Happy 'Even Day' - the First in 1112 Years 365
schmofo writes "Today is the first day since Dec. 28, 888 (12-28-888) to have only even digits in its numerical format (02-02-2000). This is quite an event, and complements the last odd day for as long, which occurred back in November." It's also Groundhog day; take a look at Google's logo o' the day. Cute! Update: There is an error above as submitted, which I should have caught: should have been 08/28/888, 12/28/888.
Apocalypse Part II (Score:1)
I have to go now... good thing I still have a few years worth of canned goods. "Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most." -- Thucydides
News You'll Never See on /. (Score:4)
Apologies, Corrections
Posted by CmdrTaco [cmdrtaco.net] on 3:10 PM February 2nd, 2000
from the we-were-wrong dept.
We hereby officially apologize for the past mistakes we've made while reporting the news, flagrant errors such as Microsoft being run by space aliens, the RIAA's involvement in JFK's assassinations, and anything posted by Robin. We will take special care in the future to prevent this from happening, as we know that most people on Slashdot cannot tell the difference between facts, opinions, lies, and FUD.
( Read More... )
Re:Numerology and the One True Date Format (Score:1)
Re:Just more Slashdot biases (Score:2)
Birthday (Score:2)
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Don Rude - AKA - RudeDude
$today (Score:1)
print ($today / 2);
and got 0 as a result - so $today must be an even number...
Re:Not long to go until the billionth second! (Score:1)
Re:Groundhog Day (Score:2)
(You could have also answered "A really wacky movie starring Bill Murray" for credit as well :D )
The first where all the numbers are even... (Score:1)
BTW, posted using Mozilla M13 - damn I'm impressed with this thing
Re:The first where all the numbers are even... (Score:1)
Happy?
Trivia (Score:2)
Re:We can always look forward to the next one (Score:2)
Of course, it's all completely irrelevant if you don't go by the Gregorian calendar.
Just more Slashdot biases (Score:4)
There's the Muslim calendar. There's the Jewish calendar. There's the Greek Orthodox calendar. Some guy came up with a calendar where every month got 30 days, except December which got 35. Is it Happy Even Day in these cultures? Oh, no, and they're left out of the fun because of it. Personally, I use the Personal calendar, where the date is 154/22 (the 154th day of my 22nd year). Give it a few more months and I'll be celebrating Happy Even Day, but will Slashdot recognize that?! Oh, no. Because Slashdot's calendar is the only calendar.
I want news, not this editorial garbage. If Slashdot's truly news for nerds, how come we're not celebrating Happy Even Day on the moment when the number of seconds since the epoch has all even digits, huh?
Sheesh.
NOTE: This post not meant for the humor (or humour) impaired.
Fun with dates. (Score:2)
For those who don't "GroundHog Day" was also a movie.
On a more serious note dose anyone want to recalibrate the calendar ? After all it seams to be running 7 years behind of it's proper time and Christ was apparently born in 7BC. This is an unacceptable situation since it would mean we celebrated the 3nd millennium at the wrong time last year and will have an equally incorrect celebration this year.
I say that in 2002 we reset the calendar to 2000 so we can do the millennium thing properly then we recalibrate it to the actual date in the following year ( 2010 ). Of course the calendar finally working properly should also be cause for celebration on a scale unheard of before.
somewhere in there we will restart the count from 0 2000 years in the past so all those who called january, 1 2000 the dawn of a new millennium would become correct.
So that would make the next all odd number date (Score:1)
Re:*1*2/28/888??? (Score:2)
(Not that I'm bitter, of course.)
Regards, Ralph.
Re:groundhog day? (Score:1)
Ground Hog is also known as Pork Sausage. Today is the day old time Americans slaughtered the last winter pig and made their last batch of sausage before spring. So all Americans clebrate by having a feast of pork sausages and other kinds of pork. More sausage is consumed on Ground Hog day than on any other single day of the year.
Ground Hog Day (Score:1)
Not all even, just all not odd (Score:1)
Although, given the general %02d nature of displaying months, there could be a suggestion that an all-even month number is impossible
Re:Two months more! (Score:1)
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Re:*1*2/28/888??? (Score:1)
So what's the next hype? The countdown until Sun Sep 9 03:46:39 2001 when we'll hit 999999999 with time_t? Or want to wait a second for the big billion?
