10/10/10 — a Nice Day To Celebrate the Meaning of Life 296
st2000 writes "My wife noted that tomorrow's date is 10/10/10. This was probably some time after Illinois whomped Penn State's butt. I pondered that for a moment, noting that 101010 was a valid binary number. Then it dawned on me that 101010base2 was 42base10. Verifying that this truly was the answer given after typing 'meaning of life' into Wolfram's web site, I thought I was onto something." You may say he's a dreamer, but he's not the only one.
Just thought I would point out... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Just thought I would point out... (Score:5, Funny)
It's 10 years after the world was re-born, after the Y2K collapse of civilization; this is very significant.
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10/10/1010 would have been pretty good though.
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What happened then? [wikipedia.org]
Re:Just thought I would point out... (Score:4, Funny)
Imagine a cluster of those!
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Yes. [bu.edu]
Re:Just thought I would point out... (Score:5, Funny)
I heard they had to modify all the abacuses to avoid a wraparound.
Re:Just thought I would point out... (Score:5, Interesting)
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I thought most places used 2010/10/20. Isn't that some kind of ISO standard? I try to use it everywhere I can due to its easy sorting.
Just looked it up actually it's ISO 8601
YYYY-MM-DD or YYYYMMDD
PS: Why can't we all just switch to UTC and big-endian times with 24 hours in a day not 12am + 12pm? It would make maintaining computers so much easier and we wouldn't have to keep updating those timezone parts in various things. We could also finally kill off Daylight Saving Time.
Re:Just thought I would point out... (Score:5, Insightful)
We could also finally kill off Daylight Saving Time.
Yes--right after we finish killing off the Imperial System.
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I've always used that in logging output because it sorts nicely. However I believe in most of the non-US, western world dd/mm/yy is used to specify the date. No idea about the far east or anywhere else.
Anyway, for once we Brits and you Americans can agree it's 10/10/10
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In Lithuania it's yyyy mm dd or yyyy-mm-dd. Makes the most sense, slowest changing number is the first and fastest changing number is last, like in regular numbers: 100 -> 101 -> 102 ...
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Because the sun (you know, that glowing ball of light in the sky) does not care about maintaining computers easier. And the time is all about the sun. Also, if you need the time to be saved as yyyy-mm-dd to sort it correctly, then your implementation of date sucks because you save the date as a character string.
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An interesting piece of pedantry (Score:2)
World-renowned historian Jacques Barzun pointed out (and Wikipedia seems to agree) that a more accurate translation of "carpe diem" is in fact "pluck the day," as you might pluck ripened fruit from a tree. This changes the meaning from one of taking control of things to one of a more idyllic nature; that is, the day is yours to do with what you wish. The context of your comment leads me to believe that this is what you are advocating, and you may derive some satisfaction from the more nuanced translation.
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Re:Just thought I would point out... (Score:5, Funny)
you forgot your towel, didn't you?
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Re:Just thought I would point out... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not 10/10/10, it's 10/10/2010 which is not so terribly remarkable.
Killjoy! Do you walk into every party and bring people down???
12/12/1212 and all significant repedative dates have already passed centuries before you were born and as there are only 12 month's there's nothing with complete repetition..
Unless the calendar changes in some sort of civilization raising event, you've only got 10/10/2010 at 10:10:10, 11/11/2011 at 11:11:11, 12/12/2012 at 12:12:12 (both local and GMT) to go take some pics and tell your grandkids about.
It's just geeky cool and significant as a talking point for your kids and grandkids when they grow up. The calendar itself has arbitrary aspects, so why not have fun with it and why ridicule others for having some fun with it?
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...why ridicule others for having some fun with it?
Welcome to /., or more generally, the Internet.
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12/12/1212 and all significant repedative dates have already passed
You just need to wait a while for 11/11/11111.
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I can one-up you, 01/23/4567 is way cooler and less than half the wait away. neener, neener. pthbbbbbbxxxxx!!!!!!
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why not have fun with it and why ridicule others for having some fun with it?
Because it is in News instead of Idle? =)
Summary is wrong, as per usual (Score:4, Informative)
Oh, this isn't the 80's? (Score:2)
I remember when we did shortcut year dates; 1980 became the 80's. :-)
I'm sure you see the point, But if you think i'm incorrect ASCII anyone else
Re:Just thought I would point out... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just thought I would point out... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's 1286686800.
#include stdio.h
#include time.h
main() { struct tm t; t.tm_sec = 0; t.tm_min = 0; t.tm_hour = 0; t.tm_mon = 10 - 1; t.tm_mday = 10; t.tm_year = 2010 - 1900;
printf("%d\n", (int)mktime(&t));
}
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No need to compile anything, GNU date command does it:
$ date +%s -d '10/10/10 00:00 GMT'
1286668800
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No it isn't. In that scheme it's the range from 1286686800 inclusive to 1286773200 exclusive. Which is part of the reason that GPP used the date-only option of ISO 8601. (The full reason includes the reason for using ISO 8601).
