[Closed] Simple things that passed you by for years.

Only recently noticed the Garmin logo with the arrow over the N, like a compass innit.

[img] [/img]

My Ford Transits fuel gauge arrow points the wrong way then!

I didn't get the "it's always in the last place you look" phrase for years 😳

Can some one explain Kaffenback?

Kaffenback - Cafe (caff) and Back - a bike for nipping to the cafe.

Kaffenback - Cafe (caff) and Back - a bike for nipping to the cafe.

The story behind 'Uncle John' is quite amusing

Ok, what's the Uncle John story?

It was a disturbing amount of time before I got the "altogether" joke in Police Squad/Airplane... I think I even had to have it explained to me...

Drebbin: "It's a different kind of joke altogether"

Everyone: "It's a different kind of joke"

Ok, what's the Uncle John story?

Brant had an Uncle John. It's a [i]cross[/i] bike...

I've just rectified my laces. Every day's a school day.

It has always annoyed me that Americans write dates in the format YYYY/MM/DD. What annoyed me even more was when I realised yesterday that this makes perfect sense because numerical and chronological order will be the same, so lists of files that start with a date will already be in order.

They win this round.

They win this round.

Except they don't.

US format is MM/DD/YYYY. The one that makes sense (YYYY/MM/DD) is ISO.

Brant had an Uncle John. It's a cross bike...

Theres a wake and wardrobe too

It only really dawned on me recently that imperial measurements are all about dividing things up physically - in the way that a shopkeeper would have a block of something and cut it up into portions. Doing that in metric makes the numbers go all ugly.

It only really dawned on me recently that imperial measurements are all about dividing things up physically - in the way that a shopkeeper would have a block of something and cut it up into portions. Doing that in metric makes the numbers go all ugly.

Also alot of them are in base 12 which divides by 2,3,4 and 6.

Where as 10 only divides by 2 and 5.

This may make them easier to work with when doing mental arithmetic.

gonefishin - Member
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound

Yes.

The falling tree creates vibrations in the air, which causes our inner-ear gubbins to vibrate, which in turn, the human / animal brain [i]interprets[/i] as 'sound'.

No one around, no ear, no brain = no sound.

That the alphabet song is the same as 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star', which is actually Mozart's 'Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman.'

Doing that in metric makes the numbers go all ugly.

Because we picked the wrong base.

Base 12 would be much better. Then you can divide in halves, quarters, thrids etc without any bother at all. Too late now though. We've already learnt our times table.

Except the answer is no. Assuming 'no one is around to hear' means no living beings, so no fluffy bunnies or owt, either.

The falling tree creates vibrations in the air, which causes our inner-ear gubbins to vibrate, which in turn, the human / animal brain interprets as 'sound'.

No one around, no ear, no brain = no sound.

That's just twisiting the definition of the word sound. E.g. does an ultrasonic sanner make a sound, yes. Can we hear it, no. Does this make a difference, No. How about those high frequency devices that they proposed to deter young people gathering in groups. If it's but there are no young people to hear it is it making a sound, yes.

It's not twisting the definition of the word, it's an interesting philosophical question.

US format is MM/DD/YYYY. The one that makes sense (YYYY/MM/DD) is ISO.

Really? A lot of the American documents I have seen use YYYY/MM/DD. Maybe military stuff though.

What is ISO and who uses it?

When the earth is swallowed up by the sun, will it continue to emit light despite there being no-one to see it? Yes. Same thing. The question isn't interesting, it's philisophical navel gazing.

I've just rectified my laces. Every day's a school day.

Woo hoo - two in one thread. I feel slightly less thick for not knowing this myself now.

we picked the wrong base.
Base 12 would be much better

And we don't even teach kids Base 10 properly.

Think about it, we teach kids to count from 1 to 10.

That's stupid.

We should teach them to count from 0 to 9 since that is what every unit position in Base 10 actually does.

