Re: Text modes show military times. How do I change it to 12 hours

Bob Martin wrote:
in 533248 20111127 214201 Jean-David Beyer <jeandavid8@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
David Brown wrote:

countries. There are only a handful of old-fashioned countries that
still cling to the inconvenient and often ambiguous 12 hour system.

Actually, AM|PM time is not ambiguous. It is just that AM and PM are
Latin and mean before the meridian. It is dark when it is 12AM and 12PM
and it is light when it is 12M. But some people think 12AM is just
before lunch, and 12PM is in the middle of the night. This is not
ambiguous, just wrong. But it is so much of a problem that in the old
days, when railroad trains were dispatched by time, they solved it by
having no train leave a station at midnight. Thus, 12 O'Clock was
definitely lunch time, or thereabouts.

On the other hand, I think 12AM and 12 PM, which mark the very start of
a day and the very end of the same day, should be abolished and 24-hour
time should be universal, since English speaking people are too dumb to
learn the real meanings of AM and PM. Just the same as they do not know
what bimonthly means (every other month). Some people think it means
twice a month, but the name for that is semi-monthly. Since these also
have been abused so long, it will never be straightened out either.

How can a system which progresses through 11:30 PM, 12:30 AM, 1:30 AM
be anything but bonkers?

I so agree. Obviously the whole of trigonometry where angles go from say 350 degrees through 359 degrees and then back to +8 degress is completely mad.

In fact the whole CONCEPT of periodicity is evil and should be banned. Nothing should ever be allowed to come back to where its started or ever be repeated.

Or alternatively your are a jumped up wanker that doesn't know his prick from his Pythagoras. And hence have no idea how stupid your suggestion sounds to anyone with a modicum of intelligence.


The nice thing about philosophy, is that you can in principle define yourself to be completely right all the time and even make a logically consistent ontology based on this presumption.

Of course the rest of the world will regard you as a complete madman and idiot, but oddly, most people who have this affliction seem strangely untroubled by this.

So really there are three choices:

- actually be right and in a hated minority (nobody likes a smartass)

- think you are right and be in a hated minority (and wrong to boot)

- be wrong, but play along with the bullshit of the day. (political correctness: you all say it, so it must be true)

Of course the honours go to the first choice, but the problem is that to a Compleat Idiot, the first and second choices are indistinguishable.....


Why do you think we say 'six o clock' and not oh six hundred P ?'

Because 12 hours was a reasonable thing to divide a DAY into, and after dark you couldn't see the clock anyway.


At 12 was the MIDDLE of the day. Known as MIDDAY as opposed to MIDNIGHT, which was, unbelievably succinctly (to such primitive people as first invented clocks) known as MIDNIGHT.

And the period before MIDDAY was called strangely and unaccountably 'morning' and the period afterwards even more strangely was called 'after noon'!

How stupid confusing and primitive is that?
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Text modes show military times. How do I change it to 12 hours
    ... actually be right and in a hated minority ... a Compleat Idiot, the first and second choices are indistinguishable..... ... Why do you think we say 'six o clock' and not oh six hundred P ?' ... How stupid confusing and primitive is that? ...
    (comp.os.linux.setup)
  • Re: Text modes show military times. How do I change it to 12 hours
    ... On 11/28/2011 05:25 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote: ... actually be right and in a hated minority ... a Compleat Idiot, the first and second choices are indistinguishable..... ... Why do you think we say 'six o clock' and not oh six hundred P ?' ...
    (comp.os.linux.setup)
  • Re: Text modes show military times. How do I change it to 12 hours
    ... On 11/28/2011 06:40 PM, The Natural Philosopher wrote: ... actually be right and in a hated minority ... a Compleat Idiot, the first and second choices are ... Why do you think we say 'six o clock' and not oh six hundred P ?' ...
    (comp.os.linux.setup)
  • Re: New EPG and kids and more
    ... Surely the completely unambiguous 24 hour clock could have been a 'Settings' option? ... 12:00am results in ludicrous ambiguities and confusion. ... a.m. stands for "Ante meridiem" - Latin words, which translate as "Before midday". ... Such terms are almost as silly as describing American Budweiser as beer! ...
    (uk.tech.tv.sky)
  • Re: Keplers Equation
    ... Kepler and Copernicus would know midnight by a mechanical clock, ... the time by the position of the stars, but he can't know the position ... The fort commander orders the cannon fired at midday when the village clock ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)