[ale] [OT] Googlian Calendar

[Sid Lane]

not sure if I should be flattered or offended but yes, it was TIC...

I'd thought of this years ago joking around but Google's 15th anniversary
seemed like a good occasion to go public with it.  it seemed like a natural
convergence of the absurdity of political correctness taken to its extreme,
homage to the coolness/utility of google (remember when we used to have to
know stuff?) and the fact that "Googlian" & A.G. seemed like natural drop
in replacements for Gregorian & A.D.  silly/absurd?  absolutely!  but is it
really any more so than C.E. & B.C.E.?  either keep the real labels or
replace the system!  the P.C. facade is juvenile...

I'm sure I'm far from alone among ALErs but my brain is wired somewhat
differently from "normal" people (whatever that is)!

</rant> :D


On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 11:03 AM, Scott Plante <splante at insightsys.com>wrote:

> I hadn't replied because I took all this as a tongue-in-cheek suggestion.
> Just in case you're serious, I'll have to say this is a really bad idea.
> When under Bush, they just changed the Daylight Savings Time dates, it
> caused a huge amount of work for us. They just changed the DST dates in
> Israel<http://www.jpost.com/Business/Business-Features/Israel-does-the-time-warp-daylight-savings-glitch-wreaks-havoc-325560>and it again caused us to waste many, many needless hours of support, and
> I'm not sure we're done with the fallout yet.  The amount of wasted effort
> across the US and the World to deal with a change of this magnitude in
> computer systems for so little (if any) benefit would be outrageous.
>
> Scott
>
> ------------------------------
> *From: *"Sid Lane" <jakes.dad at gmail.com>
> *To: *"Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!" <ale at ale.org>
> *Sent: *Friday, September 27, 2013 1:20:44 PM
> *Subject: *[ale] [OT] Googlian Calendar
>
>
> being in an interfaith marriage my frighteningly precocious daughter
> recently asked me why we have two New Years as well as how we can go from
> the year 2013 in January to 5774 a couple of weeks ago which got me to
> thinking that Google’s 15th birthday today seems like the perfect
> opportunity to separate that most deeply rooted of all church/state
> violations: the Gregorian Calendar! what does that have to do with Google?
> glad you asked! let me answer in three parts:
>
> 1. any calendar requires an epoch (this is self-evident)
> 2. most (if not all) alternatives’ epochs are tied to respective
> religion’s creation stories (still violating separation just in different
> flavors)
> 3. name a more secularly significant event than google launching*
>
> think about it - how often do you wonder: “how did the world work before
> Google?” when Googling obscure error messages or edge case symptoms we
> often quip at work: “isn’t it weird to think there was a time when you used
> to have to actually KNOW stuff?”. the fact that “Googling”, the present
> tense of the verb “to Google”, is recognized by spell check (at least mine)
> just underscores my point (though admittedly I’ve yet to see a full
> conjugation)! honestly, I am convinced that Google is the new library of
> Alexandria and when they eventually crash it will plunge humanity into
> another dark age though that’s a topic for another time…
>
> anyway, in conclusion I encourage everyone to write your congress critter
> (enclosing the obligatory campaign contribution - another topic for another
> time), MP, Ayatollah (well, maybe not him), etc to petition that September
> 27, 2013 be internationally recognized as 15.000, the 0th day of the 15th**
> year A.G. (Anno Googli). at a minimum I hope we can get formal adoption
> from the Pastafarians…
>
> Happy New Year!
>
> *which can be identified with any precision - I’m not keen on a Kelvin
> calendar based on a big bang SWAG, not to mention the relativistic effects
> get really nasty as you approach absolute zero (though an argument can be
> made that does seem appropriate given what quantum mechanics does
> approaching 0K temp).
>
> **unlike Pope Gregory Googlers are smart enough to realize that days and
> years should start with ZERO instead of one! not to mention that we don’t
> even need a B.G.! we just go negative - September 26, 1998 becomes -1.364
> (though this admittedly requires signed variables). we can figure out the
> subdivisions (“months”, “weeks”, etc) later but it seems like an
> opportunity to standardize & bring sanity while we’re at it!
>
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