Re:What about *0* (Score:1)
A number is even if its LSB is zero...
Re:*1*2/28/888??? (Score:2)
"Today is November 19, 1999. The numerical format for today is 11-19-1999. All of the digits are odd. The next Odd day will be 1-1-3111 - which is well over a thousand years away, which we will never see. Days such as 4-13-89 have both even and odd digits, thus, it is neither odd nor even. The next even day will be 2-2-2000 - the first one since 8-28-888. So, now you have a reason to celebrate this Friday as it'll be your last odd day on Earth!!!!!!"
Lord of the Rings Movie Trilogy [bloomnet.com]
the only good date is: (Score:1)
Groundhog Day (Score:2)
Just what the heck is Groundhog Day?
(I really do want to know; even my Canadian wife doesn't have an answer)
Neat coincidence (birthdays on 11/19 and 2/2) (Score:1)
heh,
--sam
Re:Groundhog Day (Score:2)
Cheers.
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Mr. Punxsutawney Phil (Score:2)
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Re:So that would make the next all odd number date (Score:1)
I guess it would then be : 9/11/3111
What's wrong with 1/1/3111 ?
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Re:Groundhog Day (Score:1)
One of the best things I heard this morning, was a fairly large group of college students chanting "Feed Phil Beer!", "Feed Phil Beer!".
Don't get me wrong, it's one of the oddest things I've ever seen, but it is quite unique.
Re:FREE SLASHDOT MUG !!!!!!! (Score:1)
Sadly, some people are thinking PRIME numbers, which you can argue that 0 and 1 are, aren't, or N/A...but they are even or odd, respectively. And, unlike an extreme case above claimed, they are numbers. Sheesh. What some people will claim.
Hehehe. Do I get the mug?
-David T. C.
Re:Zero is not even (Score:1)
-David T. C.
Re:groundhog day? (Score:1)
There is a tradition here (mostly kept alive by people in some little town in PA that get's lots of tourists in today to watch phil the groundhog) that if the groundhog comes of of his hole today and can see his shadow summer is just around the corner, but if he can't we're going to have more winter weather.
I don't think Phil actually gets to come out of the hole of his own accord, I think he gets yanked out on schedule.
Re: Just more Slashdot biases (Score:1)
For example Russia, whose orthodox church still uses the Julian Calendar, uses for public life the Gregorian Calendar.
Jo
Re:Zero isn't an even number. (Score:1)
If I can't have "none" of something, I can't have a negative number of them either. If this is the reason that "0" is not a number, than -1 is not a number, either.
Re:FOUR Months - 2 days more! (Score:1)
They put an odd-looking "3" in it.
Re:Meaning? (Score:2)
Re:We can always look forward to the next one (Score:2)
And if you think even harder, you'll see that it was also hard to have even days in the 18th century. And the 17th, 16th... and so on. The last one was in the 9th century.
PS: It was also difficult to have them in the 20th century.
Re:Not long to go until the billionth second! (Score:2)
% clock format 1000000000
Sat Sep 08 21:46:40 EDT 2001
You're off by a few seconds. I'm guessing it took you 25 seconds to enter that into bc...
This year is replete with that odd occurrence (Score:1)
02/04/2000
02/06/2000
02/08/2000
02/20/2000
and so on.
We must be living in a very special year to have all these dates which do not have any odd digits in them. Is it possible? Could all the experts be wrong, and mathematics twisted beyond recognition?? IS THIS REALLY THE START OF A NEW MILLENIUM??? instead of 2001?
Makes ya wonder, don't it?
ciao,
Miscalculation, it was another day: (Score:1)
have a 1 in they numeric representation).
The combination of even numbers will be very common from now on (just as the combination of odd numbers used to be between 1000 and 1999).
So what's the fuss all about?
Marco.
