OT: Re: Date format

[Anne Wilson]

On Friday 02 April 2010 16:06:18 Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> Not quite the same thing. UK and US English are different in some
> respects ("two countries divided by the same language") but at least
> it's clear that we're talking about specific regions and their
> peculiarities (not to mention the local differences even within those
> regions) so we can all make allowances. In the case of date formats,
> it's the US versus everyone else and it actually does lead to ambiguity
> in some cases.
> 
> [In some ways I'm reminded of when the UK was the only country in the
> world to have a non-decimal currency, which wasn't that long ago -- I'm
> old enough to remember the switchover.]
> 
> Not that I expect this to change of course.

I know for a fact that the date ambiguity once caused a major US company a big 
problem.  Apparently one of its servers was undergoing maintenance, and before 
going back on-line the date was set to 3rd September instead of 9th March.  
Automatic systems realised that their databases must be 6 months out of date, 
and proceeded to rebuild them.  You can imagine how long it took to get that 
one sorted out again!

Anne
-- 
KDE Community Working Group
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