That's just twisiting the definition of the word sound

Noun

1. Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium [b]and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear.[/b]

What is ISO and who uses it?

ISO is just the standards body (International Organization for Standardisation), [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601 ] ISO 8601 is an international standard for writing dates[/url].

On the subject of features hidden in plain sight on company logos, I only recently noticed that Amazon have an arrow going A -> Z.

Like Graham S, I also only recently realised that a shoelace bow was meant to be a quick release reef knot, but I was tying a quick release granny knot. But I haven't been able to adjust my habit on that one.

I made the switch a few years ago. It's considerably easier if you tie the first knot 'backwards' rather than trying to reverse how you create the bow.

That the alphabet song is the same as 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star', which is actually Mozart's 'Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman.'

... as is 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'.

Noun

1. Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear.

Also +1 on the shoelace site! I think you (or someone else) posted about it a couple of weeks ago. My mind was blown then, too. Can't believe I'd been doing it wrong all those years. The whole website is great too. Reminds me of the early days of the web when all sites were like that - a little odd, about random things, where the author is clearly very passionate!

Base 12 phooey. Base 60 all the way!! 😀

1. Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear.

so 'ultrasound' would be a misnomer then

Whilst on the subject of base 12 and base 60, did you know that it's possible to count to twelve using only one hand, by pointing to each finger bone with the thumb? Each finger has three bones, so four fingers x three bones = twelve!! Very satisfactory 🙂

Nah, I'm with Rusty on this one. If it get's heard, it's a sound, otherwise it's just a vibration.

That was where my amateur naval gazing got me to so far. Humans have just evolved in a way that our brains attach a certain reaction to detecting vibrations of a particular wavelength. It's similar to a bit of scientific kit which detects vibrations and visualises it on a screen. The tree doesn't actually produce the nice patterns on the screen, that's just how the kit interprets the vibrations.

There's lots of other interesting theories/questions which follow, which seems to be taking up a bit too much of my time at the moment 🙂

Anyone remember QXL? A onetime competitor of Ebay. Years ago my company did a project for them and no-one on the project seemed to think the name came from the phonetic sounds - too tenuous I suppose. Well I think I was right....

I'm going to have to go back and check out this shoe lace site. I assume I am doing it correctly...

Edit: Phew, that's a relief. Although I am only doing the 'standard' knot. Perhaps I should branch out a little bit.

That it wasn't

"...the Wombles of Wimbledon, common are we"

but in fact

"...the Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we"

Duh 😳

When the earth is swallowed up by the sun, will it continue to emit light despite there being no-one to see it? Yes.

That it wasn't

"...the Wombles of Wimbledon, common are we"

but in fact

"...the Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we"

Duh

I thought that was the point of the lyric that it could be read either way. Also as they went around picking up litter there was some kinda eco/socialist/common thing about them.

as a child i had to fill in a form. at the top was a box stating 'day, month, year' so they knew my dob.
i stupidly wrote 'wednesday' in the day box. took a couple of years before i realised. numpty.

did you know that it's possible to count to twelve using only one hand

Pffft.. use base 2 and you can count to 31 on five fingers - though it takes some dexterity. 😀

[img] [/img]

I always believed in the 'I before E, excpept after C' rule.

I only realised recently that it's very flawed. It has caught me out loads of times.

Actually, it's still catching me out!

Whilst on the subject of base 12 and base 60, did you know that it's possible to count to twelve using only one hand, by pointing to each finger bone with the thumb? Each finger has three bones, so four fingers x three bones = twelve!! Very satisfactory

Very satisfactory indeed!

No. It will continue to emit electromagnetic radiation, certain wavelengths of which the now extinct race of humanoids used to call 'light'.

What we call it doesn't make any difference to what it is.

This isn't even philosophical navel gazing. Its just semantics.

Whilst on the subject of base 12 and base 60, did you know that it's possible to count to twelve

You can count to 144 in base 12 if you use both hands.

