Binary shelf life



  • There are plenty of normal ways to record the best-before date on a chocolate bar... print the date on the wrapper, stamp it on, attach a sticker... but that's for wimps. There are 10 types of people in this world: those that understand binary, and those that don't. This chocolate bar appears to be for the former only:

    Binary notation: the best-before date on a Vivani chocolate bar

     

     I have to say, though, there is something quite satisfying about the idea that the maximum day possible in this notation is 31!



  • I've never seen anything like that before! You would have thought it would be easier just to print the date on the wrapper?! 



  • @PhillS said:

    You would have thought it would be easier just to print the date on the wrapper?!
     

    Maybe they have some machine in their production queue that needs to decode the date after the chocolate has already been wrapped. There must be some reason for that... there must be...



  • They're going to look pretty silly when Smarch 32nd, 200C rolls around.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @gutch said:

    There are 10 types of people in this world:
    ... those that understand trinary, those that don't and those that mistake it for binary. You are perhaps the latter?




  • I guess the machine that does this can't ever run out of ink.

    Instead, you'll just get hanging chads. 



  • @gutch said:

    There are 10 types of people in this world:

    ...those that use tally marks and wonder what the hell that 'O' is doing in there. 



  • @gutch said:

    There are 10 types of people in this world: those that understand binary, and those that don't.
     

     

    That's only 2 dumbass. 



  • @tdittmar said:

    @PhillS said:

    You would have thought it would be easier just to print the date on the wrapper?!
     

    Maybe they have some machine in their production queue that needs to decode the date after the chocolate has already been wrapped. There must be some reason for that... there must be...

     

    But if that is the case, the background would need to be a different colour, so that it could read the date again.  



  • @tdittmar said:

    @PhillS said:

    You would have thought it would be easier just to print the date on the wrapper?!
     

    Maybe they have some machine in their production queue that needs to decode the date after the chocolate has already been wrapped. There must be some reason for that... there must be...

     

    Clearly the reason is that this method allows the chocolate to be made edible for an extra -- in this case --  25 days.  All you have to do is punch out some more numbers.  Although I'm hesitant to eat a candy bar dated February 31st...



  • @bobday said:

    @gutch said:

    There are 10 types of people in this world: those that understand binary, and those that don't.
     

    That's only 2 dumbass. 

     

    I also got pre-emptive satisfaction from knowing that someone would say this.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @gutch said:

    @bobday said:

    That's only 2 dumbass. 

     

    I also got pre-emptive satisfaction from knowing that someone would say this.

    It clearly wasn't orange enough.


  • @bobday said:

    @gutch said:

    There are 10 types of people in this world: those that understand binary, and those that don't.
     

     

    That's only 2 dumbass. 

     

    Yes. This is one example of a joke which has been distributed by people who think they know binary, but don't.

    Clearly the number 10 ( = 1010b ) should have been replace by 2 ( = 10b ).
    </sarcasm>

    Seriously, the normal convention is to use plain numbers only when speaking about base 10 (ten) numbers, or it is clearly stated that it is a different type.
    - which is probably why I don't think this joke is funny.

     



  • @PhillS said:

    I've never seen anything like that before! You would have thought it would be easier just to print the date on the wrapper?! 

     

    High-speed, industrial-strength production line printers can be big and expensive (I used to write software for them). It might make more sense for a smallish operation to just have simple metal teeth integrated with the wrapping machine; just reset them once a day.

     



  • @SenTree said:

    High-speed, industrial-strength production line printers can be big and expensive (I used to write software for them). It might make more sense for a smallish operation to just have simple metal teeth integrated with the wrapping machine; just reset them once a day.
     

    Agreed. I cannot see any WTF here. 

    Just because they are not using 'state of the art' technology, I don't  think they qualify as a wtf. 



  •  So.

    How was the chocolate? 

    This is one of those Merci things, isn't it? Those are nice. 



  • @dhromed said:

     So.

    How was the chocolate? 

    This is one of those Merci things, isn't it? Those are nice. 

     

    Ugh before lunch... Thanks guys...



  • i'd guess it's Vivani Dark & Cream.

     

    TRWTF: 

    The Real WTF



  • Personaly I'd love a binary dated Chocolate Bar!

     @bobday said:

    @gutch said:

    There are 10 types of people in this world: those that understand binary, and those that don't.
     

     

    That's only 2 dumbass. 

     

     

    Best...comment....ever!

     ...Posibily



  • @gutch said:

    There are 10 types of people in this world: those that understand binary, and those that don't.

