Regarding the option “Month goes second in the date” I don’t believe that is a good option either. We should use yyyy-mm-dd so today would be 2024-10-17
@callow@cengland0 I’ve been writing dates on contract signature lines that way for years. All it takes is for enough of us to do it when there’s no template, and the change will percolate in.
@yakkoTDI month second is in ascending order
Day month year. Each value represents a larger span. This to me, is more logical than month, day, year, which has no logic… But still not ideal.
In IT we usually do year month day. That way it’s like a number counting up as time goes by. This is the best way IMO.
@OnionSoup@phendrick I have been doing year month day for a long, long time. When people try to argue I ask them if they tell time with minutes seconds hours or seconds minutes hours.
@narfcake@PooltoyWolf my cousin in Switzerland worked in the Swiss Rail system his whole career. (After the mandatory military service they have, or at least used to have). For that work, you had to speak (Swiss-)German, Italian, French, and English. I don’t communicate with him much but I’m assuming he is retired now with pension and health benefits like a civilized country would have.
@PooltoyWolf Houston vehemently resisted putting in a rail-based transit system for a long time, and then when it got approved, they discovered the original trolley tracks still in existence under the streets in the downtown area. (They weren’t useful, but they were there.) Now the lines are getting expanded, and there is some hope that they will eventually connect the two airports.
And if it actually gets built, the high-speed rail link from Houston to Dallas will have its terminus about a mile from my house.
And now Amtrak has stepped up to continue the project as the original board of Texas Central stepped down.
@PooltoyWolf@werehatrack I do hope the train from Dallas to Houston gets built in my lifetime. Lobbyists from southwest Airlines have been blocking it for years.
@PooltoyWolf@werehatrack Almost every place I ever lived in used to have trams/streetcars 100 years ago. Mostly electric but in remote areas some were gas motors (pre-diesel).
EDIT if you ever can, check local archives, history museums, books published with old photos and maps. Yes I am obsessed with that stuff. You think of a time so long ago and yet so many things “worked.” I’m sure there were problems and corruption and greed as they are now. But still thinking of what “engineers” did in 1900 is pretty amazing.
@pmarin@PooltoyWolf I saw a map of the multiple streetcar systems that were in the Houston area around 1930. I wonder how much of that rail is buried under the streets today; most of it remained in service until the late '40s and even into the '50s.
@CocoBeanss@Kyeh YES!!! Because my state did not expand medicaid, when my COBRA ran out and I didn’t make enough for ACA care I was paying $23-30,000 a year on health care between premiums, deductible, out of pocket limits, meds, and copys (some of which were not subjected to the out of pocket limits). Wiped out my life’s savings and retirement and wrecked my financial life forever. Finally being old enough for Medicare put a stop to that but their inability to negotiate most drug prices means that we make up the difference for the lower prices the rest of the ENTIRE WORLD gets for meds from the same manufacturers. Some people object to medicare being able to negotiate as their prices will go up. Well duh someone has to pay if a company’s target profit is “X”. Incidentally Medicaid and the VA both can negotiate drugs.
@Kyeh@NapkinEater yeah first bidet I encountered was at a hotel in France. Normal plumbing with hot/cold water valves. There was no toilet in the room; you had to go down the hall for that. I just assumed it was expected to pee in the bidet. I’m pretty sure I was not the first person to do that.
First magical automated toilet was in Japan. Yes, a life-changing experience! Funny thing is controls were built into the tile wall by the toilet, and only labeled in Japanese, of course. Just press a few buttons; what could go wrong?
@OnionSoup Well adults can adopt other adults (not sure what that does with citizenship though if an adult is involved) so you might bid on here to get one of us to adopt you.
@Kidsandliz@OnionSoup There are giant gummi bears available that could be dry-rubbed, gently smoked, and then served up with a tub of sauce on the side.
