It's 2014, this IT problem should be solved by now...
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Mon Jan 27 23:40:34 +0000 2014
What the hell is with that date-time format? Why would you choose to do it that way? And yes, I realize that it is probably the format as provided by Twitter (which I don't use), but still. Why?
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Twitter is the RWTF, of course laughs
And also, cute, what I've known for at least a decade is now matching what Jeff posts on Twitter. I don't know whether I feel vindicated or not by this new development.
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I dunno, but I agree, that's a nuts date format. Probably we're just echoing it. Feel free to submit an improvement to the oneboxer for Twitter!
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ago
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Absolute dates would suffice, since it's an external source anyway.
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Well, here you are viewing a topic reply stream, where each post is related to the one before it -- in time, in space, in topic of conversation, etc.
So relative dates make sense in that context. This reply is n minutes / days / weeks after yours, yes?
Stuff that happens on other websites generally lacks any of those implied or actual relationships.
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They did that right in my last Driver update
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Stuff that happens on other websites generally lacks any of those implied or actual relationships.
But why does that matter?
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Much as I hate to admit it, I find myself in agreement with Jeff on this one, and for the same reason.
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Is it really the job of a video driver to manage desktop icons?
The video driver isn't. The desktop manager is. It noticed some icons were "outside of the workspace" since the screen had, to it, ceased to exist, and to avoid them being Lost Forever it moved them somewhere sane for you.My work system has multiple monitors with icons on both screens. I occasionally need to remotely connect to do some work that only requires one screen, and in those instances only the icons on my primary screen are visible. When I log in later, all the icons on my second monitor are still there. It's like magic!
Most ways to connect remotely don't affect the desktop manager's view of the available workspace, even though the remote connection software has a different view. Most ways of changing video hardware on your system do.
Filed Under: we need a new tag cloud to attack
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I find myself in agreement with Jeff on this one, and for the same reason.
But why does it matter?
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If a Twitter comment is posted and says 5 minutes ago, when it is 5 minutes ago from?
Posts as presented to you are relative to now because that's the overall context - all posts you can see, in relation to each other, relative to 'now'.
For a oneboxed Twitter... '5 minutes ago' might be 5 minutes ago relative to now, inheriting the same context as the page. Or it might be 5 minutes ago to the post in which it is being quoted.
I've seen something similar occur in some forum systems, where quotes are handled similarly - where it takes on board the time/date of the poster's timezone, meaning you can have quotes listed as a very different time to you. (E.g. a post I write at midday is then quoted back to me as 'written at xyz time' because of their timezone even though my timezone is shown to me through my post, if that makes sense)
I may not be explaining it very well but that's the point Jeff was trying to make, I think. And I agree.
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If a Twitter comment is posted and says 5 minutes ago, when it is 5 minutes ago from?
5 minutes from now, obviously. Twitter timestamps are UTC. You can calculate time ago regardless of whatever.
For a oneboxed Twitter... '5 minutes ago' might be 5 minutes ago relative to now, inheriting the same context as the page. Or it might be 5 minutes ago to the post in which it is being quoted.
That makes no sense.
A tweet was posted 2 days ago, according to its own full UTS timestamp, therefore it should show "2 days ago". If it's boxed in a post posted 1 minute ago, then the post says "1 min ago" and the tweetbox says "2 days ago"Where is the ambiguity?
the time/date of the poster's timezone, meaning you can have quotes listed as a very different time to you. (E.g. a post I write at midday is then quoted back to me as 'written at xyz time' because of their timezone even though my timezone is shown to me through my post, if that makes sense)
Twitter timestamps are full UTC, so that problem doesn't happen.
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Yes, I'm well aware of what you can or cannot do in terms of calculating offsets.
Here's the thing... that last point I made was about another forum software that doesn't use UTC. It was an example of how not to do it, sorry for confusing you with that.
OK, so where's the ambiguity? A post from a day ago with a Twitter entry also marked 'a day ago' without providing the full timestamp (bear in mind that's what we're getting at - it's not both, it's either/or in this situation)... is it a day before the post or roughly the same time as the post?
If you provide both, there's no problem. But the comment suggested that it would either relative time or absolute time, not both (inconsistently to how Discourse normally works). But even if it were presented the same way Discourse does it, I could see there being arguments about being unintuitive.
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The video driver isn't. The desktop manager is. It noticed some icons were "outside of the workspace" since the screen had, to it, ceased to exist, and to avoid them being Lost Forever it moved them somewhere sane for you.
Exactly my thought. Hmm...I guess he did say it was the installer:
If display driver installers didn't force your desktop icons from multiple monitors onto the single (primary) display.
I can't imagine why an installer would care about this.
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I can't imagine why an installer would care about this.
Installers reset the driver, thus disabling the second monitor, thus triggering the desktop manager to dump them on the primary monitor.
They're supposed to go right back, though, but I haven't updated my driver in a while so I can't tell if Vista behaves nicely in that respect.
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A post from a day ago with a Twitter entry also marked 'a day ago' without providing the full timestamp is it a day before the post or roughly the same time as the post?
You're saying the datelabel on the box might not be intuitively trusted by forum readers.
Hm.
Maybe. Right now I think if a boxed tweet says "2 days ago" on a tweet, then I would think it's 2 days ago, but my imagination might be entirely wrong.
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If it's part of a post that says 1 day ago, I'd see it as possibly ambiguous. I realise you don't see it that way though.
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Installers reset the driver, thus disabling the second monitor, thus triggering the desktop manager to dump them on the primary monitor.
They're supposed to go right back, though, but I haven't updated my driver in a while so I can't tell if Vista behaves nicely in that respect.
OK. That makes sense. The installer was even kind of a red herring, then.
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day ago, I'd see it as possibly ambiguous
Yeah. Does that mean yesterday or 24 hours ago?
I turn off relative dates everywhere that I can.
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That wasn't what I meant but yes
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A tweet was posted 2 days ago, according to its own full UTS timestamp, therefore it should show "2 days ago". If it's boxed in a post posted 1 minute ago, then the post says "1 min ago" and the tweetbox says "2 days ago"
What if a oneboxed tweet that is from "2 hours ago" is edited into a post that is from "2 days ago"?I think if a boxed tweet says "2 days ago" on a tweet, then I would think it's 2 days ago
From when you're reading it? Yeah, that's what I would think normally too, which would be misleading (since post content is baked and time stamps likely wouldn't update like they do on posts and topics), but maybe you'd learn to use what's in the onebox and add on whatever is on the post then it's OK, except for my situation above, since edits don't change the "X ago" of the post.
Filed under: [This is way too much thinking for a Friday](#tag)
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What if a oneboxed tweet that is from "2 hours ago" is edited into a post that is from "2 days ago"?
Then we have a problem.
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I find relative dates to be analagous to formatting dates as strings in SQL. You make it prettier, but it loses some meaning.
Take note, @codinghorror