    Actually, there are 11 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, those who don't, and those who try to tell this joke out loud.

    Which is hysterical.



  • @CDarklock said:

    Actually, there are 11 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, those who don't, and those who try to tell this joke out loud.

    Good comeback! 



  • @CDarklock said:

    Actually, there are 11 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, those who don't, and those who try to tell this joke out loud.

    Which is hysterical.

    I loved this joke so much I told it to a co-worker.  That's like a meta-WTF. 



  •  @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @SenTree said:

    High-speed, industrial-strength production line printers can be big and expensive (I used to write software for them). It might make more sense for a smallish operation to just have simple metal teeth integrated with the wrapping machine; just reset them once a day.
     

    Agreed. I cannot see any WTF here. 

    Just because they are not using 'state of the art' technology, I don't  think they qualify as a wtf. 

    The WTF is nothing to do with mechanics. The WTF is that the manufacturer expects people to understand binary notation... if they want people outside this forum to understand their best-before date they should have decimal numbers. If there isn't enough room for all days from 1 to 31 then at least picking weekly numbers (say 7, 14, 21, 28) would have been clearer to the Man On The Street than binary.



  • @gutch said:

    The WTF is nothing to do with mechanics. The WTF is that the manufacturer expects people to understand binary notation... if they want people outside this forum to understand their best-before date they should have decimal numbers. If there isn't enough room for all days from 1 to 31 then at least picking weekly numbers (say 7, 14, 21, 28) would have been clearer to the Man On The Street than binary.

    Well, it doesn't look like there is enough room.  And this isn't nearly as obtuse as real binary is.  If somebody doesn't know to add the days together the worse that will happen is that they will eat it on the 24th instead of the 6th.  Considering that it doesn't expire for a year and that most expiration dates are fairly conservative, there's probably no issue there.  I mean, who the hell looks at the expiration date on candy anyway?  I don't actually like candy, but do people actually buy a chocolate and keep it in the fridge for a year before deciding to eat it? 



  • @gutch said:

    The WTF is nothing to do with mechanics. The WTF is that the manufacturer expects people to understand binary notation... if they want people outside this forum to understand their best-before date they should have decimal numbers. If there isn't enough room for all days from 1 to 31 then at least picking weekly numbers (say 7, 14, 21, 28) would have been clearer to the Man On The Street than binary.
     

    a) This is not binary as such. Any idiot can add.

    b) How many people actually check the date on a candy bar??



  • @Mrrix32 said:

    Personaly I'd love a binary dated Chocolate Bar!

     @bobday said:

    @gutch said:

    There are 10 types of people in this world: those that understand binary, and those that don't.
     

     

    That's only 2 dumbass. 

     

     

    Best...comment....ever!

     ...Posibily

     

    Plz sent me teh binary chocolatez too!  Pity the month isn't also binary.

    And yeah, that is an epic comment, because it's impossible to determine whether 'gutch' was serious or not.  (hopefully not) 



  • The mix of number formattings is disturbing. they could have quite easily fitted another 10 or so slots in and just used a more logical 32bit Unix timestamp.

    That would also give them another 28 years to play with. Working on the basis of them currently having to redo the wrapper design every 3 years, that's quite a saving that they're missing out on. Noobs.



  • @olm said:

    Seriously, the normal convention is to use plain numbers only when speaking about base 10 (ten) numbers, or it is clearly stated that it is a different type.
    - which is probably why I don't think this joke is funny.

    Quite right, quite right. Now, there are 02 kinds of people who understand octal... wait, this doesn't really work...



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    I don't actually like candy
     

    TRWTF 



  • @Eternal Density said:

    Plz sent me teh binary chocolatez too!  Pity the month isn't also binary.
    Dude, you came on yesterday and put the same joke on at least three different threads.  WTF?



  • @belgariontheking said:

    @Eternal Density said:

    Plz sent me teh binary chocolatez too!  Pity the month isn't also binary.
    Dude, you came on yesterday and put the same joke on at least three different threads.  WTF?

     

    Not to mention coming on and posting nonsense to bump Lysis' trolling thread.



  • There are 11 types of people, those who can count in Binary and those who can't.



  •  The real WTF is that anyone thinks chocolate ever lasts until its use-by...it just doesn't happen.

     Especially when I'm in the same room as the aforementioned chocolate :-)



  • HAHAHAHA!!! 



  • There are 12 kinds of people: those who can count in trinary, those who can't, those who try reading base-related jokes out loud, those who are now thinking about 'all your base', those who would buy this on a t-shirt, those who think this is getting too long, and those who realise this is actually pentary.


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