On /. it should be written (Score:2, Funny)
10/.10/.10
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But (Score:4, Funny)
is it mmddyy or ddmmyy or yymmdd?
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Ym/Dy/Md, where the capital letters are the first digits.
It's an odd system, really. Hard to use, but you get used to it.
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Famous last words.
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Yes, you're on something (Score:5, Funny)
I say this extremely rarely for slashdot (Score:2, Insightful)
It's (Score:4, Insightful)
42 is "The Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything", FOR FUCKS SAKE.
GET. IT. RIGHT.
Re:It's (Score:5, Insightful)
The story so far:
In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.
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- Dan.
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D. Adams was onto something.
Life, Universe and Everything = 42
42 = 101010
10 10 10 = X X X
XXX = Porn!!!
Cheeky bastard!!
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The phrase 'meaning of life' appears twice in the first five Hitchhiker's Guide books. The first time, it appears in the following context:
Re:It's (Score:4, Informative)
So, please, shut your face. And don't bring up that shitty movie.
It has a redeeming quality. Zooey Deschanel. In the shower.
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AND in the mirror!
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So, please, shut your face. And don't bring up that shitty movie.
Well I liked it and honestly the only common theme through the HHTG books is stringing a few good jokes together with a story which DNA pretty much made up as he went along. If you think the movie was shitty then thats probably because the producers did it that way to fit in with the books.
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But only in base thirteen.
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It's 52 (Score:2)
Not "42." 52. As in 0o52. Don't any of you speak octal/i> anymore?
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Not "42." 52. As in 0o52. Don't any of you speak octal/i> anymore?
Or even html...
In hex it's 2A (Score:2, Interesting)
ping 10.10.201.0 (Score:5, Funny)
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Well that rules out one possible cosmic coincidence.
Why all that fuss? (Score:3, Informative)
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Except we aren't, it's 22[year]10[month]10[day] where the brackets are the respective kanji's.
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/. doesn't handle single-byte characters. Basic-Latin, 7 bits. Although escape codes do work for named entities, so if we remember to use them those of us who want to use words in some European languages can.
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Hah, yes. I always just use the gregorian date and so far noone has complained. But birth dates do seem to be always in the year of the emperor.
Stupid question: (Score:3, Insightful)
Enjoy it now (Score:2, Informative)
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Still got 11/12/13 and 12/13/14 to look forward to.
Richard Feynman on the meaning of life (Score:5, Interesting)
I can live with doubt, and uncertainty, and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers, and possible beliefs, and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything, and in many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here, and what the question might mean. I might think about a little, but if I can't figure it out, then I go to something else. But I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn't frighten me.
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The meaning of life is to start and to end. And pay taxes between.
42nd birthdays? (Score:2)
I wonder how many people turned 42 today?
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1 in 365.25 I suppose. I turned 45 two days ago (thats why I have started to refer to everbody else as "son" and "youngster"). I kept an eye out for special events when I was 42 but nothing came up.
Now the rest of you: get off my lawn!
Re:42nd birthdays? (Score:5, Informative)
1 in 365.25 I suppose.
Not exactly true. Statistically there are a greater number of births in the month of September, probably thanks to the end of year festivities 9 months earlier. Considering that pregnant women can't get pregnant again unless she loses the baby, and the duration of term is the same whether conceived in Jan or Nov, this necessarily decreases the number of women "available" to give birth any other time of year. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to confirm what OB/GYN's and midwives have known for a long time...
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Right, we forgot to make that adjustment.
Do you think we should also adjust for the fact that not all people having a birthday today are turning 42?
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OB/GYNs and midwives have seen vaginas IRL. How do you expect Slashdot readers to confirm anything they know?
Powers of 10 Day Media (Score:3, Informative)
Pardon my blog-whoring, but I've posted a short history of powers of 10 media [ideonexus.com], which goes:
Just another way to celebrate an exponentially awesome day. : )
Wait (Score:2)
Shouldn't we wait and celebrate on January 1, '00? That would be 11/01/00, or 42 in base thirteen! :P
(Too bad we just missed it this century.)
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Eh, January 11 of course - or maybe November 1, depending on preference.
Birthday! (Score:2)
10/10/10 is my birthday, I was born in 1955, so I'm 55 today.
It's sort of cool except that it's also true for David Lee Roth today.
I had the ND license plate "101010" for 10 years.. (Score:2)
And not a single person was able to "get it".
