English vs English

[Battra92]

But did Richard Dawson of Hogan's Heroes fame ever host your version? ;-)

 

Family Guy did the perfect parody of him on FF.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZDL59lr1PY

[Yantelope]

Yes, but Colonel Klink was Homer's conscience.

 

 

Homer: Colonel Klink! Why have you forsaken me!?

(A "ghost" in the form of Colonel Klink appears in front of Homer.)

Colonel Klink: What is it!

Homer: (Chuckles) Did you know Kinch had a radio in the coffee pot?

Colonel Klink: He did?

[Battra92]

Baseboard

Skirting board

Mopboard

 

All that piece of wood trim that goes along the bottom of the wall. I've been told Skirting board is a UK thing but I've heard people in Massachusetts say it too.

[deanb]

Yeah Skirting Board along the bottom.

Dado rail in the middle. then roof thingies (moldings?) up top.

[Battra92]

Yeah Skirting Board along the bottom.

Dado rail in the middle. then roof thingies (moldings?) up top.

 

Dado rail? More like a chair rail/rall.

[deanb]

Hence me asking.

also I notice I wrote roof when I meant ceiling

[Battra92]

Since we're on building supplies:

 

Sheetrock

Drywall

Plasterboard

 

all the same damn thing.

[TheMightyEthan]

Hey dean, you left the "u" out of "molding".

 

But yeah, bottom is baseboard, middle is chair rail (though those are really rare, at least around here), top is molding.

[deanb]

I'm sure it's:

mold = shaped object, usually made of plaster or such

mould = not so nice thing to have on your walls, usually a sign of damp.

[Battra92]

I'm sure it's:

mold = shaped object, usually made of plaster or such

mould = not so nice thing to have on your walls, usually a sign of damp.

 

Actually according to Wikipedia both are correct although in America we use Moulding for the trim and Mold for the fungi.

[TheMightyEthan]

Maybe you snooty east-coasters use "moulding" for the trim, but around here we leave out the u no matter what kind it is.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I know it's not English as such. But I hate that UK is dd/mm/yy whereas US is mm/dd/yy.

 

Obviously if the date is higher than 12 it's not a problem but who on earth knows what date 03/04 is when you read it on the internet. It's such a stupid thing to have to think about and I bet causes more genuine problems than the Millennium Bug ever did.

 

EDIT: the plaster between the wall and the ceiling: no one's mentioned the term coving?

Edited February 14, 2011 by TheFlyingGerbil

[Mercurial]

Or do what I do ignore time completely

[Battra92]

I know it's not English as such. But I hate that UK is dd/mm/yy whereas US is mm/dd/yy.

 

Obviously if the date is higher than 12 it's not a problem but who on earth knows what date 03/04 is when you read it on the internet. It's such a stupid thing to have to think about and I bet causes more genuine problems than the Millennium Bug ever did.

 

Ugh! You are so right. The correct way is Month, day, year. There is no logic to dd/mm/yyyy. The last day of the year at 12/31/2011 has a distinct smaller to larger pattern. If you want to say 31 December 2011 then at least that makes some sense by dividing the month and the year but MM/DD/YYYY is by far the more logical and thus the correct version.

[MasterDex]

I know it's not English as such. But I hate that UK is dd/mm/yy whereas US is mm/dd/yy.

 

Obviously if the date is higher than 12 it's not a problem but who on earth knows what date 03/04 is when you read it on the internet. It's such a stupid thing to have to think about and I bet causes more genuine problems than the Millennium Bug ever did.

 

Ugh! You are so right. The correct way is Month, day, year. There is no logic to dd/mm/yyyy. The last day of the year at 12/31/2011 has a distinct smaller to larger pattern. If you want to say 31 December 2011 then at least that makes some sense by dividing the month and the year but MM/DD/YYYY is by far the more logical and thus the correct version.

 

I disagree. While mm/dd/yyyy may make more logical sense from a mathematical standpoint, dd/mm/yyyy makes more sense from a cognitive standpoint. Before you have a complete year, you have months and before you have a complete month, you have days so dd/mm/yyyy is more readily understandable. Then there's the fact that the US is practically the only place that uses the mm/dd/yyyy format as standard and the dd/mm/yyyy format is the most widespread globally so if we're going to say there's one correct format, it'd be the dd/mm/yyyy format and the mm/dd/yyyy format is the least correct.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Think about when you say it out loud. "January 5th, 1955." 1/5/55. You could also say "The 5th of January, 1955." 5/1/55. It's really a pointless argument. Both make equal sense.