It takes 2 owls to make the Twit-twoo sound. One makes the twit and the other answers it with the to woo sound

Cool huh?

I've been tying laces right all my life ( who knew!!)

You can count to 144 in base 12 if you use both hands.

Or 1023 if you use Base 2. 😀

There are loads of examples of the hidden things in logos: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/10/the-hidden-meaning-behind-really-good-logos/

Or 1023 if you use Base 2.

Yes but even if you are good its hard.

144 (or 100 in base 12) would be very easy if we were familiar with base 12. But we aren't, because of the sodding Romans.

It takes 2 owls to make the Twit-twoo sound. One makes the twit and the other answers it with the to woo sound

Cool huh?

Bugger I should have said that. I'm reading The Once and Future King at the moment and it says in there!

It takes 2 owls to make the Twit-twoo sound. One makes the twit and the other answers it with the to woo sound

now how did i remember that? 😉

I too have only recently realised my naivety in thinking being good at your job was the key to success and that soft skills are as essential as the hard technical ones.

I have also just realised that the genders think in very, very different ways which I will never understand and caution is the watch word.

That trust should be given very, very sparingly.

That worry is really useless.

There are loads of examples of the hidden things in logos

Here are some more things less well hidden in logos 🙂

[url= http://www.b3ta.com/features/phalliclogoawards/ ]http://www.b3ta.com/features/phalliclogoawards/[/url]

[img] [/img]

144 (or 100 in base 12) would be very easy if we were familiar with base 12.

Base 6 (aka Senary) actually makes the most sense for counting on your hands, as the right hand can be the units and the left hand the "sixes".

But that only lets you count to 35 (base 10) on two hands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senary

[i](I'm such a geek)[/i]

Base 6 (aka Senary) actually makes the most sense for counting on your hands, as the right hand can be the units and the left hand the "sixes".

This method is also how you get to 144 (or actually 0-143) in base 12.

left hand use your thumb as a pointer for the "twelves"
Right hand use your thumb as a pointer for the "ones"

Where your finger bones are the units (and we handily have 12 of each on each hand)

Holding shift and right click in windows explorer shows the "open command window here" option.
Can't believe I didn't know this existed in windows, could have saved me a good dose of RSI!

left hand use your thumb as a pointer for the "twelves"
Right hand use your thumb as a pointer for the "ones"

Cunning, but somewhat harder for someone else to read at a distance than just using fingers, e.g. ordering 143 beers in a noisy bar 😉

Also if you can count to twelve on one hand then isn't it actually Base 13 or are you using the first finger bone as zero?

e.g. ordering 143 beers in a noisy bar

well its a bit early but as you're offering...

Windows have "sills"
I was convinced they has "stills"

I realised I was wrong after buying my first house ...
I, too, have gone through the shoelace epiphany

Why anyone would want to smell of toilet water... If I'm honest i still don't get it LOL

The logo for A Style probably isn't representing someone getting their back doors banged in....

Stunned by the wombles. I really thought there were just loads of them, thus making them common

I used to think in that mcdonalds advert, the song was addressing the ingredients, rather than giving quantities, ie

"to all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce..... etc"

rather than
"two all-beef patties..."

Nah, I'm with Rusty on this one. If it get's heard, it's a sound, otherwise it's just a vibration.

Erm, that's what the dictionary definition says...

twit is the male owl
twoo the female.

Nice try but I'm calling BS on that!

I didn't get the "it's always in the last place you look" phrase for years

bleeding thing won't embed

twit is the male owl
twoo the female.

Nice try but I'm calling BS on that!

