Computers 101

(AE and I know these people, names have been changed to protect the obvious)


Hello I'm AE, I'm your facilitator for "Computers 101". Let's go around the class and introduce ourselves. And your name is...?


Hello I'm Q, I know everything about everything especially computers as long as they're Apple and make sense and as long as my husband will be quiet.


Hello I'm S. I own a bunch of stuff that is smarter than me.


Hello I'm E, these stupid computers never work for me when I need them to and they're a stupid as my stupid tupperwear cupboard. I need it to work RIGHT NOW!!


Hello I'm K. I'm afraid to restart my computer because I'm afraid it won't turn back on.


Hello I'm N. Why am I here? What's a computer?

ISO 8601

Since Canada started conversion to the Metric system way back in 1975 (yes, it's been over 45 years), Canada has gradually embraced a third date format.

The original "standard" for Canada was dd/mm/yyyy to match our UK background.  This is still in use there as well as most of Europe.  However the USA uses mm/dd/yyyy, and as they are our major training partner, we Canadians also use that date format.

(Yes, Europe, the early adopter of the Metric system, still uses a date format of dd/mm/yyyy.  I'm puzzled by this as well).

Dates displayed as 03/06/65 may be interpreted as March 6th or June 3rd 1965.  At a minimum this caused some humor as "you know this is a summer event" to a major or expensive issue such as missing a doctor appointment or failing to pay a bill on time.

To the rescue came the Metric system, with its sensible ISO 8601 format of yyyy/mm/dd.

While Canada started the conversion to the Metric system on 1 April 1975 (yes, April fools day), the USA was also considering a change to the Metric system.  However Jimmy Carter was not re-elected as President and the USA continues to operate by the British Imperial system.

(Had the Metric system been invented BEFORE 1776, I wonder how different our world would be as the yanks fought against the British for their independence and were supported by the French, who created the Metric system.)

The ISO 8601 format was quickly adopted by the CRA and Canada post (who continue to use them).  Telephone books for a while were sporting this format along the spine so one could quickly see that "oh yeah, that's last year's book, it can be tossed".

(A telephone book was a free publication by the telephone carrier that provided a list of personal names and their home phone numbers (the "white pages") and business names and their phone numbers (the "yellow pages").  Over time, the white pages would turn yellow as well, but that's for another discussion).

Flash forward a few years to the late nineties.

I personally worked on an aspect of the "year 2000" or "Y2K" problem where dates stored as six digits would have unpredictable results once the year moved over from "99" to "00".  Adding two digits and changing stored dates from "yymmdd" to "yyyymmdd" was an obvious solution.  ISO 8601 to the rescue.

(A lot of people worked hard on fixing the Y2K issue and I'm frequently offended by people who now say "well that was a lot of fuss over nothing".  Jerks.  Just wait until 2038 when Unix systems fail and just see how willing knowledgeable computer experts will help out a 2nd time.  Actually don't worry about it, most of us willing knowledgeable computer experts who worked on the Y2K issue will no longer be around to help).

Surely (I thought), once the year rolled over to 2000, everyone on the planet could see the lunacy of continuing to use six digits to display a date and the move to ISO 8601 would accelerate.

Not so much.

Movie premiers emblazoned on bus shelters as "04/05/2001" or "09/24/04" were common.  I observed that the "century" was dropped if it was clear the middle two digits was a "day".

My bank statements continue to use dd/mm/yyyy.  I had to fight with the bank in the late nineties to get new cheques with the date format yyyy/mm/dd.  They eventually complied, but I have seen cheques to this day that require the format explanation under the date just so it's not ambiguous.

Good luck to you figuring out the "best before dates" when one might see a date stamp of "22 Aug 23".  Getting this wrong could result in health consequences.

The date on my barbeque propane tank is 04A17 - apparently the industries solution was to let "99" just roll over to "A".

Even twenty years into the 21st century, Canada can't decide on whether 04/09/11 represents a date in September or April or if the year is 2004 or 2011.  Is Canada yy/mm/dd, mm/dd/yy, or dd/mm/yy?

My own employer has "enforced" the USA (or Microsoft default) date format of "mm/dd/yyyy" (in spite of all three formats being in use).  If one uses the Canadian regional setting, the date changes to "yyyy/mm/dd" (but my employer ignores the fact that they are Canadian).  This has made me annoyed enough that I have finally started writing letters to the various regulatory bodies showing that such ambiguous dates can lead to legal issues.

Wish me luck, apparently I'm trying to change the world.