Even Day? (Score:1)
Not long to go until the billionth second! (Score:1)
Re:Not long to go until the billionth second! (Score:1)
Re:Not long to go until the billionth second! (Score:1)
Current 'time' in secs since 1 Jan 1970:
rleyton[1042] date '+%s'
949514155
Crank up good 'ol bc, work out how many seconds until the billionth one...
rleyton[1043] bc
bc 1.05
Copyright 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
For details type `warranty'.
1000000000-949514155
50485845
Then back to good 'ol date, and ask it to do the hard work:
rleyton[1044] date --date '50485845 seconds'
Sat Sep 8 21:47:05 EDT 2001
(Redhat Linux 2.0.36 incase you're curious).
Is This Really "Stuff That Matters"? (Score:1)
Re:Is This Really "Stuff That Matters"? Not again! (Score:2)
I appreciate the reference and did read it completely. In fact, I recollected having read it before.
I asked a question seriously and probably should have made that clear. I was curious why folks would think so. One post was helpful. The rest figured I was complaining. Oh, well...
I had no problem with the "News For Nerds" attribute for this article. I understand number and word play. I just think this particular item doesn't matter a whole lot in the scheme of things.
I also think this communication attempt was not worth the effort (although I accept the blame for not explaining the question); however, I do thank you for your considered response.
Re:Not all even, just all not odd (Score:1)
-4: even
-3: odd
-2: even
-1: odd
0: ???
1: odd
2: even
3: odd
4: even
The proper answer is, by inspection, that zero is even. Or, to prove it mathematically, an even number is any number n such that n=2k for some integer k. Since, 0=2*0, it meets this definition, and is thus even.
Tue May 9 06:13:20 1995 was last! (Score:1)
Tue May 9 06:13:20 1995 (800000000)
was the last, and most recent, all even digit day. The last all odd day was:
Sun Jul 4 17:58:31 1999 (931111111)
The next ones are:
Wed May 18 03:33:20 2033 (2000000000 even)
Mon Feb 21 05:31:51 2000 (951111111 odd)
Praise to the epoch!
Wrongo (Score:1)
the limit of 5/x as X approaches infinity is zero.
You cannot divide a number by a concept. You'll see it done, but this is just shorthand for other ideas. It's not what is actually happening.
And, zero is a number, by definition.
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Re:Other date numerology (Score:1)
Re:Is This Really "Stuff That Matters"? (Score:1)
Re:*1*2/28/888??? (Score:1)
Likewise, our last Gregorian even day would have occured on the Julian date of 9-13-888, 16 days after their last even day. Which is also odd, but not an odd day. As even they would not have an odd day until well into the next millenium.
Its like opening Christmas presents early. Thanks Pope Gregory.
Re:Zero isn't an even number. (Score:1)
Re:*1*2/28/888??? (Score:1)
I think we are talking about even digits, and the story is screwed.
Re:groundhog day? (Score:1)
What I never understood is how six more weeks of winter is worse than what we normally get...
Re:Zero is not even (Score:1)
Which, obviously, is completely absurd. Since zero is obviously neither odd nor even, buildings with addresses ending in zero should always be in the middle of the street.
Re:What about *0* (Score:1)
Re:Zero isn't an even number. (Score:2)
Re:Zero is not even (Score:2)
*1*2/28/888??? (Score:4)
Re:*1*2/28/888??? (Score:2)
Re:*1*2/28/888??? (Score:2)
True enough. The point of the odd day is that it would be the last for a long time, not the first. Dontcha hate it when your ass shows like that?
Re:Zero isn't an even number. (Score:4)
2) 0 is an even number: the definition of "even numbers" is the set E subset of Z {u in Z | u = 0 mod 2}. Is 0 Even? YES! 0%2=0!
Re:Zero is not even (Score:2)
Re:groundhog day? (Score:2)
And Groundhog Day is an old superstition of ours that tries to tell how much longer Winter will last, based on whether or not a small mammal is frightened of his own shadow.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Re:So that would make the next all odd number date (Score:2)
Odd Interval Since the Last Even Day! (Score:2)
Re:*1*2/28/888??? (Score:3)
>12 is an even number
Then the last even date would be 12/30/1998. What did they teach you in second grade?
