24 hour time

Friday, November 29, 2024

I blame this on my cold, not being old.

I took a shot of night-time cold medicine around noon.

I woke up at 5, but 5 what?

It was dark outside. I’m not senile…yet.

It was now I realized that none of my “Digital Assistants” showed AM or PM. I quit using 24 hour time a while ago, thinking that I was just trying to relive my military days. It never fails to impress a civilian when you can instantly translate 24 hour time to AM/PM. But my Army years are a lift-time ago, and I should just join the herd and quit beingb obstanate.

That’s what I told myself. Now I realize I was fooling myself. 24 hour time eliminates any confusion over schedules or events. If someone wants you to meet up with them 8, you have to ask, “AM or PM?” Meet me at 2000 hours, no confusion.

This is a “use what works best in your life” issue. 24 hour time is frustrating for people unfamiliar with it. They wind up having to subtract 12 for the time.

I’ll be resetting all my “smart” devises that show the time back to the 24 hour mode. And I’ll be in less a hurry to follow my own advice.

Miraz Jordan

Nearly 50 years ago I lived in Germany for a year and learned 24 hour time. I’ve used it ever since, except when speaking with those who use 12 hour time. Like you, I found it made for clarity.

2024-11-29 8:16 pm

The Art Of Not Asking Why

grew up in a different country, and 24 hours has always been the norm. Date in format dd-mm~yyyy also makes more sense, but that’s a different story.

2024-11-29 10:38 pm

R Scott Jones

@jtr although it’s terrible for file systems. I think that’s the general point, though, different formats work better for different uses.

2024-11-29 10:47 pm

David Sinclair

@Miraz yep, I’ve used 24-hour time for years. It just makes more sense. And ISO dates: yyyy-mm-dd.

2024-11-30 10:45 am

The Art Of Not Asking Why

@dejus well actually, that’s what I use these days (years first) but I don’t appear human to other people when I do. They really have hard time with that.

yyyymmdd.hhmm is how I wrote dates for a long time I’m my journal and it’s also how it shows on my Linux machine.

2024-12-04 7:27 am