Oh well, I guess North Dakotans are not big fans of Douglas Adams.
-Todd
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"...Get it? It's 42base2. It's funny."
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10/10/10 is not that special... (Score:3, Insightful)
* Once every day at 10 hours, 10 minutes and 10 seconds. But okay, that moment only lasts a second.
* On the 10th day of every month at 10 hours and 10 minutes, lasting sixty seconds.
* On the 10th hour of the 10th day of October every year, lasting one hour.
Today's date is only special because the 10/10/10-moment lasts an entire 24 hours, which is way more time than most people will care to dwell upon in its specialness. True, it only occurs once a century, but just remember that it can't hold a candle to October of the year 1010, which lasted an entire month and won't be seen again for another 9 millenia.
There are, of course, plenty more 10/10/10-moments for nerds to look forward to in the far, far future that will last a lot longer than that (a year, a century, a millennium...), but then we would have to assume that the creatures of this planet will still be hanging on to the Gregorian calendar after all that time, which is perhaps doubtful.
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It's not the year 10. It's the year 2010. Surely we've learnt to stop using two digits for our years?
Nope... we just used a little hack. for the case where we store MM/DD/YY; in the database;
if YY < 90 then YYYY = 2000 + YY else YYYY = 1900 + YY;
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Clearly we haven't. Now stop calling me Shirley!
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Only when you stop calling me Clearly!
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Surely we've learnt to stop using two digits for our years?
Clearly we haven't. Now stop calling me Shirley!
Roger Roger.
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Roger Roger.
Oveur and Dunn.
Re:Wrong date (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not the year 10. It's the year 2010. Surely we've learnt to stop using two digits for our years?
Bah. Most industries don't even have to think about two digit year rollover for another 50 years at least, and 00 is 10 years behind us now so I think it's safe to start moving back to two digit year storage again.
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More like 40 years. Plenty cheated by saying 50-99 = 1950-1999, 00-49 = 2000-2049. Of course, before that we'll have the *nix problem of 2038 too. Fortunately it's not going to be accompanies by the y2k hysterics. Just some computer thing that needs fixing.
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hmmph, i thought the 2038 was just 32bit thing, integer overflow, and does not affect 64bit systems?
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But I don't have 2010 fingers!
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And I can only count to 21. Well, 20 in public.
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Stop counting in unary. And buy slip-on shoes for an extra two bits.
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Re:Wow! (Score:4, Funny)
messy looking calendar you got there.
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I am impressed by his aim.
pfft (Score:4, Informative)
worse. judeo-christina centric..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar#Currently_used_calendars [wikipedia.org]
Currently used calendars
Calendars in widespread use today include the Gregorian calendar, which is the de facto international standard, and is used almost everywhere in the world for civil purposes, including in the People's Republic of China and India (along with the Indian national calendar). Due to the Gregorian calendar's obvious connotations of Western Christianity, non-Christians and even some Christians sometimes justify its use by replacing the traditional era notations "AD" and "BC" ("Anno Domini" and "Before Christ") with "CE" and "BCE" ("Common Era" and "Before Common Era"). The Hindu calendars are some of the most ancient calendars of the world. Eastern Christians of eastern Europe and western Asia used for a long time the Julian Calendar, that of the old Orthodox church, in countries like Russia. For over 1500 years, Westerners used the Julian Calendar also.
While the Gregorian calendar is widely used in Israel's business and day-to-day affairs, the Hebrew calendar, used by Jews worldwide for religious and cultural affairs, also influences civil matters in Israel (such as national holidays) and can be used there for business dealings (such as for the dating of checks).
The Iranian (Persian) calendar is used in Iran and Afghanistan. The Islamic calendar is used by most non-Iranian Muslims worldwide. The Chinese, Hebrew, Hindu, and Julian calendars are widely used for religious and/or social purposes. The Ethiopian calendar or Ethiopic calendar is the principal calendar used in Ethiopia and Eritrea. In Thailand, where the Thai solar calendar is used, the months and days have adopted the western standard, although the years are still based on the traditional Buddhist calendar. Bahá'ís worldwide use the Bahá'í calendar.
Even where there is a commonly used calendar such as the Gregorian calendar, alternate calendars may also be used, such as a fiscal calendar or the astronomical year numbering system[6].
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Wrong article?
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42base13 = 54, the number of cards in a deck with 2 jokers.
It also happens to be what you get when you multiply six by nine...
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I read this as 1 contractor so far... and though to myself "doh, no wonder labour hasn't started".
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I read that as "we were supposed to start labour but the 'u' got contracted out so we're waiting for the other letters so we can start labor instead".
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Well, technically it's just the release candidate, but I'm installing it. Better now than when everyone else is doing it and the download slows to a crawl.