Re:*1*2/28/888??? (Score:2)
That means that somewhere around September 20, 2001, (have to look up the exact time on my birth certificate and figure in time zones and daylight savings time) I'll have been around for one billion seconds. Time for a party!
Re:Meaning? (Score:2)
I don't know that it has any "real" significance, other than an interesting quick of our numbering system. But if the digits of numbers describing natural phenomena obey Benford's law [newscientist.com], who knows what sort of wacky stuff number-theory geeks could find in dates?
Re:Zero isn't an even number. (Score:2)
2: What debate? 0 is defined to be a number, unless you want to argue that being a member of the reals somehow doesn't qualify it more number status. Infinity is generally not, though IIRC there are exceptions, contexts where the number system is extended to include infinities.
You don't have to write your "proof" here, but surely if this is one of the "greatest debates in math" you can point us to a page with more info.
Re:groundhog day? (Score:2)
The other replies to this explain the legend of the groundhog, but I wanted to point out why it's today. February 2nd is the cross-quarter day, midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It's celebrated by many pagans as Imbolg or Candlemas [paganet.org].
Re:Meaning? (Score:2)
In this 400-year cycle, the 13th of any given month is most likely to fall on a Friday. Feeling unlucky?
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Re:We can always look forward to the next one (Score:2)
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Re:IMHO WRONG! (Score:2)
BTW, for all you pedants out there, I know that second 1073741824 (2^30) will be more important than second 1000000000, so there's no need to start an argument about what a gigasecond is.
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Re:Other dates of paramount significance: (Score:3)
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12/12 12:12:12 (Score:2)
The little rodent's day (Score:2)
Hundreds of drunk or semi-sober people standing in sub-zero temps on a hill next to Gobbler's Knob (cackle,cackle) while the dear rodent,'Phil', gets yanked out from this stump, and is shown to the world like Simba from the pridelands.
Next, when 'Phil' is sufficiently scared out of his wits, two guys in top hats hold up 'Phil' to their ears and unfurl a scroll. The answer is given, and everyone boos or cheers based on the result.
Afterwards, some people leave and other stick around to have their picture taken with the now terrified 'Phil'. Local TV affiliates are there, choppers and planes fly overhead to get a view, and enough local cops are on the scene to comprise a policeman's ball. Cops, you say? Yes, Cops to wrangle the exodus of people from the afore mentioned freezing hill. Not to mention to help clean up the field that has been strewn with garbage, beer cans, beer bottles, empty 40's, and 2 liters filled with (you guessed it) beer. Apparently the majority of masses camp there the previous night and drink heavily.
It's all part of this strange German tradition that (while being fun) strangely deviates from the famous Bill Murry movie. No deja vu was experienced or mentioned by the staggering attendees, nor any wise homespun insights on life aside from remembering never to travel at 3:00AM to a freezing hill for seeing a traditional rodent on display unless you REALLY want to.
So enjoy today in your nice warm office, cube, house or where ever else you read Slashdot and thank the deity of your choice that you are not 'Phil'
Re:*1*2/28/888??? (Score:2)
Um, since the Arabs used it.
You see, since "0" sits either between a "9" and a "1", or a "-1" and a "1" (or, technically, a "-9" and -1"), it is even because "1" and "9" are both odd. See, let's go the sequence of whole nubmers:
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
Now, lets move all the odd numbers up
_1 3 5 7 9
0 2 4 6 8
(ignore the "_"; I need it to push that row over a bit)
As you can see, be using the "even second number, from 1, is odd" rule, the "0" is definitely even.
Continuing on:
Odd____1___3___5___7___9__11__13
Even_0___2___4___6___8__10__12
Looking at the final digits at the last 6 numbers, we see again that "0" is even.
YAY Google (Score:3)
I say YAY to Google for keeping a little humanity and fun on the internet. It's not a big deal, but it's nice to see.
Numerology and the One True Date Format (Score:2)
When you use this format, placing the most significant digits first (2000-02-02, see Jargon File 4.2.0: big-endian [tuxedo.org]), it is painfully obvious that there is going to be a 2 in the high-order digit for the rest of our expected lifespan.