Well, obviously, starting a job with 6 weeks of paid vacation. Mandatory work limits where you had to “clock-in” with a badge to verify you did NOT work in the office longer than the stated limit; I think it was 35 hrs at the time. Wine for sale at lunch in the company cafeteria. When I worked with a small group there, the custom was that one person would buy a bottle and pour for 5-8 colleagues. Automated espresso/cappuccino machines in the office. Electric trams that could take me from hotel to right outside company location.
Sorry that was about 10 things but you get the idea.
On “Metric System,” some might remember elementary school in the 1970s, where we were taught the metric system and told that within 10 years we would be using it. Some local cities even posted signs in km, but that didn’t last long.
Also a standard liquor bottle called the “fifth” shrank to 750ml. Only by a few ml, but shrinkflation is not new.
@pmarin The pushback against the metric changeover was mindless and predictable, but what did we expect from the part of the populace that can’t figure out percentages and fractions? It’s grassroots jingoism all the way down. Muricuh! Fuck yeah!
@blaineg@jnicholson0619 I write it as 2024Oct17 for exactly the same reason. I doesn’t sort as cleanly as 20241017 would, but it’s unambiguous and at least gets the year up front.
@lonocat Yes - and the whole saner approach to what they’re now calling “life-work balance.” Not that Europeans even ever needed that term because it’s how they do life, including the decent vacation time and great lunches that @pmarin described.
@Kyeh@lonocat@pmarin When I lived in the Netherlands their 6 week vacation was great for me to earn money playing market day carillon recitals each week while the carillonneur was on vacation… Loved it! Not only that but market day was on different days in different cities so I could play a handful of them a week. With the excellent train and bus system it was easy to get to the cities and their carillons.
@torchcat oh if we’re going to bring music into it… could get crazy! Of course we have the known major groups so I’ll skip those. British punk and early synth-pop of 1980s! Also if bringing in all of Europe, add Kraftwerk! There was an internet article I found about how Kraftwerk were more influential to music over the next 40 years than the Beatles. Probably intended to create outrage as the internet tends to do. But it made a valid point and I’m inclined to think it was right.
Curious what your New Wave of British Heavy Metal is!
Town squares and plazas with fountains and such for all ages to just hang out and enjoy. We have some but over there they’re better, especially in small villages.
The whole way that they Vote. Like in France you can have 40 Candidates then vote to get it to 2 then a run off. In Britain there is a 2 week quite period. Zero campaigning.
Oh yeah in addition to my previous post mostly about work life in general: Women in engineering/tech!
It seemed much more normal and accepted there, and this goes back decades since my first business trip in 1980s. Of course it’s possible and maybe now encouraged in U.S. as well, but seems like it has been hard for those attempting it here.
@pmarin I could agree, but being a Corp. Computer Mechanic- it’s broke, I fix, I see many ladies in the field! I think help desk is that way too, (but I don’t do Help Desk, Remote support!
@00 That is when dad had his vacation - 4 weeks - and school started after Labor Day. We’d go on vacation the entire month. We’d drive all over the USA and Canada staying in campgrounds with a tent top camping trailer when the station wagon was too small for 6 people to sleep in - worked for 5 due to “bunk cots” in the back and my then youngest sister sleeping on the bench front seat.
@00@Kidsandliz@kittykat9180 The rooftop tents are intriguing, but I don’t understand why a tent quadruples in price when you pitch it on the roof of a vehicle.
@macromeh Consider the addition of a floor structure robust enough to carry the weight of the occupants, a shell to contain all of it when stowed while in transit, the ladder and support poles, and the clamp system to secure it all to the vehicle roof. I would be very surprised if it were only quadruple the price of a regular on-ground tent.
@kittykat9180 I might have to investigate that tent setup; if they make one that would fit my Caravan, it would save me a lot of hassle when settling in for the night. Doubly so in places like Zion where the primary in-park transport is shuttles and bikes.
@werehatrack, just keep in mind you have to pack it all back away if you want to go anywhere. It’s not like dropping a trailer and freeing up the vehicle. The downside is definitely the constant set up and packing away.
