something new every day

started off simply, at work we needed to rollback to a mysql database from oracle. the data wasn't good on the old mysql database so that had to be wiped. my coworker said he would run a delete on the tables. i suggested using 'truncate' because it makes it easier for database extents and indexes to be created properly. he didn't even know that such a command existed and commented "you learn something new every day." i replied "actually yes".

now in the office we're tracking if that is actually true.

what did i learn today?

lots of little random things that in the big picture doesn't add up to much.

how about this one. someone in the darkroom was printing up pictures from ethiopia. and we got to talk about the country. in ethiopia, 6 o'clock is high noon. the 1 o'clock is one hour after sunrise, 2 o'clock is 2 hours, etc. up to 12 o'clock being sunset. I forgot to ask what time it was when it was say 6 minutes after sunrise.

ethiopia is also on the julian calendar. they 7 years behind, so it is just now the year 2000. they have 13 months in a year, 12 months of 30 days and one month which is five days long.