[Sindo]

DD/MM/YYYY makes sense because goes by quantity. It makes sense to me. D < M < Y. Or you could do it like Korea (or other countries, I don't really know) and use YYYY/MM/DD. Works the same way, just from largest to smallest.

[peteer01]

DD/MM/YYYY makes sense because goes by quantity. It makes sense to me. D < M < Y. Or you could do it like Korea (or other countries, I don't really know) and use YYYY/MM/DD. Works the same way, just from largest to smallest.

I don't really care as long as it's the YYYY format. Going to Costco in Japan and seeing DDMMYY, YYMMDD, MMDDYY and maybe even a few other permutations in there is frustrating as hell when you're not sure if food that's good until 101112 is expired, expiring this year or good until next year.

 

At least from 2013, there'll be less possibilities that lead to confusion.

Edited February 14, 2011 by peteer02

[Battra92]

DD/MM/YYYY makes sense because goes by quantity. It makes sense to me. D < M < Y. Or you could do it like Korea (or other countries, I don't really know) and use YYYY/MM/DD. Works the same way, just from largest to smallest.

 

YYYY/MM/DD makes sense from a file listing point of view. I reorganized a company once who stored all their files in one folder with MM/DD/YYYY format. At least if you're only talking one year those can go in folder and be in order by day without any additional sorting.

 

I'm not seeing how there are more months than days. Unless you are saying that a day is smaller than a month in which case I can see your logic but again in cases of organization (especially automated organization) the DD/MM/YYYY is completely haphazard unless the month is written out.

[deanb]

I'll agree the Japanese method is the best for file organization. I use it from time to time if I'm making multiple versions of a file, just because computers read words --> direction and numbers <--- direction.

 

However in a human to human usage 99% of the time you only need to know the date. Unless you have the memory of a goldfish you don't need to be told what month it is every single day of the month.

If you want to know the date them normal usage you just need to read 14/02/2011. But in US usage you got a bit more to get to the 14 02/14/2011. And the places that use YYYY/MM/DD read <--- way anyway so they're getting same benefit as the normal method.

 

How'd Americans even say 02/14/2011 in regular speech anyway? For it's the fourteenth day of the second month twenty eleven. Or just fourteenth of February, since we tend to not forget the year 2 months in.

 

Still the biggest sign the whole mm/dd/yyyy thing makes jack all sense is that the only country that uses it is US. (Canada grey cos it favours both)

 

Here's a map:

edit:

Here's a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country

(stupid Wikipedia n their love of svg's.

[Battra92]

How'd Americans even say 02/14/2011 in regular speech anyway? For it's the fourteenth day of the second month twenty eleven. Or just fourteenth of February, since we tend to not forget the year 2 months in.

 

Still the biggest sign the whole mm/dd/yyyy thing makes jack all sense is that the only country that uses it is US. (Canada grey cos it favours both)

 

In formal writing in the United States we say today's date is February Fourteenth Two Thousand Eleven Anno Domini (or in the Year of Our Lord) or in more common vernacular we say today is February Fourteenth or just "the fourteenth." It's very rare to hear anyone say that today is "The Fourteenth of February."

 

I don't buy into the argument of "Everyone else but America is doing it so America is wrong" as it comes down to how we say things. I mean 100 years ago it was not uncommon for someone in England to say three and twenty when they meant twenty three.

[MasterDex]

I don't buy into the argument of "Everyone else but America is doing it so America is wrong" as it comes down to how we say things. I mean 100 years ago it was not uncommon for someone in England to say three and twenty when they meant twenty three.

 

That was my point really. There's no method more correct than the other but if we were to rate them, it would be logical to assume the most common method was the correct one. In the end, we all have our own way of doing things, as this thread certainly shows.

[Hot Heart]

Some people take the 'vs' in the title a bit too literally.

[deanb]

Well it's not so much America is "wrong" that they're being needlessly awkward. There's no reason to use that date format and it makes day to day contact, trade, communications etc needlessly complex with additional steps that shouldn't really have to be there.

 

 

As for the whole millennial stuff I prefer to use BCE/CE. Less complicated.

 

 

edIt:

@Hooty: And? It's not like they'll beat us twice. You seen their recent track record?

[Battra92]

As for the whole millennial stuff I prefer to use BCE/CE. Less complicated.

 

See I always thought BCE/CE was just being needlessly politically correct. Besides, it adds an extra letter.