7 ms·

Guessing it’s from following the style of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Now_Foundation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Now_Foundation

38 2y ago
[flagged]
- kragen 2y ago
  some of us post hn comments containing analyses of source code from early versions of unix, results from tracing the execution of uxn 'left' and other text editors to estimate their power usage https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40842397 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40842397, overviews of the historical development of cpu architecture https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40983675 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40983675, simple explanations of the role that digital signal processing plays in modern mixed-signal systems https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40985558 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40985558, quantitative analyses of the economic and technological impact of the renewable energy transition https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40725765 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40725765 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40724305 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40724305, assembly-language programs to clarify the role of associative arrays in computing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40990055 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40990055, analyses of mostly forgotten programming languages that python evolved from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40992191 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40992191, examples of how to use the gnu units program for all kinds of things most people didn't know it could do https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36988917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36988917, comparative benchmarks of different compilers and interpreters https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40960819 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40960819, system call traces to elucidate subtle concurrency bugs in unix https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40955923 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40955923, close readings of federal court rulings placing them in historical context https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40950806 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40950806, gui libraries we wrote ourselves https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40942566 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40942566, simple workarounds for frustrating unix problems https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40911681 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40911681, appreciation for others https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40950084 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40950084, recipes for video streaming from the command line https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40911239 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40911239, admissions of error with reproducible scripts for clearly showing we were wrong https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40912051 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40912051, helpful tips for everyday command-line usage https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40910845 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40910845, thanks to others for correcting our errors https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40911035 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40911035, quantitative analyses of cutting-edge hardware https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40903708 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40903708, admissions of error in our analyses of chinese export-control regulations https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40885691 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40885691, simple explanations of cutting-edge computer security research https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40885329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40885329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40841095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40841095, simple explanations of cutting-edge software testing tools https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40879952 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40879952, and implementations in three lines of forth of things people think are impossible in forth https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40868981 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40868981 and some of us say things like 'thats idiotic because thats 7000 years away' these are two different kinds of discourse, and this website is only for one of them
  - spencerflem 2y ago
    Dude, they've got a point, your style is annoying and not even right in a "technically correct" sorta way. You don't write things that happened 5 AD as 00005 AD.
    - kragen 2y ago
      which of these two kinds of discourse are you engaging in right now if you're capable of the other one, i suggest you demonstrate that dude
      - simpaticoder 2y ago
        Why not 3 or even 10 leading zeroes? Why so pessimistic?
        dredmorbius 2y ago
        <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41002048 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41002048>
      - inglor_cz 2y ago
        Personally, I can take the 0abcd style of years without going crazy, but it definitely derails my reading flow a bit. I would compare it to writing personal names without capitals, like donald trump. But I also know that it is kragen commenting without looking at the header :) I suppose everyone has their own quirks.
        kragen 2y ago
        :)
  - akira2501 2y ago
    Why not 001982? When are leading zeros in front of numbers particularly useful? Even in fixed column formats they're almost always left blank.
- gruturo 2y ago
  That's also idiotic because we don't put a leading zero in front of 1, 2 or 3 digit years, and neither will future historians put one in front of 4-digit ones - it's just gratuitously annoying. Charlemagne was crowned in 800 AD, not in 0800 or 00800. Pompeii was destroyed by the Vesuvius in 79 AD, not 079 or 0079 or 00079. The battle of the Teutoburg Forest was in 9 AD, not 09, 009, 0009 or 00009. Also why stop at 5 digits while you're being ridiculous?
  - defrost 2y ago
    . . . and now you're engaging. Church of the Long Now wins again.
    - kragen 2y ago
      please take this kind of 'engagement' back to twitter where it belongs
      - defrost 2y ago
        You've replied to the wrong person I suspect.
        kragen 2y ago
        apologies, yes
        defrost 2y ago
        No drama, footguns are easy mistakes to make. I'm happy to expand for others; regardless of my feelings on the matter the Long Now use of a leading zero creates questions and engagement, thus spreading their message under the mantra of "there's no such thing as bad press" | "get the public talking". It's an Advertising 101 strategy and not at all idiotic save perhaps at the surface of first exposure.
      - greentxt 2y ago
- buzzy_hacker 2y ago
  I think Wikipedia has it wrong actually after reading more closely. It’s not a way to solve the year 10,000 problem, as in a date formatting issue akin to Y2K, as Wikipedia suggests. Instead it’s to get you thinking of the long term future. The Wikipedia article does say that is the goal of the Long Now Foundation, but not how the leading 0 is related.