The downside is definitely the constant set up and packing away.
Hence the note about being most advantageous where one can set up base camp and then get around without the vehicle. This does not work well at all in most locales. Much would depend upon how fast it can be deployed and struck.
Maternity & Paternity leave - not just time to recover from delivery, fathers get no time to recover from the new sleep schedule and I hate that it’s considered a vacation time here. Most stressful vacation I’ve ever taken.
@ironcheftoni Some of us have adopted the reusable shopping bags already. Aldi has a really nice rectangular zipper-lid cold bag that I find particularly useful.
@ironcheftoni@werehatrack for extra profit you can search Trader Joe’s for the collectible mini-bags, then sell them for $100 online (allegedly). Insulated bags are nice, but not $100 nice.
I was trying to explain the concept of “conspicuous consumption” to my wife today. We are both past thinking about displaying jewelry or fancy clothes, but focusing on quality stuff you like is still OK, I think. the $3.99 Trader Joe’s bag is nice but not sure if it’s a legit fashion accessory for the Met Gala. My invitation must have been lost in the mail, so not an issue anyway.
@ironcheftoni@pmarin We joke about my being hauled along as the Official Trophy Wife, but the truly disturbing part is that I come a lot closer to looking the part than a lot of women I know, including both of my exes and a number of friends who have quietly told me that they’re privately envious.
@ragingredd “we” almost got there 50 years ago.
Even gas pumps went to liters (but maybe that was because old gas pumps couldn’t handle a price over $1.00/gal but 0.30/liter was OK. For a few years it worked that way) they upgraded the gas pumps and went back to $/gallon. Not sure if that had anything to do with political rejection of the metric system.
@pmarin@ragingredd It had a lot to do with grassroots jingoism that viewed Metric as Foreign and therefore UnAmerican.
More than a decade back, Alabama briefly tried to get people familiar with kilometers by adding those distances to their highway mileage signs. The effort didn’t just fail, the signs were actively derided and many were vandalized. Reportedly, some politicians made:“getting rid of them killmometer signs” a part of their election platform.
Regarding the option “Month goes second in the date” I don’t believe that is a good option either. We should use yyyy-mm-dd so today would be 2024-10-17
@cengland0 Much better for sorting files!
@callow Exactly plus it’s in order from most significant to least significant.
@callow @cengland0 I’ve been writing dates on contract signature lines that way for years. All it takes is for enough of us to do it when there’s no template, and the change will percolate in.
Tipping policy (and meaningful wages that allow for European tipping standards).
@shahnm Absolutely!!!
Decimal measurements.
Month second is just as stupid as month first.
@yakkoTDI month second is in ascending order
Day month year. Each value represents a larger span. This to me, is more logical than month, day, year, which has no logic… But still not ideal.
In IT we usually do year month day. That way it’s like a number counting up as time goes by. This is the best way IMO.
@OnionSoup @yakkoTDI … and it makes it easily sortable. (So i make that part of the name of my files.)
@OnionSoup @phendrick I have been doing year month day for a long, long time. When people try to argue I ask them if they tell time with minutes seconds hours or seconds minutes hours.
I mean, obviously the trains.
@PooltoyWolf A few months ago, they broke ground on a high speed rail between SoCal and Las Vegas. It’s supposed to be in operation in 2028.
We’ll see.
@narfcake I need to go ride Brightline again, I’m craving it…
@narfcake @PooltoyWolf my cousin in Switzerland worked in the Swiss Rail system his whole career. (After the mandatory military service they have, or at least used to have). For that work, you had to speak (Swiss-)German, Italian, French, and English. I don’t communicate with him much but I’m assuming he is retired now with pension and health benefits like a civilized country would have.
@PooltoyWolf Houston vehemently resisted putting in a rail-based transit system for a long time, and then when it got approved, they discovered the original trolley tracks still in existence under the streets in the downtown area. (They weren’t useful, but they were there.) Now the lines are getting expanded, and there is some hope that they will eventually connect the two airports.
