Out of idle curiosity this morning, here’s a question for those of you who have served in the military:
How many of you are still using 24-hour and DDMMYYYY calendar format on your digital devices?
I turned in my kit 28 years ago this month and I still do it. My digital watches are all set to military time, and so are all my computers. Of course, it comes easier to someone who grew up in Europe because of the far more common use of 24-hour time over there, so everyone’s fluid in both notations. (In conversation, people in Germany tend to use 12-hour time, but all the timetables and airport status displays and such are in 24-hour time.)
When I got this Suunto Core, I was pleased to find that not only does it let you use 24-hour time (which is a common feature on digital watches) but also the DD.MM format for the date (which is far less common; watches sold in the US overwhelmingly feature the MM.DD notation.) Because even though I am fluent in imperial measurements and the AM/PM notation after 26 years here, my brain still wants to read the date the military way, day followed by month followed by year.
I was never military, but both my parents did shift work when I was growing up. Dad always used 24hr time, growing up with it because his Dad was an air traffic controller, and having done his military service. The hospitals where Mum worked did the same, so I guess I just grew up looking at time that way. At Uni I worked at the morgue, doing shift work, so again 24hr clocks.
The date format is a bit different for me. I’m in New Zealand where we all write the date DDMMYYYY.
Not only do I still use it but I’m training my kids (7 & 5 years old) in It too. Out of the British Army 6 years.
Really enjoying your books.
Wow, OK. Actually main reason why it stuck out so much is because earlier in the book when Andrew goes for a run to the range he measures distance in kilometers, which was a pleasant surprise and I thought “yes, this is really the future” 🙂
(what it reminded me of is https://www.simscale.com/blog/2017/12/nasa-mars-climate-orbiter-metric/ )