1200hrs.
© 2013 Jan Zulawski <fdd@altair.pw>

On Mon, 31 Dec 2012, around 1900 hours, I decided I want to upload two new versions of existing files and two new files (some restructuring split), when I was unexpectedly greeted w/ a sparkling "deadline expired" prompt. Confusion settled in instantly, as I naturally began to question my remembering capabilities.

Wrong was I not, as I immediately understood what we're dealing w/ here: the timeless classical confusion at noon and midnight, the 12-hour time system generates.

Point is, it's not clear at all what "12:00 AM" and "12:00 PM" in fact really mean: they both could refer to as "noon" or "midnight" [i].

To spike up this rant even further, I might righteously add that there is not clear whether 12:00 PM denotes the point in time corresponding to the end of the current day, or the very beginning of the day before that.

I must say it out loud, this is the fact that generated so much confusion in our situation. The deadline should have been set as "01/01/2013 12:00 AM", meaning that uploading is allowed right off until the Times Square Ball reaches the ground.

Some good practice alternatives to follow in order to avoid future worldwide disasters would be:

a. replacing "midnight" w/ "11:59 p.m." to explicitly denote the end of a day, and w/ "12:01 a.m." for the start of a day;

b. use the 24-hour clock;

c. use the military time (which I prefer and recommend).

After all, this shouldnt surprise anyone having the slightest idea of how much fear and loathing the use of 0 (zero) can inject into any subject that deals w/ notions such as "starting", "ending", or "infinitely evolving process".

Really, no person is to blame for the terrifying ordeals this "Zero Situation" (as I oftern love to call it) spanned over the ages, as it goes way back at the dawn of philosophical currents, into the bowels of the history of mathematics.


[i] http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/times.cfm

-- Jan 01, 2013. ⌘

tonight
black celebration
tonight