Re:Numerology and the One True Date Format (Score:2)
By humans, perhaps (English speaking ones certainly). However, unless you hard code the English month names, parsing this is going to fail for non-English locales. Let's not introduce an internationalization problem just to solve a date problem.
Big Willie Style (Score:2)
It was funny to read their site. Apparently their groundhog festival is "the" festival of all festivals on February second. It also made me laugh to note that the town had Trademarked the name "Wiarton Willie".
*All mentions of "Wiarton Willie" used entirely without permission.
Big Willie Style (Score:3)
It was funny to read their site. Apparently their groundhog festival is "the" festival of all festivals on February second. It also made me laugh to note that the Town had Trademarked the name "Wiarton Willie".
*All mentions of "Wiarton Willie" used entirely without permission
Unix time (Score:2)
949509356
And the next even time should be:
1000000000
We will have to wait until:
time_t p = 1000000000;
printf("%s\n",ctime(&p));
Sun Sep 9 03:46:40 2001
Re:Unix time (Score:2)
2000000000!
Which is:
Wed May 18 05:33:20 2033
Re:Zero isn't an even number. (Score:2)
It's a more general Algebraic term, not just in rings, also groups, fields, etc.
Given the normal integers with our normal operation of addition zero is the additive identity. i.e. the number you can add to anything to get itself. As a side note in this situation with normal multiplication 1 is the multiplicative identity.
P.S. 0 is both even and a number. What idiot moderated the above statements to the contrary up. Here's a hot tip. If you don't KNOW, please don't moderate the comments.
---CONFLICT!!---
Wednesday ?? (Score:2)
Re:Just more Slashdot biases (Score:3)
You mean to tell me that you're not?
Weird...
sorta OT -- Google's logo (Score:3)
I don't think so... (Score:3)
An Integer of the form N=2n, where n is an Integer. The even numbers are therefore ..., -4, -2, 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, ...
If this is wrong, can you explain to me why 0 isn't even?
Re:*1*2/28/888??? (Score:4)
No, you have it in reverse order (Score:2)
Never knock on Death's door:
That's odd. . . (Score:3)
Even if the day has to be shared with Phil the evenkeeled rodent,
Even if the 2nd month is an uneven leap year month and is evenly spaced every four years,
Even if the year will eventually end with the dawn of an even millennium,
Even though this is Slashdot and this post has an even number of lines, and even number of words and an even number of letters, it's still Wednesday.
Isn't that odd?
Never knock on Death's door:
Re:Two months more! (Score:3)
Why? So you can get your long distance for less?
Stallman has... (Score:3)
Sad really.
Re:Zero isn't an even number. (Score:2)
Why can't your computer can't figure out what x/0 is? Because 0 is not actually a nuber. 0 can be mathmatically defined by any number divided by infinity (which is another concept). 5/infinity is 0, so is 1,000,000/infinity. Now bear with me here, HTML sucks for this.
A true number can be divided by itself and will equal 1. (5/5 = 1 , 10/10 = 1 , etc.) Now, if that was true for 0, then 0/0 = 1. But since I just said that 5/infinity is 0 and 1,000,000/infinity is 0, then:
(5/infinity)/(1,000,000/infinity) = 1
Assuming that infinity is a constant for this, then we would get that 5/1,000,000 = 1. Not quite right. That's why 0 is not a number. QED.
kwsNI
Re:Zero isn't an even number. (Score:2)
FREE SLASHDOT MUG !!!!!!! (Score:2)
I'm dissapointed, so I am giving a slashdot mug [thinkgeek.com] to the first person to post a reply to this post, explaining in which circumstances the dates 12/14/1774 and 6/22/1462 are all-even-digit numbers. The year in the original post (1642) is wrong.
I'm serious!
Conditions:
1 - The timestamp will be the criterium.
2 - The answer is posted today.
3 - AC's will not be accepted
4 - I will talk to the winner through his e-mail, as shown in the discussion page, spam-proofing is ok.
5 - Think Geek must be able to ship the mug to the location.
6 - Most important: This message is not moderated down. (And, no, I do not have another account with moderation points)