[url= http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/tawnyowl.htm ]A Tawny Owl never calls "twit twoo". In fact the "twit" or more accurately "ke-wick" is a Tawny Owl's contact call and the "twoo" or again more accurately "hoo-hoo-oooo" is the male's territorial call. Consequently, if you hear "ke-wick hoo-hoo-oooo" it is most likely a male answering a female (or another male). Both can be heard in the recording[/url]

or

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Tawny_Owl ]Tawny owls are the most common and widespread of British owls. They emit the characteristic courtship ‘twit-twooo’ which is actually a duet between male and female. [/url]

Why anyone would want to smell of toilet water

Or smell like the Hindenberg

Eau de humanity!

[quote=dirtycrewdom ]twit is the male owl
twoo the female.
Nice try but I'm calling BS on that!

It's actually the other way round

"Twit" or "keewick" is the female (think of it as the female calling the male a twit"

"toowoo" or "hoot" is the male response

http://www.wildowl.co.uk/owlcalls.html

Why anyone would want to smell of toilet water... If I'm honest i still don't get it LOL

toilet (n.)
1530s, "cover or bag for clothes," from Middle French toilette "a cloth, bag for clothes," diminutive of toile "cloth, net" (see toil (n.2)). Sense evolution is to "act or process of dressing" (1680s); then "a dressing room" (1819), especially one with a lavatory attached; then "lavatory or porcelain plumbing fixture" (1895), an American euphemistic use. Toilet paper is attested from 1884 (the Middle English equivalent was arse-wisp). Toilet training is recorded from 1940.

So it's the Yanks muddying the (toilet) water. 🙄

I shall be using "arse-wisp" henceforth.

Cunning, but somewhat harder for someone else to read at a distance than just using fingers, e.g. ordering 143 beers in a noisy bar

Well obviously here you would just revert to the 1-12 system (like the 1-10 system but utilising either one or two closed fists as the extra digits)

Also if you can count to twelve on one hand then isn't it actually Base 13 or are you using the first finger bone as zero?

Pedant!

Although this just highlights the need for an ISO standard for fingercounting once we move to the base 12 system where the first digit is zero.

Although this just highlights the need for an ISO standard for fingercounting

What good is an ISO for finger counting if you're [url= http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Normal%20for%20Norfolk ]NfN[/url]?

I was quite far down the road before I realised the Doh a Deer song was actually muscial scales. My daughters were watching it on Video (remember them) one day and suddenly it clicked. Quite clever really.

Musicals were/are not my thing really.

I always thought the 'conservative' party was just a name that they called the political party. It wasn't until years later that I realised that this is their approach also, less inclined to change.

It's actually the other way round

"Twit" or "keewick" is the female (think of it as the female calling the male a twit"

"toowoo" or "hoot" is the male response

http://www.wildowl.co.uk/owlcalls.html

surroundedbyhills - Member
I was quite far down the road before I realised the Doh a Deer song was actually muscial scales.

I bet the surroundedbyhills were alive with the sound of music after that.

i did indeed get my twits mixed up. embarrassed as i'm a bit of a bird geek, with owls being my favourite.

Really? I just thought it was an attempt for a cheap jab but you got busted! 😉

Holding shift and right click in windows explorer shows the "open command window here" option.

If you go into regedit, drill down to hkey_classes_root\drectory\shell\cmd and delete the Extended key, it makes it always appear so you don't need to hold Shift any more.

dirtycrewdon - see what happens when a girl tries to be clever, it backfires 😳

Your joke still works though Bunnyhop. I imagine the exchange like this:

Female (angrily): [i]"Twit!"[/i]

Male (confused): [i]"Whoo?"[/i]

😀

Why anyone would want to smell of toilet water

It always amuses me when British people complain about Americans using 'bathroom' for the place you go to wee, and say 'IT'S A TOILET YOU SILLY PEOPLE'. The word 'toilet' is just as much of a euphamism, but probably a more extreme one because frequently the bathroom does actually contain a bath, but very rarely do we keep our clothes in there.

Don't the yanks say "restroom", which only really applies if you sit down to wee. 🙂

For many years I thought that the Toysrus dinosaur that the popular toy shop was named after looked awfully like a giraffe.