38 2y ago

[flagged]

kragen 2y ago
some of us post hn comments containing analyses of source code from early versions of unix, results from tracing the execution of uxn 'left' and other text editors to estimate their power usage https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40842397 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40842397, overviews of the historical development of cpu architecture https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40983675 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40983675, simple explanations of the role that digital signal processing plays in modern mixed-signal systems https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40985558 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40985558, quantitative analyses of the economic and technological impact of the renewable energy transition https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40725765 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40725765 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40724305 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40724305, assembly-language programs to clarify the role of associative arrays in computing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40990055 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40990055, analyses of mostly forgotten programming languages that python evolved from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40992191 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40992191, examples of how to use the gnu units program for all kinds of things most people didn't know it could do https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36988917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36988917, comparative benchmarks of different compilers and interpreters https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40960819 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40960819, system call traces to elucidate subtle concurrency bugs in unix https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40955923 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40955923, close readings of federal court rulings placing them in historical context https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40950806 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40950806, gui libraries we wrote ourselves https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40942566 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40942566, simple workarounds for frustrating unix problems https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40911681 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40911681, appreciation for others https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40950084 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40950084, recipes for video streaming from the command line https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40911239 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40911239, admissions of error with reproducible scripts for clearly showing we were wrong https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40912051 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40912051, helpful tips for everyday command-line usage https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40910845 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40910845, thanks to others for correcting our errors https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40911035 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40911035, quantitative analyses of cutting-edge hardware https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40903708 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40903708, admissions of error in our analyses of chinese export-control regulations https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40885691 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40885691, simple explanations of cutting-edge computer security research https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40885329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40885329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40841095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40841095, simple explanations of cutting-edge software testing tools https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40879952 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40879952, and implementations in three lines of forth of things people think are impossible in forth https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40868981 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40868981 and some of us say things like 'thats idiotic because thats 7000 years away' these are two different kinds of discourse, and this website is only for one of them
- spencerflem 2y ago
  Dude, they've got a point, your style is annoying and not even right in a "technically correct" sorta way. You don't write things that happened 5 AD as 00005 AD.
  - kragen 2y ago
    which of these two kinds of discourse are you engaging in right now if you're capable of the other one, i suggest you demonstrate that dude
    - simpaticoder 2y ago
      Why not 3 or even 10 leading zeroes? Why so pessimistic?
      - dredmorbius 2y ago
        <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41002048 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41002048>
    - inglor_cz 2y ago
      Personally, I can take the 0abcd style of years without going crazy, but it definitely derails my reading flow a bit. I would compare it to writing personal names without capitals, like donald trump. But I also know that it is kragen commenting without looking at the header :) I suppose everyone has their own quirks.
      - kragen 2y ago
        :)
- akira2501 2y ago
  Why not 001982? When are leading zeros in front of numbers particularly useful? Even in fixed column formats they're almost always left blank.
gruturo 2y ago
That's also idiotic because we don't put a leading zero in front of 1, 2 or 3 digit years, and neither will future historians put one in front of 4-digit ones - it's just gratuitously annoying. Charlemagne was crowned in 800 AD, not in 0800 or 00800. Pompeii was destroyed by the Vesuvius in 79 AD, not 079 or 0079 or 00079. The battle of the Teutoburg Forest was in 9 AD, not 09, 009, 0009 or 00009. Also why stop at 5 digits while you're being ridiculous?
- defrost 2y ago
  . . . and now you're engaging. Church of the Long Now wins again.
  - kragen 2y ago
    please take this kind of 'engagement' back to twitter where it belongs
    - defrost 2y ago
      You've replied to the wrong person I suspect.
      - kragen 2y ago
        apologies, yes
        defrost 2y ago
        No drama, footguns are easy mistakes to make. I'm happy to expand for others; regardless of my feelings on the matter the Long Now use of a leading zero creates questions and engagement, thus spreading their message under the mantra of "there's no such thing as bad press" | "get the public talking". It's an Advertising 101 strategy and not at all idiotic save perhaps at the surface of first exposure.
    - greentxt 2y ago
buzzy_hacker 2y ago
I think Wikipedia has it wrong actually after reading more closely. It’s not a way to solve the year 10,000 problem, as in a date formatting issue akin to Y2K, as Wikipedia suggests. Instead it’s to get you thinking of the long term future. The Wikipedia article does say that is the goal of the Long Now Foundation, but not how the leading 0 is related.