Tuesday at Midnight

[Buff]

I know the technical definition, but I never followed it and don't know of anybody who did either.

Anyways, I am planning on doing some network maintenance at work and I sent out a notice that I was planning on doing it at Tuesday at Midnight.

If you were to be on my mailing list and you got that message, would you assume that I was doing it tonight or tomorrow night?

Technically speaking if I were doing it Tuesday at midnight, then I would be doing it tonite (or rather tomorrow morning at 0:00:01). Thus midnight would be the start of the day. However I don't know of many people who actually followed that. Generally people consider midnight as the end of the day, or so I thought

My colleague got a bit anal on me and made a big fuss about when exactly I am doing the upgrade. I should've known.

I want to know when people are asked to be somewhere Tuesday at midnight, if they would show up at 0:00:01 on Monday morning or 11:59:59 on Tuesday night. Thats a 24 hour difference (less 2 seconds for those who are anal with minute details)

(maybe mods can even make this into a poll?)

[Ford Prefect]

Tuesday @ midnight means 11:59:59 to me. I understand the rationale both ways, but to me midnight means the end of the day, as opposed to the beginning. It's kind of semantics, but it can be confusing semantics as you've illustrated.

[Bagor]

Tuesday night.

I always think of "night" as referring to the end of a day.

[Cliche]

Tuesday at midnight would indicate the day, and then the occurrence, therefore, Tuesday past 11:59:59, or Wednesday morning. Grammatical structure is important when considering this, and is why english is sometimes better than other languages.


Also, it's a network maintenance interval.

[mykalberta]

Its obvious you mean tomorrow night. Only an anal retentive ###### would consider it tonight.

If I were you I would make myself an ARD mailing list (I have one myself) in which emails like that are sanitized and dumbed down to the lowest common denominator.

[enthused]

Originally Posted by Buff

My colleague got a bit anal on me and made a big fuss about when exactly I am doing the upgrade. I should've known.

Would said colleague be working at midnight on either of those nights anyway?

Like most people have said, I'd assume you meant Tuesday night.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Cliche

Tuesday at midnight would indicate the day, and then the occurrence, therefore, Tuesday past 11:59:59, or Wednesday morning. Grammatical structure is important when considering this, and is why english is sometimes better than other languages.


Also, it's a network maintenance interval.

Correct, but technically speaking midnight is 12:00:00, and technically speaking 12:00:00 is the start of the day. 11:59:59 is the end of the day.

Technically speaking Tuesday at midnight is 12:00:00 or 00:00:00 if you prefer military time. Thus making my words mean that I was doing maintenance 24 hours before I meant to say. However, I don't know of many people (save the one co-worker) who thinks of it in this manner.

[REDVAN]

You could remedy this entire issue by saying you will be doing maintenance:

Wednesday August 13, 2008 at 12:00AM.

______

I would argue that "midnight on Tuesday" means 12:00am on Tuesday morning. What defines midnight? Midnight is defined as 12:00am, when the date changes. So if someone told me to show up at midnight on Tuesday, and it was Monday, I would show up at 11:59pm Monday.

Sidenote, OT: something else that pisses me right off is when people think that midnight is 12:00PM, when is is CLEARLY 12:00AM. How dumb can you be that you don't know how time works?

[Gozer]

Midnight is pretty broadly accepted as 24:00 - so Tuesday midnight would be Tuesday at 24:00 (tue-wed bridge), though I agree the proper meaning of tuesday midnight would be the mon-tue bridge.

I try to avoid the use of midnight for exactly that reason.

I had an appointment to pick someone up at the airport, they tell me "2am on saturday night." So I get there at 2 am saturday, no sign of them and no flight from Toronto (where they were coming from). I get a call on Sunday 2am wondering where I am - ARG!

[COGENT]

Never would have considered Monday... definitely Tuesday at 11:59. You co-worker should find something better to worry about.

[Joborule]

I would interprete it as the midnight of Tuesday, meaning 12:00:00 AM Wednesday.

[zukes]

Tuesday @ 12:00:00 am. I was hoping my local EB Games would open since I am off the rest of the week and Madden comes out. No such luck.

[Cliche]

Originally Posted by Buff

Correct, but technically speaking midnight is 12:00:00, and technically speaking 12:00:00 is the start of the day. 11:59:59 is the end of the day.

Technically speaking Tuesday at midnight is 12:00:00 or 00:00:00 if you prefer military time. Thus making my words mean that I was doing maintenance 24 hours before I meant to say. However, I don't know of many people (save the one co-worker) who thinks of it in this manner.

Their (your coworker) etymology of the word midnight is malformed. Mid-night is obviously a contraction of middle of the night, and as such, if you were speaking of Tuesday @ 12:00:00 AM or 00:00:00 would clearly indicate Tuesday morning, and monday at midnight/end of night.
(Since it is the beginning of the day, and cannot be the middle of Tuesday's night, it is the middle of monday's night, when one day slips into the next)

Really, it would depend on what the interpretation of midnight is, either the middle of the night, or 12:00 AM. If the person is sticking to the numeric version really strongly, they should go out and see movies where people don't say what they mean, nor act what they say.

[fredr123]

Our IT people just forgo any maintenance and thereby avoid this issue entirely.

If it's such a big deal with some of the people at your office, why not just say 11:59 pm?

[The Ditch]

Just say Monday at 11:59pm, damn I didn't even see that post above mine.

[Canada 02]

to me there is only one way to interpret tuesday, midnight.

Midnight is exactly 12:00:00AM; one second prior is not exactly midnight, and is still the previous day. In other words, 11:59:59PM is still Monday; add one second and you transition from pm to am and a new day - exactly midnight on Tuesday

11:59:59PM tuesday in not midnight, and is one second prior to being midnight on wednesday

[Locke]

Switch it up and surprise them.

[Barnes]

Just send out a reminder and say 'make sure your computers are logged off before you leave work XXXday'.

[jammies]

Screw him up big-time and use GMT military time: "Upgrade commences at 07:00 GMT August 12 2008. Long live the glorious Leader!" Then give him a noogy and put a clear piece of tape over his phone's mouthpiece.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Only an anal retentive ###### would consider it tonight.

Unless you are the end user who gets the email, and isn't sure if the sender is an anal retentive ###### or not.

I'd just say "Tuesday Night at Midnight."