Shop OBEX P1 Docs P2 Docs Learn Events
Happy 12-12-12 day! — Parallax Forums

Happy 12-12-12 day!

Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
edited 2012-12-13 21:33 in General Discussion
Happy 12-12-12 day!

The last repetitive date ever. in my lifetime.

Thanks!

Jeff

Comments

  • BeanBean Posts: 8,129
    edited 2012-12-12 08:25
    Well not for about 88 years....
    Jan 1st 2101

    Bean
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2012-12-12 08:43
    Short term, numerologists will have to settle for 11/12/13 .

    BTW, the real celebration today is at 12:12! Git yer sparklers & champagne ready.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2012-12-12 08:44
    Except we stopped storing 2 digits dates prior to the millenium to avoid the dread Y2K problems.
    So it's 12-12-2012. So that's not very repetitive is it?

    Don't forget in Europe it's 12-12-2012 :)
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2012-12-12 08:47
    Not YY-MM-DD?
  • Dave HeinDave Hein Posts: 6,347
    edited 2012-12-12 09:00
    1212121212 happened over four years ago -- in linux time.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2012-12-12 12:29
    Heater. wrote: »
    Y2K problems.

    :)

    IMO, Biggest farce and computer money making scheme in computer history!!!!! I had a 286 system running Quiken that did not have any issues, but boy did I make a killing in 1999 doing Y2K scare updates!!!!
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2012-12-12 14:10
    Chris,

    No. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_and_time_notation_in_the_United_Kingdom
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    edited 2012-12-12 14:19
    Isn't today's date really just an arbitrary number, accurate going forward but what about the starting point? Google says the Earth is 4.54 billion years old, so shouldn't today be 12/12/4540000000 or something?
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    edited 2012-12-12 14:29
    Well, then it should really be referenced from when time started, just as the Kelvin temperature scale has zero where temperature starts (or ends, as it were). So, 12/12/13750000000 or thereabouts..?
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    edited 2012-12-12 14:40
    Tor wrote: »
    Well, then it should really be referenced from when time started, just as the Kelvin temperature scale has zero where temperature starts (or ends, as it were). So, 12/12/13750000000 or thereabouts..?

    Good point! Might as well base it on the solar system. Distant space aliens may try to reform it though.
  • Mark_TMark_T Posts: 1,981
    edited 2012-12-12 17:06
    Heater. wrote: »
    Except we stopped storing 2 digits dates prior to the millenium to avoid the dread Y2K problems.
    So it's 12-12-2012. So that's not very repetitive is it?

    Don't forget in Europe it's 12-12-2012 :)

    No, it is not!!! It's dd/mm/yy or dd/mm/yyyy (slash or solidus, _not_ hyphens)

    Perhaps you are confusing European dates with ISO dates (as used in databases and which sort lexicographically) which specifically use hyphens to
    avoid any confusion with other date formats: yyyy-mm-dd
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2012-12-12 17:48
    Whatever the format, dozens of reasons to crack open a beer and celebrate!

    Cheers!
    -Phil
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2012-12-12 20:11
    Whether its “12/12/4540000000”, “12/12/13750000000”, “12/12/2012”, or “12/12/12”, it's all A$s backwards. It should be y/m/d so next year it should be 13/12/12 for the short form and 2013/12/12 for the long form. It's how we count, do the math, and sort.

    Why keep the holdovers from the stone age....but that beer sounds like a good idea. Cheers!

    Kurt
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2012-12-13 00:14
    Mark_T,

    Good point re: the hyphens.

    I've been dealing with a lot of files with dates in the names "archive-2012-12-12.tgz" where not using a slash in the name is very helpful as is having the data in an order where directories can be sorted and come out the right way consistently.
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    edited 2012-12-13 02:05
    To accommodate the aliens maybe we shouldn't keep counting time in earthly units like the arbitrary time it takes for our planet to travel around the sun.. I guess the only universal time unit is Planck time, which IIRC is around 10 ^−43 seconds. So a year would be, eh, hm... a large number of megaplancks.. but by combining enough of those SI units we should have something not only universally acceptable, but Universally acceptable.

    -Tor
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2012-12-13 03:32
    Congratulations!!

    We appear to have survived the end of the world...unless the Mayans meant 12/21/2012 (or 21/12/2012)...or somebody forgot that Gregorian adjustment thing.

    Whatever it was, good job, citizens of Earth!!

    I think this calls for another Forth challenge! I'll post more details in a few million petaplanks.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2012-12-13 04:04
    I always thought the Planck units sounded like good old fashioned English measures. Hands, feet, rods, poles, perches, why not planks?

    But, jeez that's a quintillion quintillian Plancks per inch, give or take an order or magnitude.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2012-12-13 04:07
    The problem now is to get through 21/12:)
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2012-12-13 13:21
    Heater. wrote: »
    The problem now is to get through 21/12:)

    I just noticed that Pololu is having a 12/12/12 through the Mayan apocalypse sale. So buy your items before the world ends, but if the Mayans are right you might need expedited shipping.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2012-12-13 13:33
    Heater. wrote: »
    The problem now is to get through 21/12:)

    I believe RUSH had an album named 2112!!!!
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2012-12-13 13:36
    Except modern day Mayans don't believe in this end of the world nonsense. They just say it's the beginning of a new cycle.

    Anyway I was thinking, those Mayans all that time ago, were savvy enough to put the end of the world on the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. Which I think in any normal world is when we would celebrate what we now call Christmas. Not to mention being the correct day to start the new year.
    Not only that they put it on a Friday. I mean, who would want to have the end of time party on a Tuesday, for example?
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2012-12-13 13:43
    Wait a minute...Friday is dumb. Work all week trying to get to the weekend for a couple days to relax and BOOM - this week you come of the WORLD-end!! Seriously??? I'm gonna be upset if those Mayans screw up my weekend!!
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2012-12-13 19:18
    No, no. It's Friday, you sprint out of work and start partying as hard as possible prior to the BOOM part at the end of the night.
    Would you really be able to relax over the weekend if you knew the world was ending on Monday?
  • John BoardJohn Board Posts: 371
    edited 2012-12-13 21:33
    I remember when I found out about the 12/12/12, it was at 12:12PM, I was writing a library for the Ping, in XC, and I was just writing in the header, with the name of the author, and the date (and time), and I wrote in 12/12/12 12:12! So, I hope I got my ping library right, otherwise I'll have to chance my "last-modified" date :(
Sign In or Register to comment.