24x7 vs 24x7x365 Re: Constant Abuse Reports / Borderline Spamming from RiskIQ

Sat Apr 18 01:08:52 UTC 2020

(since it's Friday and we're all stressed)

I can't believe that out of everything I wrote that we're going to discuss
the semantics of this, but then again: yes I can.  I should have known.
I should have known.  I. Should. Have. Known.  *bangs head on desk*
*reaches for scotch*  Alrighty then:

24x7 means every hour of the week, as in "24 by 7".

24x365 means every hour of the year. (modulo those with 366 days
	but please let's not go there because this is bad enough)
	(oh wait, too late, someone upthread already went there)
	(and then leap seconds reared their ugly head, oh good grief)

24x7x365 thus means every hour of 7 years.  YES, I know, I know.

60x24x7...no.  NO.  I will not go there.  Nor will you.  Just stop.
	I swear I will turn this car around *right now*.

Yeah, I know it's in common use.  Like any number of other things in
common use (e.g., "going forward" -- really?  like there's another
direction to go?) it's...annoying.

I suspect that someone who just wasn't thinking started this in an
attempt to out-promote people who merely said 24x7 or 24x365, and it
propagated outwards.  If that hypothesis is correct and there is thus
a patient 0 for this epidemic, I very much want to find them and pummel
them with a bag of Oxford commas.

----rsk