Often when writing the date on documents (e.g. cheque book if anyone still uses them) we write the date as 25.12.2019 for 25th December 2019 but if you do that now you'd write 25.12.20 and this allows anyone to write a couple of numbers on the end thus maybe post dating the cheque/document. I suggest as from the beginning of this year you may like to get used to using e.g. 25.12.2020.
Just a thought

This piece of advice has been going round facebook etc. for ages.  I guess it depends on what the document is and whether you're really paranoid about what might happen to it. 

I must admit personally I've always written the full 4 digit year unless it's boxes on a pre-printed form.   I also tend to write the month name (or at least the abbreviated name eg Jan, Feb etc.) instead of the month number, this stems from working in IT and getting fed up with ambiguous dates when we had both UK and US offices - you know the kind of thing, eg. is "03/05/2003" 3rd May or March 5th ?  In my line of work I also have to contend with certain programming languages where month numbers run 0 to 11 not 1 to 12 (aaargh!!!!)

Yeah, out of habit I always write the year as four digits.

Except when I forget 

Quote from: ntpntpntp on January 08, 2020, 11:36:58 PM
I must admit personally I've always written the full 4 digit year unless it's boxes on a pre-printed form.   I also tend to write the month name (or at least the abbreviated name eg Jan, Feb etc.) instead of the month number, this stems from working in IT and getting fed up with ambiguous dates when we had both UK and US offices - you know the kind of thing, eg. is "03/05/2003" 3rd May or March 5th ?

Oh yes, don't remind me, the number of clarification mails I used to need to send.

Anyway there is only one proper way of formatting the date, which is this one: https://xkcd.com/1179/ .

 

ISO 8601 compliant dates all the way ... 2020/01/09

The Chinese have been ISO compliant for thousands of years. Most important number comes first.

They do the same with addresses

China
Guangdong Province
Guanzhou City
Pink Street
Number 57

Damn clever!

John P

Pink Street?

So what's that address, then.....   

The same goes for our appalling road marking system.

Is there anywhere else in the world that put the information the wrong way round for the driver???

First should be the lane direction followed by the biggest road number then others after.

Ours has been painted so it reads right from above only yet we dont get that option. And the more idiot drivers rely on slow reacting sat navs everyones trying to change lanes at the last minute 

As for Micks needing, I dont think I've written a cheque for about 15 years. All business expenditure (the only account worth robbing  ) all done as online transactions now.

Quote from: exmouthcraig on January 09, 2020, 06:44:54 AM
As for Micks needing, I dont think I've written a cheque for about 15 years. All business expenditure (the only account worth robbing  ) all done as online transactions now.

If you'd like to PM the account details, specifically any relevant PINs/passwords, account holders' dates of birth, their mothers' maiden names, and any associated telephone numbers, I and my associates would be more than happy to carry out a free and gratis security audit 

Regarding road signs, could be worse, many places here don't have direction signs at all 

Quote from: exmouthcraig on January 09, 2020, 06:44:54 AM

Is there anywhere else in the world that put the information the wrong way round for the driver???

It took me a while when I moved here to get used to seeing

XING
PED

on the roadway. I'm meant to read the bottom word first, realize it's an abbreviation for PEDESTRIAN, then read XING, parse it as CROSSING and then - oops! Too late! Sorry! Didn't see you there!

Personally, I think stuff painted on the road is useless, and at best a bloody distraction.

Having said that, I will put an exception to KEEP CLEAR zones on the road in front of driveways close to traffic lights, and in front of ambulance and fire stations.

Quote from: Bealman on January 09, 2020, 07:06:35 AM
Regarding road signs, could be worse, many places here don't have direction signs at all 

Many round here are really informative...

They point and say




Byway

If you want to see poor road markings, try driving through the A14 roadworks near Cambridge.

They keep moving the lanes, so they paint the old lines out with a black glossy paint. However, the old lines still show through the paint, especially at night or if it's raining, and the black wears off anyhow.

You often see 3 sets of markings, and lines going diagonally across the carriageway.

Most confusing....