4 ms·

the 1993 date seems like a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

by fouc 3y ago

willcipriano 3y ago
It links to: http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/S/September-that-never-ended.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/S/September-that-never-...
adw 3y ago
Another entry for "things which make one feel old" (it definitely is a reference to that, and it absolutely needs explaining, but...), especially because: a) I can't imagine more than a single-digit percentage of people on here were on Usenet, and b) this is _exactly_ the sort of place which will have a wildly disproportionate number of old Usenet denizens; most places that single-digit percentage would be more like 0.0x% at most. (Other candidates; Dreamwidth, I reckon, probably Tumblr, and anyone who still unironically uses mailing lists). In the earlyish 2000s, I gave a talk once to a bunch of more senior academics at the institution I was working at, the central thesis of which was "in about five years, you're gonna start getting undergraduates who have never known of a world where they couldn't cheat on their homework by cribbing Wikipedia". This was a true – arguably, even insightful – observation at the time, but in retrospect, it's a charmingly quaint view of the future compared to where we are with ChatGPT. Eternal September is the same kind of deal; it contemplated the future through the lens of the present and, well, it _sort_ of got there, but it kind of missed the full existential horror of "your grandmother on Facebook".
- throwaway22032 3y ago
  The hilarious thing is that even the hugely expanded post-Eternal September Usenet lot (hi!) are a vanishingly small percentage now :)
  - adw 3y ago
    Oh, yeah, absolutely; I’m post-Eternal September too!
thriftwy 3y ago
I wonder how much work it would be to change it to September[1] of 2007[1] I hope 1993 is not hardcoded. It would also be great to have a calendar where every year past 1993 contains just one day that is conveniently September 3rd[3]. 1993 should start normally but September 3rd should be the last day. 1. https://dzen.ru/a/YyMkZQzd1Ec2e4XC https://dzen.ru/a/YyMkZQzd1Ec2e4XC 2. https://memepedia.ru/vernite-moj-2007/ https://memepedia.ru/vernite-moj-2007/ 3. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Третье_сентября_(песня) https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Третье_сентября_(песня)
- jwilk 3y ago
  The epoch is configurable: $ sdate -e 2007-09 Thu Sep 5844 10:25:05 UTC 2007

the 1993 date seems like a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

by fouc 3y ago

the 1993 date seems like a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

willcipriano 3y ago

It links to: http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/S/September-that-never-ended.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/S/September-that-never-...

adw 3y ago

Another entry for "things which make one feel old" (it definitely is a reference to that, and it absolutely needs explaining, but...), especially because: a) I can't imagine more than a single-digit percentage of people on here were on Usenet, and b) this is _exactly_ the sort of place which will have a wildly disproportionate number of old Usenet denizens; most places that single-digit percentage would be more like 0.0x% at most. (Other candidates; Dreamwidth, I reckon, probably Tumblr, and anyone who still unironically uses mailing lists). In the earlyish 2000s, I gave a talk once to a bunch of more senior academics at the institution I was working at, the central thesis of which was "in about five years, you're gonna start getting undergraduates who have never known of a world where they couldn't cheat on their homework by cribbing Wikipedia". This was a true – arguably, even insightful – observation at the time, but in retrospect, it's a charmingly quaint view of the future compared to where we are with ChatGPT. Eternal September is the same kind of deal; it contemplated the future through the lens of the present and, well, it _sort_ of got there, but it kind of missed the full existential horror of "your grandmother on Facebook".

throwaway22032 3y ago
The hilarious thing is that even the hugely expanded post-Eternal September Usenet lot (hi!) are a vanishingly small percentage now :)
- adw 3y ago
  Oh, yeah, absolutely; I’m post-Eternal September too!

thriftwy 3y ago

I wonder how much work it would be to change it to September[1] of 2007[1] I hope 1993 is not hardcoded. It would also be great to have a calendar where every year past 1993 contains just one day that is conveniently September 3rd[3]. 1993 should start normally but September 3rd should be the last day. 1. https://dzen.ru/a/YyMkZQzd1Ec2e4XC https://dzen.ru/a/YyMkZQzd1Ec2e4XC 2. https://memepedia.ru/vernite-moj-2007/ https://memepedia.ru/vernite-moj-2007/ 3. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Третье_сентября_(песня) https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Третье_сентября_(песня)

jwilk 3y ago
The epoch is configurable: $ sdate -e 2007-09 Thu Sep 5844 10:25:05 UTC 2007