Wayne and I are having a little…well, a little discussion over my use of 2k5 to give the year instead of 2005.

Wayne wrote:

Just so you know – the 2k5 stuff drives me nuts – technically you should be typing 2.005k at which point it’s just easier to type 2005.

Grant wrote:

wait a minute…..why wouldn’t it be 2k5? a k is a thousand….so is 2 thousand 5…which makes sense.

what the heck is 2.005k….that’s 2 and 5 thousandths….that makes no sense. and the point isn’t what is EASIER – that is so thinking like an engineer…

The point is what is COOLER…more RIGHT BRAINED, if you will…a subject in which you struggle mightily with.

Wayne wrote:

Yes, if you are writing checks you would write two thousand five for 2005, but you would not write 2 thousand 5.

“k�? or “kilo�? is a prefix multiplier meaning 10 raised to the third power (which equals 1000). So, when you say 2.005k you are saying 2.005 x 1000 = 2005. Just like 2.5 kB is 2500 Bytes or 2.5×1000.

Got it?

I have no problem with being right brained – as long as you are technically accurate.

Grant wrote:

Listen, we are not talking about bytes or writing checks. I’m willing to accept a check from you if wish for 2 thousand 5, but we are talking about dates.

Which of course might be another foreign concept for you…(How exactly did you woo Amy G anyway…I mean, she’s really pretty.)

Plus the fact that 2k5 looks better, sounds better, and writes better should override the engineer’s desire to be technically accurate.

9 Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 15, 2005 - 2:24 am | Permalink

    Grant, If you would simply write
    2k+5, it would make everyone happy! V

  • November 15, 2005 - 5:49 am | Permalink

    Ha!!!

  • November 15, 2005 - 10:27 am | Permalink

    My final reply to Grant was this:

    You’re just jealous that I’m right and you are trying to play your non-existent “cool card�

    Don’t you know that engineers have a knack for wooing pretty women? It didn’t hurt matters that I was Italian too :-P

  • November 15, 2005 - 2:39 pm | Permalink

    Wayne I thought you were Mexican?

  • November 15, 2005 - 4:19 pm | Permalink

    “Oxymoron” is the word coming to mind. Two people engaged in a discussion about how to write the date and deciding whose cool card trumps the other….. it just isn’t right.

  • November 15, 2005 - 4:39 pm | Permalink

    Now THAT is funny, Jerry!

  • November 15, 2005 - 4:42 pm | Permalink

    but jerry doesn’t have a cool card either.

  • November 16, 2005 - 9:41 am | Permalink

    and now, the view from canada:

    2k5 is not cool talk; its dork-geek-nerd talk.

    i side with wayne.

    by the way, over the past 2 days, we got 20 centimeters of snow up here. yeah, we calculate stuff in centimeters in canada. thats how we roll.

  • November 16, 2005 - 9:49 am | Permalink

    20cm!!! wow, that’s like 7.87401574803 inches!!! Or 8″ in nice round numbers

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