And if it actually gets built, the high-speed rail link from Houston to Dallas will have its terminus about a mile from my house.
And now Amtrak has stepped up to continue the project as the original board of Texas Central stepped down.
@PooltoyWolf @werehatrack I do hope the train from Dallas to Houston gets built in my lifetime. Lobbyists from southwest Airlines have been blocking it for years.
@narfcake @PooltoyWolf and from my neck of the woods, kinda. Not that I want to go Vegas, but if I did . . .
@PooltoyWolf @werehatrack Almost every place I ever lived in used to have trams/streetcars 100 years ago. Mostly electric but in remote areas some were gas motors (pre-diesel).
EDIT if you ever can, check local archives, history museums, books published with old photos and maps. Yes I am obsessed with that stuff. You think of a time so long ago and yet so many things “worked.” I’m sure there were problems and corruption and greed as they are now. But still thinking of what “engineers” did in 1900 is pretty amazing.
@pmarin @PooltoyWolf I saw a map of the multiple streetcar systems that were in the Houston area around 1930. I wonder how much of that rail is buried under the streets today; most of it remained in service until the late '40s and even into the '50s.
Healthcare would be great
@CocoBeanss This!
@CocoBeanss @Kyeh YES!!! Because my state did not expand medicaid, when my COBRA ran out and I didn’t make enough for ACA care I was paying $23-30,000 a year on health care between premiums, deductible, out of pocket limits, meds, and copys (some of which were not subjected to the out of pocket limits). Wiped out my life’s savings and retirement and wrecked my financial life forever. Finally being old enough for Medicare put a stop to that but their inability to negotiate most drug prices means that we make up the difference for the lower prices the rest of the ENTIRE WORLD gets for meds from the same manufacturers. Some people object to medicare being able to negotiate as their prices will go up. Well duh someone has to pay if a company’s target profit is “X”. Incidentally Medicaid and the VA both can negotiate drugs.
Food with ingredients that are pronounceable
Third-party app stores
Regulatory standards that make actual sense (rather than the corporate developed ones.)
Some are simple like USB-C chargers, others are more comprehensive like privacy, but we seem incapable of doing any of this in the face of lobbying.
Even our version of “healthcare” doesn’t provide any healthcare at all, only health insurance because the insurance lobby was too powerful.
Are bidets/washlets a European thing or strictly a Japanese thing?
@NapkinEater Started in France!
@Kyeh @NapkinEater yeah first bidet I encountered was at a hotel in France. Normal plumbing with hot/cold water valves. There was no toilet in the room; you had to go down the hall for that. I just assumed it was expected to pee in the bidet. I’m pretty sure I was not the first person to do that.
First magical automated toilet was in Japan. Yes, a life-changing experience! Funny thing is controls were built into the tile wall by the toilet, and only labeled in Japanese, of course. Just press a few buttons; what could go wrong?
@Kyeh @NapkinEater @pmarin Were the buttons shell-shaped?
@werehatrack LOL
Me
@OnionSoup Well adults can adopt other adults (not sure what that does with citizenship though if an adult is involved) so you might bid on here to get one of us to adopt you.
@Kidsandliz I do have my citizenship already… That isn’t my motivation. I just want to be invited to the meh family BBQ.
@OnionSoup
Well you could take another approach and be the one to host it, inviting everyone, and serving expired and weird food bought on here.
@Kidsandliz do you have any good BBQ gummy bear recipes?
@Kidsandliz @OnionSoup There are giant gummi bears available that could be dry-rubbed, gently smoked, and then served up with a tub of sauce on the side.
Well, obviously, starting a job with 6 weeks of paid vacation. Mandatory work limits where you had to “clock-in” with a badge to verify you did NOT work in the office longer than the stated limit; I think it was 35 hrs at the time. Wine for sale at lunch in the company cafeteria. When I worked with a small group there, the custom was that one person would buy a bottle and pour for 5-8 colleagues. Automated espresso/cappuccino machines in the office. Electric trams that could take me from hotel to right outside company location.
