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[Starver]

After just getting over all last week being subjected to people on the news (or newsreaders themselves) talking about PIN Numbers (Personal Identity Number Numbers..?) today as I drive along I see three vans (different companies) advertising their services "24/7/365"...

24/7: All day, every day of the week.  Sounds good enough to me.  But /365?  Ignoring the fact that it's 365.25[1] days in a year, if we're so worried that the "24/7" doesn't indicate clearly enough that all those weeks in the year are equally covered, then we need to use something like "24/7/52+[2]" instead.  Either that or just use "24/365+".  That says to me "We don't care about what day of the week it is, we just do every day there is in a year!"  And potential more economical when it comes to sign-writing.


But hang on!  They're so bothered about making sure that every week in a year is also covered, obviously because we are so pessimistic as to imagine it's this week only that's guaranteed...  But they're still holding back on us... because they're not telling us how many years the 24/365+ (or the other version that's roughly equivalent/blatantly incorrect) applies to....  Unless they mean seven years (24/7/3675 reall means 24/365/7, and taking Feb 29th off to get proposed to by their girlfriends, or something).  But I feel like demanding at least a decade of guaranteed always on-call service.  I'm not going to use you part timers!

Have I made my point?
Good, now please ignore it.

[1] And further ignoring that even that isn't right, just the Julian year (and even then ignores leap centuries!), and that there's sidereal years, tropical years, etc, etc...  Shall we just default to "365+" as a notation to cater for (most) measures of days in a year?

[2] 52+(1.25/7), or similar fraction of the appropriate remainder...

[X] Two minor errors left in as sacrifices to the Pedant's Curse.  Others may still exist.  HTH, HAND.


((In other news, I saw someone up a roof, as well, this morning  Not quite a point so interesting as to generate its own thread, but I just thought I'd mention it while I'm here.  At least as a balm to those who might have regretted reading my above rant.))

[Astramancer]

Yeah, that sort of thing bugs me, too.

Though I can understand PIN number, because, while PIN may have originally been an acronym for Personal Identification Number, but it's now treated as noun in and of itself, making PIN Number a perfectly valid (if somewhat annoying) phrase.  The english language is constantly evolving, and not always in the direction that one would hope.

[Iren]

The guys deserve a free day every 4 years

[Cthulhu]

You should call them and complain that they won't tell you how many years.

24/7/365 is a horrible mangling of something that was once concise and catchy.  I hate people who ruin everything.

[DJ]

365 is obviously not days. Hours/days/days doesn't make any sense, hours/days/weeks is much more logical.

[Il Palazzo]

365 is obviously not days. Hours/days/days doesn't make any sense, hours/days/weeks is much more logical.

A brilliant observation.
365 weeks is almost exactly 7 years(6.9952) - yes, I used the calculator.
This can't be a coincidence. My bet is, the company was set up in December 2005.

[Bauglir]

-snip-

[Starver]

DJ/Il Palazzo: May I refer the honourable gentlemen[1] to the text of my original comment.

Astramancer: Much as the difference between "LASER" and "laser" being acronym and noun, respectively, given we still write "PIN" and not "pin", I'm going to hold my ground on that one!

Bauglir: No, if it was us, I'd know.  Must be you humans.


[1] Possibly sacrificing some accuracy of gender reference for brevity in closely paraphrasing this traditional British parliamentary form of address.  My apologies to any and all ladies involved or otherwise insulted by this.  (I thought it would insult less than "honourable members"...  Honestly.)

[Il Palazzo]

DJ/Il Palazzo: May I refer the honourable gentlemen[1] to the text of my original comment.

Do you mean the part where you mention three companies rather than just one, or the part where you tell us to ignore your ramblings?

[1] Possibly sacrificing some accuracy of gender reference for brevity in closely paraphrasing this traditional British parliamentary form of address.  My apologies to any and all ladies involved or otherwise insulted by this.  (I thought it would insult less than "honourable members"...  Honestly.)

"Honourable member" is something I'd wear on a T-shirt.

[Starver]

DJ/Il Palazzo: May I refer the honourable gentlemen[1] to the text of my original comment.

Do you mean the part where you mention three companies rather than just one, or the part where you tell us to ignore your ramblings?

Well, yes...

But mostly where I already said that hours/days/weeks was more logical.  (Or that it was seven years, within a reasonable error bar of accuracy...)

[1] Possibly sacrificing some accuracy of gender reference for brevity in closely paraphrasing this traditional British parliamentary form of address.  My apologies to any and all ladies involved or otherwise insulted by this.  (I thought it would insult less than "honourable members"...  Honestly.)

"Honourable member" is something I'd wear on a T-shirt.

As long as nobody thought you were an politician.  I wouldn't want to subject you to such humiliation and public derision.  (I think you used to be able to avoid that by being a Lib Dem, but no longer...)

[Il Palazzo]

Damn, you got me. I wasn't really paying attention.

[qwertyuiopas]

That 24 looks inaccrate: What about that day with 25 hours, and the one with 23 hours that everyone loathes? So they will lie or time travel one day each year, and sit around lazily for an hour another day?

[Leafsnail]

Well, noone would understand 24/7/52 (+2) anyway.  They'd probably think it's some obscure foreign phone number or something.

While everyone can immediately tell it means "365 days in a year", ie "Not closed on Christmas" or whatever.

I don't really see what's wrong with "We're always open!" myself, but...

[qwertyuiopas]

"24/7, even holidays" isn't enough for them?

[Il Palazzo]

[1] Possibly sacrificing some accuracy of gender reference for brevity in closely paraphrasing this traditional British parliamentary form of address.  My apologies to any and all ladies involved or otherwise insulted by this.  (I thought it would insult less than "honourable members"...  Honestly.)

"Honourable member" is something I'd wear on a T-shirt.

As long as nobody thought you were an politician.  I wouldn't want to subject you to such humiliation and public derision.  (I think you used to be able to avoid that by being a Lib Dem, but no longer...)

I would wear: "I'm an honourable member..." on the front, and "...while you're just a dick" on the back.
I don't think that my political preferences would matter at that point.