DATES
 

Looking at the date shown in the bottom right of my screen makes me realise how American everything has become. I seem to remember being told years ago that to avoid confusion between NATO Allies dates should be written as e.g. 07SEP15 not 7/9/15 (European) or 9/7/15 (American). Everything seems to be swamped by colonial cousins' usage now. (Think 9/11)

Mine shows "Mon 7 Sep". Top right of screen too, not bottom right.

Well done on at least some military connection through the mention of NATO.

S-D

Mine shows 07/09/2015

Mine shows 11:14

You can change the format Windows uses to display dates, times, currency, and measurements. You can also change the sorting order of text to match sorting rules used in a specific country or region.

Open Region and Language by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Clock, Language, and Region, and then clicking Region and Language.

Click the Formats tab, and then, in the Format list, select the locale to use for the display of the date, time, currency, and measurements.

or you could do the sensible thing and get a Mac!

S-D

or you could do the sensible thing and get a Mac!

Spot on SD!

Although 'American' date settings can be confusing (04-09-15 - is that the 9th of April or the 4th of September), what is worse is the lack of standardisation concerning Lat/Lon. For example, does 54:10:25N mean 54° 10' 25" North or does it mean 54° 10.25'N - i.e. 54° 10' 15"? Probably of interest when passing Lat/Lon values for targets close to friendly forces..... And can someone please decide whether we use N5410.25 or 5410.25N?

The UK AIP is even worse - 555419N 0033009W as the location of the UW NDB is completely ambiguous on their chart for the TALLA SID from Edinburgh, which doesn't specify which convention has been used....:ugh:

It gets even worse than that Beagle, when my wife says left, she often means what I refer to as the right. I have heard others refer to the same situation.

S-D

salad-dodger, that's like the 'wimmin' app you can get for a SatNav*:

• After passing a turning, it announces "You should have turned there".
• If you ignore its directions on more than 2 consecutive occasions, it announces "Do what you like then, if you must know better" and then shuts down.
• It generates random, "You knew I meant left" announcements after telling you to turn right.
• Every 28 days it gets hysterical and sulky for a couple of days.

But it looks very pretty.....




*actually, you can't!

And the one I watched happen and which I appreciate I've mentioned before:

US a/c: Cambridge, say again the altimeter.
C: 992
US a/c: 29.92in?
C: Negative, 992mb
US a/c: :uhoh:

only 630' different...

Mine shows "Gin o'clock".

• After passing a turning, it announces "You should have turned there".
• If you ignore its directions on more than 2 consecutive occasions, it announces "Do what you like then, if you must know better" and then shuts down.
• It generates random, "You knew I meant left" announcements after telling you to turn right.
• Every 28 days it gets hysterical and sulky for a couple of days.

BEagle, that's brilliant and so true :-)


coldair

One might reverse the argument and it holds equally true.

Being of British upbringing and American residence these last 10 years, in most cases, the context in which it is written - or knowledge of the writer - makes it obvious which is meant. No need to even bring the matter up, on most occasions.

I do find it rather tedious when people of either background insist that their way is somehow "correct". It might be correct in their view, but not in the writer's view; otherwise it would have been written the other way!

Life is too short to worry about this kind of thing. The respective populations just need to get over the fact that there are differences in usage.

I'm off to find my suspenders :)

Roadster

I'm off to find my suspenders


Suspenders are best worn by those with a generously formed fanny.:ooh:

bigbux,

Great. Two words with different transatlantic meanings in one sentence! :D

I suspect that Roadster280 is referring to the kind of suspenders that his 'good ole boy' neighbors wear in Atlanta. :)

An American tried to tell me off for using the word "Rubber" during my NATO tour - I was looking for one because some swine had stolen the one from my office. I told him that the word rubber was official English as prescribed by NATO and would not change it. I also pointed out that a rubber was a device that slipped on the top of your pencil, to be used in the event of any mistakes. The best ones were larger and could be used for a long period of time without leaving dirty streaks - I had used mine for many years. They also have the benefit of preventing chewing although you could buy some of them that smelled of strawberries when you rubbed them hard. By the end of the tour, I had convinced the staff from other nations to also use the correct form of the word! :E

No ambiguity with the Chinese. The biggest things are always first.

Year, Month, Day. 2015/09/08.

I do find myself yearning for an American-free thread ....... in vain :(