code, but that's just because it makes it easier to sort.

My big WTF is y'all calling a flashlight a torch.

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:49:55 PM EDT

[#35]

Quoted:
More crap from the poster down under

The annoying part is, we can't even say "if you don't like America, get the fuck out"

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:53:34 PM EDT

[#36]

The United States is a country that is known for freedom and originality, and we will continue to do things as we please until the fascists/communists/socialists take over. By the way, we have always written our dates as October 19, 2008 so it makes more sense for us to enumerate our dates in the order 10/19/08.

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:54:06 PM EDT

[#37]

yy/mm/dd is mo better. hell, mm/dd/yy is still better.

much rather sort a folder full of folders or files by year, then month, then day first. sorting by day first is laughable. damn silly chavs and bogons

Posted: 10/18/2008 8:57:31 PM EDT

[#38]

Quoted:
8291

Quoted:
19OCT08

Been doing it like this for almost 20 years now. Depends on the AF Form I'm filling out. The Julian date I only use on certain forms, but the DD MMM YY is what I always use day to day.

Posted: 10/18/2008 9:00:20 PM EDT

[#39]

So, presumably, if someone asks you the time and date, you tell them seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years?

So right now it is 55:56:23 18/10/08.

Posted: 10/18/2008 9:00:33 PM EDT

[#40]

Quoted:

Quoted:
20081018

8291

+ fucking 1

thats how everyone needs to write it from now on.

I scanned the post waiting to see it, or post if I didnt.

Posted: 10/18/2008 9:00:38 PM EDT

[#41]

Quoted:

Reminds me of the time the front wheel fell right the F off my friends bike when he went off a jump. Was pretty funny to watch but a pain to help him home.

Posted: 10/18/2008 9:02:14 PM EDT

[#42]

I bet Obama prefers day-month-year.

Fucking communists.

Posted: 10/18/2008 9:05:17 PM EDT

[#43]

Quoted:
Please look at the Declaration of Independence: "July 4, 1776"

It was intentionally in a different order than the Brits. It's part of being rebellious.

Like driving on the right hand side of the road, dropping the 'u' in words and talking funny

Quoted:

My big WTF is y'all calling a flashlight a torch.

It is an electric torch, where the hell did the name 'flashlight' come from?

Posted: 10/18/2008 9:07:00 PM EDT

[#44]

Is it true that watter spirals counter clockwise when you flush the toilets in Australia?

Posted: 10/18/2008 9:08:50 PM EDT

[#45]

Quoted:
Is it true that watter spirals counter clockwise when you flush the toilets in Australia?

That is just plain mean....

...asking an Australian a question about indoor plumbing.

Posted: 10/18/2008 9:09:52 PM EDT

[#46]

Quoted:
Please look at the Declaration of Independence: "July 4, 1776"

It was intentionally in a different order than the Brits. It's part of being rebellious.

+1, to this poster....
and if O'loserbama gets in he'll want, Ausy boys way....

So f--k Obama!

Posted: 10/18/2008 9:11:27 PM EDT

[#47]

See that big expanse of Pacific Ocean between you and us? Let's stay on our respective sides of it.

It's how we do it here. You do whatever you want on your island.

Posted: 10/18/2008 9:15:48 PM EDT

[#48]

When you sort dates in order, it puts all the first numbers together. It makes no sense to have all the 1sts of the month together. I'd rather have all the days in October together!

It is better for sorting that way

Sort, day first...
01/1/2008
01/2/2008
01/3/2008
01/4/2008
01/5/2008
01/6/2008
01/7/2008
01/8/2008
01/9/2008
01/10/2008
01/11/2008
...

Hooray, all the 1sts are together... If I want to find the 28th of February, I have to scroll forever, and not accidentally click on the 28th of March instead.

Sort, month first...
01/1/2008
01/2/2008
01/3/2008
01/4/2008
01/5/2008
01/6/2008
01/7/2008
01/8/2008
01/9/2008
01/10/2008
01/11/2008
...

There! Now all the dates are in order.

ETA: It is really best to put the year first when sorting, then month then day.

Posted: 10/18/2008 9:20:20 PM EDT

[#49]

I always write "The nineteenth day of October in the year two-thousand-eight Anno Domini"

Posted: 10/18/2008 9:21:08 PM EDT

[#50]

If we're going to switch it should be YEAR MO DA (ie, 20081018) so that dating files on computers automatically lines up chronologically.

Why in a digital age we'd stack smallest to largest when it would run counter to natural computer filing systems wouldn't make much sense.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Mini-Rant: the American Method of abbreviating dates. (Page 2 of 3)

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