Sorry that was about 10 things but you get the idea.
@pmarin I came to say the vacation time providing quality of life.
Literary civilization
On “Metric System,” some might remember elementary school in the 1970s, where we were taught the metric system and told that within 10 years we would be using it. Some local cities even posted signs in km, but that didn’t last long.
Also a standard liquor bottle called the “fifth” shrank to 750ml. Only by a few ml, but shrinkflation is not new.
@pmarin The pushback against the metric changeover was mindless and predictable, but what did we expect from the part of the populace that can’t figure out percentages and fractions? It’s grassroots jingoism all the way down. Muricuh! Fuck yeah!
Full English Breakfast!!
@IndifferentDude Bloody right!
I already write my date like 17Oct2024.
@jnicholson0619 Because when sorting 16Dec2025 should be first.
@jnicholson0619 That’s common in genealogy/family history as no matter what someone’s native system is, it cannot be misunderstood.
@blaineg @jnicholson0619 I write it as 2024Oct17 for exactly the same reason. I doesn’t sort as cleanly as 20241017 would, but it’s unambiguous and at least gets the year up front.
Retirement age in most European countries is 50 or 55
@lonocat Yes - and the whole saner approach to what they’re now calling “life-work balance.” Not that Europeans even ever needed that term because it’s how they do life, including the decent vacation time and great lunches that @pmarin described.
@Kyeh @lonocat @pmarin When I lived in the Netherlands their 6 week vacation was great for me to earn money playing market day carillon recitals each week while the carillonneur was on vacation… Loved it! Not only that but market day was on different days in different cities so I could play a handful of them a week. With the excellent train and bus system it was easy to get to the cities and their carillons.
New Wave of British Heavy Metal (Again)
@torchcat oh if we’re going to bring music into it… could get crazy! Of course we have the known major groups so I’ll skip those. British punk and early synth-pop of 1980s! Also if bringing in all of Europe, add Kraftwerk! There was an internet article I found about how Kraftwerk were more influential to music over the next 40 years than the Beatles. Probably intended to create outrage as the internet tends to do. But it made a valid point and I’m inclined to think it was right.
Curious what your New Wave of British Heavy Metal is!
@torchcat I despair of ever seeing a tour in North America for Two Steps From Hell (which isn’t exactly metal, it’s full symphonic).
Town squares and plazas with fountains and such for all ages to just hang out and enjoy. We have some but over there they’re better, especially in small villages.
French mistress.
@Pavlov Oui Oui!
@Pavlov I did not come to say this, but a fun fact is in France, this is referred to as cinq à sept. What—or who—is done between 5-7.
The whole way that they Vote. Like in France you can have 40 Candidates then vote to get it to 2 then a run off. In Britain there is a 2 week quite period. Zero campaigning.
@Oldelvis sounds really good. Better than the two party system, Israel also had a unique system, you vote for one of the many parties, not a person.
I wish more people embraced the 24 hour clock, it just makes more sense.
Oh yeah in addition to my previous post mostly about work life in general: Women in engineering/tech!
It seemed much more normal and accepted there, and this goes back decades since my first business trip in 1980s. Of course it’s possible and maybe now encouraged in U.S. as well, but seems like it has been hard for those attempting it here.
@pmarin I could agree, but being a Corp. Computer Mechanic- it’s broke, I fix, I see many ladies in the field! I think help desk is that way too, (but I don’t do Help Desk, Remote support!
Ubiquitous espresso!
Gelato-grade “ice cream,” not that sugary air-fluffed crap we usually get.
@pmarin Thankfully I have this place in St. Pete for real gelato.
https://paciugostpete.com
Stick-shift cars again!
Also sensible around-town cars with things like economical 1.2 liter engines.
@pmarin Cars like this!!
Taking August off to travel.
