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by Grimburger 1479 days ago
Unix time is the real universal date format surely? It underpins basically everything in datetime database entries.

The problem is that most people can't read that along with the French somehow never being able to convince the world to adopt decimal time.
4 comments
deathanatos 1479 days ago
> Unix time is the real universal date format surely?

Heh… It can't represent UTC (leap seconds). Implementation weirdness like not being able to represent dates outside the 32-bit second counter range due to using a 32-bit second counter. The occasional need to store the TZ the timestamp is relevant in/to.

> It underpins basically everything in datetime database entries.

It does do that.

> The problem is that most people can't read that

This is why I prefer RFC 3339 or ISO, in that order.

> along with the French somehow never being able to convince the world to adopt decimal time.

Somehow. :)

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shagie 1479 days ago
As much as it is maligned, base 60 is rather convenient. It's easy to take 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 and 1/6th of that number. Base 12 has this property too (though lacks the easy 1/5th).
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m463 1478 days ago
> Unix time is the real universal date format surely?

maybe in space, but 2038 will have an interesting time warp.

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extropy 1478 days ago
Only for the ones trying to write it down as 32 bit signed int.

Nothing wrong with the format itself.

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lovemenot 1479 days ago
Why make a good point and follow it with a bad joke which: both has a class of victim and does not work as a joke?

Nobody has ever heard of "the French" undertaking such a project. And if it had ever happened, it would most surely have been a particular Academy or the like. Not the 65M people under your careless swipe.

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deathanatos 1479 days ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_time#France
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misnome 1479 days ago
Along with most of the metric system, which they did somehow manage to persuade the rest of the world to use.
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Grimburger 1479 days ago
I'm actually one of those weird folks who likes decimal time and maybe one day we'll get there given that every other metric system was adopted by engineers worldwide except for time.

Wasn't meant as some slight against the French, completely the opposite hey, honestly think they had the right idea, the rest of the world got it wrong...and... that's very much a minority opinion these days. Some things are just ingrained into everyone I guess.

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pbronez 1478 days ago
French Revolution came up with some wild shit and some truly excellent ideas. That’s a season of change for ya… high variance.
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