[Closed] Simple things that passed you by for years.

They win this round.

Except they don't.

US format is MM/DD/YYYY. The one that makes sense (YYYY/MM/DD) is ISO.

Brant had an Uncle John. It's a cross bike...

Theres a wake and wardrobe too

It only really dawned on me recently that imperial measurements are all about dividing things up physically - in the way that a shopkeeper would have a block of something and cut it up into portions. Doing that in metric makes the numbers go all ugly.

It only really dawned on me recently that imperial measurements are all about dividing things up physically - in the way that a shopkeeper would have a block of something and cut it up into portions. Doing that in metric makes the numbers go all ugly.

Also alot of them are in base 12 which divides by 2,3,4 and 6.

Where as 10 only divides by 2 and 5.

This may make them easier to work with when doing mental arithmetic.

gonefishin - Member
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound

Yes.

The falling tree creates vibrations in the air, which causes our inner-ear gubbins to vibrate, which in turn, the human / animal brain [i]interprets[/i] as 'sound'.

No one around, no ear, no brain = no sound.

That the alphabet song is the same as 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star', which is actually Mozart's 'Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman.'

Doing that in metric makes the numbers go all ugly.

Because we picked the wrong base.

Base 12 would be much better. Then you can divide in halves, quarters, thrids etc without any bother at all. Too late now though. We've already learnt our times table.

Except the answer is no. Assuming 'no one is around to hear' means no living beings, so no fluffy bunnies or owt, either.

The falling tree creates vibrations in the air, which causes our inner-ear gubbins to vibrate, which in turn, the human / animal brain interprets as 'sound'.

No one around, no ear, no brain = no sound.

That's just twisiting the definition of the word sound. E.g. does an ultrasonic sanner make a sound, yes. Can we hear it, no. Does this make a difference, No. How about those high frequency devices that they proposed to deter young people gathering in groups. If it's but there are no young people to hear it is it making a sound, yes.

It's not twisting the definition of the word, it's an interesting philosophical question.

US format is MM/DD/YYYY. The one that makes sense (YYYY/MM/DD) is ISO.

Really? A lot of the American documents I have seen use YYYY/MM/DD. Maybe military stuff though.

What is ISO and who uses it?

When the earth is swallowed up by the sun, will it continue to emit light despite there being no-one to see it? Yes. Same thing. The question isn't interesting, it's philisophical navel gazing.

I've just rectified my laces. Every day's a school day.

Woo hoo - two in one thread. I feel slightly less thick for not knowing this myself now.

we picked the wrong base.
Base 12 would be much better

And we don't even teach kids Base 10 properly.

Think about it, we teach kids to count from 1 to 10.

That's stupid.

We should teach them to count from 0 to 9 since that is what every unit position in Base 10 actually does.

That's just twisiting the definition of the word sound

Noun

1. Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium [b]and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear.[/b]

What is ISO and who uses it?

ISO is just the standards body (International Organization for Standardisation), [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601 ] ISO 8601 is an international standard for writing dates[/url].

On the subject of features hidden in plain sight on company logos, I only recently noticed that Amazon have an arrow going A -> Z.

Like Graham S, I also only recently realised that a shoelace bow was meant to be a quick release reef knot, but I was tying a quick release granny knot. But I haven't been able to adjust my habit on that one.

I made the switch a few years ago. It's considerably easier if you tie the first knot 'backwards' rather than trying to reverse how you create the bow.

That the alphabet song is the same as 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star', which is actually Mozart's 'Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman.'

... as is 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'.

Noun

1. Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear.

Also +1 on the shoelace site! I think you (or someone else) posted about it a couple of weeks ago. My mind was blown then, too. Can't believe I'd been doing it wrong all those years. The whole website is great too. Reminds me of the early days of the web when all sites were like that - a little odd, about random things, where the author is clearly very passionate!

Base 12 phooey. Base 60 all the way!! 😀

1. Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear.

so 'ultrasound' would be a misnomer then

Whilst on the subject of base 12 and base 60, did you know that it's possible to count to twelve using only one hand, by pointing to each finger bone with the thumb? Each finger has three bones, so four fingers x three bones = twelve!! Very satisfactory 🙂

Nah, I'm with Rusty on this one. If it get's heard, it's a sound, otherwise it's just a vibration.

That was where my amateur naval gazing got me to so far. Humans have just evolved in a way that our brains attach a certain reaction to detecting vibrations of a particular wavelength. It's similar to a bit of scientific kit which detects vibrations and visualises it on a screen. The tree doesn't actually produce the nice patterns on the screen, that's just how the kit interprets the vibrations.