@00 That is when dad had his vacation - 4 weeks - and school started after Labor Day. We’d go on vacation the entire month. We’d drive all over the USA and Canada staying in campgrounds with a tent top camping trailer when the station wagon was too small for 6 people to sleep in - worked for 5 due to “bunk cots” in the back and my then youngest sister sleeping on the bench front seat.
@00 @Kidsandliz
I just spent 2 weeks traveling through Canada with a roof top tent.
@00 @kittykat9180 That sounds like fun. What part of Canada were you in?
@00 @Kidsandliz @kittykat9180 The rooftop tents are intriguing, but I don’t understand why a tent quadruples in price when you pitch it on the roof of a vehicle.
@macromeh Consider the addition of a floor structure robust enough to carry the weight of the occupants, a shell to contain all of it when stowed while in transit, the ladder and support poles, and the clamp system to secure it all to the vehicle roof. I would be very surprised if it were only quadruple the price of a regular on-ground tent.
@kittykat9180 I might have to investigate that tent setup; if they make one that would fit my Caravan, it would save me a lot of hassle when settling in for the night. Doubly so in places like Zion where the primary in-park transport is shuttles and bikes.
@00 @Kidsandliz, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
@macromeh, partly because of structural support and the ladder and partially because enough people are willing to buy at that price.
@werehatrack, just keep in mind you have to pack it all back away if you want to go anywhere. It’s not like dropping a trailer and freeing up the vehicle. The downside is definitely the constant set up and packing away.
@kittykat9180
Hence the note about being most advantageous where one can set up base camp and then get around without the vehicle. This does not work well at all in most locales. Much would depend upon how fast it can be deployed and struck.
Maternity & Paternity leave - not just time to recover from delivery, fathers get no time to recover from the new sleep schedule and I hate that it’s considered a vacation time here. Most stressful vacation I’ve ever taken.
Month long summer and winter holidays (vacation).
All of the above
Plus worker protections and rights
Plus consumer protections
Plus food safety protections
@kittykat9180 I agree 100%!
@kittykat9180
What are these crazy things you’re talking about?
Clearly you’ve gone mad (or spent time in Europe)
@pmarin, only 15 countries in Europe.
All of the above and
A reasonably priced Healthcare system
Green initiatives like reusable shopping bags
@ironcheftoni Some of us have adopted the reusable shopping bags already. Aldi has a really nice rectangular zipper-lid cold bag that I find particularly useful.
@ironcheftoni @werehatrack for extra profit you can search Trader Joe’s for the collectible mini-bags, then sell them for $100 online (allegedly). Insulated bags are nice, but not $100 nice.
I was trying to explain the concept of “conspicuous consumption” to my wife today. We are both past thinking about displaying jewelry or fancy clothes, but focusing on quality stuff you like is still OK, I think. the $3.99 Trader Joe’s bag is nice but not sure if it’s a legit fashion accessory for the Met Gala. My invitation must have been lost in the mail, so not an issue anyway.
@ironcheftoni @pmarin We joke about my being hauled along as the Official Trophy Wife, but the truly disturbing part is that I come a lot closer to looking the part than a lot of women I know, including both of my exes and a number of friends who have quietly told me that they’re privately envious.
Metric system would be nice I SUCK at converting
@ragingredd “we” almost got there 50 years ago.
Even gas pumps went to liters (but maybe that was because old gas pumps couldn’t handle a price over $1.00/gal but 0.30/liter was OK. For a few years it worked that way) they upgraded the gas pumps and went back to $/gallon. Not sure if that had anything to do with political rejection of the metric system.
@pmarin @ragingredd It had a lot to do with grassroots jingoism that viewed Metric as Foreign and therefore UnAmerican.
More than a decade back, Alabama briefly tried to get people familiar with kilometers by adding those distances to their highway mileage signs. The effort didn’t just fail, the signs were actively derided and many were vandalized. Reportedly, some politicians made:“getting rid of them killmometer signs” a part of their election platform.
/giphy castles
@mbersiam But the fourth one stayed up!