3 ms·
That is only yet another reason in literally infinite ones why the US needs to actually push metric units. We bleed our stupidity into the UK and Canada while t
by zanny 11y ago
That is only yet another reason in literally infinite ones why the US needs to actually push metric units. We bleed our stupidity into the UK and Canada while the rest of the world makes sense.
- btilly 11y agoMakes sense..until you talk about time. Time makes no sense.
- sandworm101 11y agoIf you want to terrify an american, ask them about switching to metric time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_time This comes up all the time for me as americans use a different date format. I've had contract negotiations grind to a halt because someone was doing math based on 06/05/15 rather than 05/06/15.
- web007 11y agoUse something like 12/24/48 (US) or 48/12/24 (UK) if you want to "force" compliance, then you'll at least have an easy sanity check for each field. The other benefit is you can check Y2038 compliance at the same time, but you should at least specify 4-digit years for whatever you're spec'ing, so you don't create the next Y2K.
- kstrauser 11y agoI write everything either ISO or spelled out. Your dates would be 2015-06-05 or "June 6, 2015". It's an easy quick that everyone seems to be comfortable with.
- mark-r 11y agoSwitch to ISO format. There's less confusion in 2015-05-06. Although the one time I tried to push for it, at a company with plants in both the US and Ireland, I couldn't quite get agreement and we settled on 2015-MAY-06.
- ksenzee 11y agoNo, the US is not exporting its stupidity to the UK in this case. There's a reason those units are called "imperial."
- to3m 11y agoThe US doesn't use Imperial units though! They use the US customary system (if that's quite the right term): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_units https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_units Though either way, you are quite right that the US has little influence on the UK in this respect.
- JackFr 11y ago> another reason in literally infinite ones There are perhaps about three good reasons to push metric units, and the vast majority of us don't find them compelling enough to care. It's truly a non-issue.
- cromulent 11y agoAs soon as I read your comment I thought about the Mars Climate Orbiter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter