1:02.03 4/5/06

Mercutio

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Jan 17, 2002
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It may have already passed for some folk, but sometime very soon it will be 1:02.03AM on April 5th of '06.

Unless you're in Europe, where the neatness of that date won't happen until May 4th.
 
I think it's America more than Europe that uses the bizzare middle endian date system...

In China I think, and some other parts of the world that would have passed on May the 4th two years ago... As well as in a lot of peoples file systems where big endian dates are much easier to sort (Although generally you'd use a four digit year there so perhaps not)...
 
Mercutio said:
Unless you're in Europe
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Unless you are anywhere except the USA and possibly a handful of other nearby places which, for reasons best known to themselves, share the bizare and nonsensical US date style.

But then, are we surprised? Where else still measures stock prices in eighths, liquid in non-gallons, and weight in pounds? This would be extraordinary in an Afganistan or a Central African Republic, something to be very polite about (when you are not busy pointing and laughing), but we all seem to have become quite used to extraordinary backwardness from this large and wealthy self-styled "world leader".

Err ... how can you be a "leader" when you are lagging the entire rest of the planet by anything between 30 years and a couple of centuries? I suppose it's one of those complex and subtle questions that I never quite understood, sort of like how you can Make the World Safe for Democracy by killing thousands upon thousands of people because they wear funny hats.
 
Well, what do you do when you see somebody measure a length of wood and say it's "16 and five thirty-seconds of a foot", or reach for a calculator because they can't figure out how many feet there are in a litre?
 
Tannin said:
Well, what do you do when you see somebody measure a length of wood and say it's "16 and five thirty-seconds of a foot", or reach for a calculator because they can't figure out how many feet there are in a litre?
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Doesn't it depend on the shape of the litre? You can put a lot more feet in something that is 1.2m x .32m x .002625m than something .08m x.08m x 1.56m
 
Tannin said:
rant...rant...rant
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They are making a lame & feeble attempt to correct the problem. My kid's in 4th grade, and they teach her things in, um, American and International units. Problem is, there's no follow through; freeway and highway signs are marked only in miles, you still buy things in the store in American units etc. Sure the metric equivalents are marked on the containers, but who reads them? You don't go looking for 0.9463529 litres of milk; you buy a quart (er of a gallon).

Instead of a gallon of milk, they should be selling 4 or 3.5 Litres of milk, or instead of a quart, sell a litre (nearest rounded equivalents). With the equivalent of the American units marked. This will force the oldies to adapt, and the young ones will grow up in a "natural" world where the units they've learned are actually used.
 
We tried that in the 70s. Everyone ignored it.
I know of at least one sign on I-74 just outside the little town where I grew up that says "Peoria: 100 kilometers" (not km, mind you, kilometers).
 
In the late 70's early 80's the American car manufacturers changed to metric. It was a costly, right down the the mechanics. I now have two tool boxes; one American, one Metric.

Bozo :mrgrn:
 
I like visiting other countries where the metric system is used. It's quaint. It makes me feel all cultured and well-travelled and stuff. Great idea for attracting tourists. It's almost like a natural wonder; except anyone can have it.

As a traveller it is kind of like roughing it in the woods. There's a certain challenge to figuring out exactly how big, deep or fast. All in all its part of the experience of being away from home.

On the other hand, at home I like the english system. I mean, almost everyone has a foot or two. It's easy to understand. And then there's the inch. Inch-worms are about an inch long. Also easy to understand. A yard? Why, that's three feet. You do have friends, don't you. Borrow a foot or two. Speeds and weights are just as easy.

So if you are handicaped or friendless or not good at english I would suggest using the metric system. If you are currently using the metric system: get some help! There are many organizations dedicated to helping those less fortunate than americans.
 
Howell said:
So if you are handicaped or friendless or not good at english I would suggest using the metric system. If you are currently using the metric system: get some help! There are many organizations dedicated to helping those less fortunate than americans.
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:rotfl:
 
The last hospital I was at was switching between Celcius and Fehren...Fahrienh...Fahrenheite....F. Different hospitals over here generally use one or the other, and most people get used to both, which is fine as long as you keep them separate. One morning I was getting an update from a nurse, who told me that my patient's temp was between 36.4 and 101.2. Luckily the guy wasn't almost frozen and he wasn't boiling.
 
When I was at grade school ('60s) our practical math had a lot of problems involving coversions between English and Metric Linear and Weight systems. We are still quite comfortable with either up to yards. Longer distances were always in kilometers, never in miles.
And we never used the Fahrenheit scale. It was always Centigrade.
 
I can't stand the use of the term centigrade... Aparently it was the correct term prior to 1950 or so when it was ditched because it was unclear (Was also aparently a measurement of an angle). The thing I don't understand is that it seems like just about everyone used imperial measures prior to 1950 anyway, where do people come up with a term that shouldn't have been used since before they ever needed it?

Another thing that kind of gets me is that in Australia we still measure peoples height in feet and inches... It's kind of infuriating, 99% of the time I don't even need to know how long a foot or an inch is and then I all of a sudden have to think about it when I want to know how tall someone is...
 
If you tell me that you are 6'4", I know exactly what you mean. If you tell me you are 192cm, I only know that you are pretty thall, somewhere a bit over 6 feet, I think. Unless I do the conversion, that is.

But that's entirely my fault. I was born in 1959.
 
No, that'z becase you are stupid.

I was born in ... well I'm not sure when I was born in but it was a long time after 1959. So I am perfectly at home with the metric system, and have no problem understanding heights in centimetres.

(Except when they are lots more than normal, say around about 1.3 metres, because it I don't understand tall properly.)

(Except for trees. Trees are different.)
 
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