There's lots of other interesting theories/questions which follow, which seems to be taking up a bit too much of my time at the moment 🙂

Anyone remember QXL? A onetime competitor of Ebay. Years ago my company did a project for them and no-one on the project seemed to think the name came from the phonetic sounds - too tenuous I suppose. Well I think I was right....

I'm going to have to go back and check out this shoe lace site. I assume I am doing it correctly...

Edit: Phew, that's a relief. Although I am only doing the 'standard' knot. Perhaps I should branch out a little bit.

That it wasn't

"...the Wombles of Wimbledon, common are we"

but in fact

"...the Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we"

Duh 😳

When the earth is swallowed up by the sun, will it continue to emit light despite there being no-one to see it? Yes.

That it wasn't

"...the Wombles of Wimbledon, common are we"

but in fact

"...the Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we"

Duh

I thought that was the point of the lyric that it could be read either way. Also as they went around picking up litter there was some kinda eco/socialist/common thing about them.

as a child i had to fill in a form. at the top was a box stating 'day, month, year' so they knew my dob.
i stupidly wrote 'wednesday' in the day box. took a couple of years before i realised. numpty.

did you know that it's possible to count to twelve using only one hand

Pffft.. use base 2 and you can count to 31 on five fingers - though it takes some dexterity. 😀

[img] [/img]

I always believed in the 'I before E, excpept after C' rule.

I only realised recently that it's very flawed. It has caught me out loads of times.

Actually, it's still catching me out!

Whilst on the subject of base 12 and base 60, did you know that it's possible to count to twelve using only one hand, by pointing to each finger bone with the thumb? Each finger has three bones, so four fingers x three bones = twelve!! Very satisfactory

Very satisfactory indeed!

No. It will continue to emit electromagnetic radiation, certain wavelengths of which the now extinct race of humanoids used to call 'light'.

What we call it doesn't make any difference to what it is.

This isn't even philosophical navel gazing. Its just semantics.

Whilst on the subject of base 12 and base 60, did you know that it's possible to count to twelve

You can count to 144 in base 12 if you use both hands.

It takes 2 owls to make the Twit-twoo sound. One makes the twit and the other answers it with the to woo sound

Cool huh?

I've been tying laces right all my life ( who knew!!)

You can count to 144 in base 12 if you use both hands.

Or 1023 if you use Base 2. 😀

There are loads of examples of the hidden things in logos: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/10/the-hidden-meaning-behind-really-good-logos/

Or 1023 if you use Base 2.

Yes but even if you are good its hard.

144 (or 100 in base 12) would be very easy if we were familiar with base 12. But we aren't, because of the sodding Romans.

It takes 2 owls to make the Twit-twoo sound. One makes the twit and the other answers it with the to woo sound

Cool huh?

Bugger I should have said that. I'm reading The Once and Future King at the moment and it says in there!

It takes 2 owls to make the Twit-twoo sound. One makes the twit and the other answers it with the to woo sound

now how did i remember that? 😉

I too have only recently realised my naivety in thinking being good at your job was the key to success and that soft skills are as essential as the hard technical ones.

I have also just realised that the genders think in very, very different ways which I will never understand and caution is the watch word.

That trust should be given very, very sparingly.

That worry is really useless.

There are loads of examples of the hidden things in logos

Here are some more things less well hidden in logos 🙂

[url= http://www.b3ta.com/features/phalliclogoawards/ ]http://www.b3ta.com/features/phalliclogoawards/[/url]

[img] [/img]

144 (or 100 in base 12) would be very easy if we were familiar with base 12.

Base 6 (aka Senary) actually makes the most sense for counting on your hands, as the right hand can be the units and the left hand the "sixes".

But that only lets you count to 35 (base 10) on two hands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senary

[i](I'm such a geek)[/i]

Base 6 (aka Senary) actually makes the most sense for counting on your hands, as the right hand can be the units and the left hand the "sixes".

This method is also how you get to 144 (or actually 0-143) in base 12.

left hand use your thumb as a pointer for the "twelves"
Right hand use your thumb as a pointer for the "ones"

Where your finger bones are the units (and we handily have 12 of each on each hand)

Holding shift and right click in windows explorer shows the "open command window here" option.
Can't believe I didn't know this existed in windows, could have saved me a good dose of RSI!

left hand use your thumb as a pointer for the "twelves"
Right hand use your thumb as a pointer for the "ones"

Cunning, but somewhat harder for someone else to read at a distance than just using fingers, e.g. ordering 143 beers in a noisy bar 😉

Also if you can count to twelve on one hand then isn't it actually Base 13 or are you using the first finger bone as zero?

e.g. ordering 143 beers in a noisy bar

well its a bit early but as you're offering...

Windows have "sills"
I was convinced they has "stills"

I realised I was wrong after buying my first house ...
I, too, have gone through the shoelace epiphany