[ale] [OT] Date change proposal

[Mike Harrison]

> The fun with this is while there is a need to attach a recurring event in
> physical reality to a recurring event in the structured calendar, physical
> reality doesn't play nicely.

As I read that, I was thinking about starting the clock at estimated 
beginning of, well, everything. For some people that would be about 5800 
years ago, for others.. last week, for others (most?), billions of years 
ago. Carl Sagan would STILL be using negative numbers to describe things 
though.

The more I play with international - intercultural people and systems,
the amazing thing is that "time" is one of the most consistent things out 
there. And even it isn't. There are 1/4 hour time zones.. "daylight 
savings time" changes, and a few places that seem like it gets as defined
as: early, lunch/noon-ish time, before dark, and dark. - I tend to like 
those places. :)

Even within our wonderful Linux systems, there are differences.
I've found that, in a system, if I use MySQL date/time functions,
things work best if I don't mix in PHP or Perl ones. At least then when 
it's "wrong", it is consistent. Maybe it's my code? I've forgotten,
but I've learned to use one source for date math.

The kludges we use in business, and hence in software to solve problems
of date and time are interesting. In more than one billing system I've 
seen the last available recurring billing date for a month be the 28th.
The 29th-31st all get squished into the 28th. In some systems I've seen 30 
day per month, 360 day per year math used, usually in the companies favor.
I've also seen pager and cell phone companies with < monthly billing, 
Every 28 days or less. Gets them an extra payment cycle some years.

But as I get older, I realize the real problem is that there is not enough 
time. We grow too old too quick.. and don't take enough time off to enjoy 
what time we have, while we can enjoy it.

While I would really like "decimal/metric time" for ease of coding, if not 
in real life.. I'm not going to waste any more worrying about it.
I'm taking this afternoon off and going for a long relaxing bike ride.

May you find time to do something relaxing and enjoyable as well.