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

Sat Apr 18 01:28:26 UTC 2020

Rich. I am truly sorry. 💖 also this was great thank you.

-Ben

> On Apr 17, 2020, at 6:09 PM, Rich Kulawiec <rsk at gsp.org> wrote:
> 
> (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