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  1. 19th June 2009, 02:30 PM #1
    SteveClark
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    Default Computers and the metric system

    G'day all

    Australia adopted the metric system beginning 1972 in primary school education. Most of the people who correspond on these forums (fora?) would have known nothing else. The conversion has been almost complete with a few things like new-born baby weights and football players heights still regularly quoted in pounds or feet respectively. Car wheel size is another example.

    For all its high tech nature even the computer industry cannot shake-off a couple of ancient units. We have 13 inch Macbooks, 24 inch Cinema displays, 2.5 inch hard drives and 300 dots/inch printers and scanners.

    Why? (I'm sure the americans are to blame).

    Discuss!

    Cheers
    Steve

    p.s. I've nearly saved up enough for a shiny new 330.2 mm MacBook Pro.
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  2. 19th June 2009, 02:32 PM #2
    DaveOZ
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    One word.... Yanks. They will never change.

    Timber really makes me laugh. 2.4m of 2"x4" please.
    Dave
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  3. 19th June 2009, 02:38 PM #3
    ClockWork
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    and people still become morbidly obese from consuming 4.5 gram burgers from MacDonald's

    five on one hand - half a.. half a 10 on the other
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  4. 19th June 2009, 02:56 PM #4
    SteveClark
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    I forgot some other examples - quarter pounders and footlong subs, penis size, bicycles.

    I work in the agricultural sector and we'll never get rid of acres, inches of rain, 'bags' of grain etc.
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  5. 19th June 2009, 02:56 PM #5
    decryption
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    As much as I love America (Nike shoes, Big Macs and Apple computers - what's not to love?!), their imperial system use shits me.

    Feet, pounds, ounces, inches and miles - I have little concept of what these are. "Oh it weighs 5 pounds" - I don't know what 5 pounds feels like, but 2kg, I can relate to.
    I write a lot of shit here: http://anthonywrites.posterous.com
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  6. 19th June 2009, 03:00 PM #6
    Exocet
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    Any measurement shorter than 1m I generally estimate in feet, and measurements less than a foot in inches. Just seems like a natural sort of measurement to me - I'm 22 and have been brought up on the metric system.
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  7. 19th June 2009, 03:00 PM #7
    DaveOZ
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    tyres are funny too. 225mm wide 17" diameter.
    Dave
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  8. 19th June 2009, 03:10 PM #8
    ClockWork
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    Quote Originally Posted by DaveOZ View Post
    tyres are funny too. 225mm wide 17" diameter.
    ha... yeah... they are funny...



    Damn Canadians... and you thought you had a crap childhood.
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  9. 19th June 2009, 03:13 PM #9
    chrism238
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    "They shouldn't have introduced the metric system until all the old people died out!"

    Australia started its metric conversion in 1966, firstly with its currency.
    It was believed that converting people's thoughts about money would be the most difficult, and take longest.
    It's better to burn out than it is to rust.
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  10. 19th June 2009, 03:24 PM #10
    brawlster
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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveClark View Post
    G'day all


    For all its high tech nature even the computer industry cannot shake-off a couple of ancient units.
    In the film industry it's a train smash. The funny thing is that even the Americans have 50mm lenses and use 35mm film. Video sensor size though is imperial...2/3" or 1/4" for example. But focus pullers always measure in feet and inches all over the world and film loads are always in feet.

    " Gimme a 50mm lens on that 35mm camera focused to 6'8" but I want an 85mm lens on the 2/3" HD camera. Set both Lens height at 1.64 meters and lets load a 1000' mag instead of the 400' mag for this one.....!!! Ohh and lets use the 3/8" screw instead of the 1/4" for rigging. "

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  11. 19th June 2009, 08:03 PM #11
    Granny Mac
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    It amazes me men (in general) still prefer penis size in inches. After all I would have thought 15cm sounds better than 6"
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  12. 19th June 2009, 08:13 PM #12
    The_Hawk
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    Quote Originally Posted by Granny Mac View Post
    It amazes me men (in general) still prefer penis size in inches. After all I would have thought 15cm sounds better than 6"
    I think 6" sounds bigger than 15cm...
    His & Hers MBA 13" | Mac Mini | iPhone 4S 64GB | 2TB Time Capsule | iPod Classic/Nano/Touch | iPad
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  13. 19th June 2009, 08:31 PM #13
    toholio
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    Quote Originally Posted by ClockWork View Post
    half a.. half a 10 on the other
    I believe that would be a semi-decafinger. A good old unit for us good old boys.

    *twirls handlebar moustache*
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  14. 16th July 2009, 01:54 PM #14
    Bogus Jimmy
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    I guess I'm OK with whole inches, i.e. MacBooks, Plasmas & LCDs and feet for height, eg 5'11".

    What I'm not OK with is fractions of inches (seem to be used a lot with spanners/bolts), and ounces, pounds because these just mean nothing to me.
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  15. 16th July 2009, 02:07 PM #15
    kevinnugent
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    We rented a car in San Francisco a couple of years ago, and the speedometer was in kilometres per hour. The speed limits are all signposted in Miles Per Hour. The temperature gauge was in Fahrenheit though to completely confuse me.
    MacBook Pro 15" 2.4/500GB, iPhone 4S 32GB Black, several iPads.
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  16. 16th July 2009, 02:37 PM #16
    Abaddon
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    Quote Originally Posted by Granny Mac View Post
    It amazes me men (in general) still prefer penis size in inches. After all I would have thought 15cm sounds better than 6"
    What are you talking about....everyone knows penis sizes only start at 9" ....er 22.86 cm.

    Personally I convert all measurements to Cubits. Makes it a bit tricky with weights but at least it's consistent.
    If you can keep your head while all those around you are losing theirs, then maybe you haven't quite grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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  17. 16th July 2009, 03:05 PM #17
    markpalavra
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    I've never heard a footy players weight be described in pounds over here... although I prefer heights in feet and inches. If anyone asks me how tall I am, I always say 6'4".. height is a bit different because I think people use 6' as a reference point.

    England is a funny one, almost everything has gone metric, but still on miles per hour.


    As for screens, and disk sizes etc to me it just makes sense to use inches... you know, the whole brevity thing.
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  18. 16th July 2009, 03:10 PM #18
    mitty
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    Quote Originally Posted by Granny Mac View Post
    It amazes me men (in general) still prefer penis size in inches. After all I would have thought 15cm sounds better than 6"
    Is that real inches or internet inches?
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  19. 16th July 2009, 03:33 PM #19
    iva
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    People insisting on using the imperial system of measurement really irritates me. Particularly in Australia where technically the metric system has been in for over 40 years.

    I can deal with it in the US where that's what they're sticking to (against all sense!) but here I don't want to deal with it, particularly as metric and imperial both get used for various daily things and most people cannot function in both equally successfully.
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  20. 16th July 2009, 03:40 PM #20
    mitty
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    Hi, I'm actor Troy McClure. You may remember me from educational films such as "Lead Paint: Delicious, but Deadly", and "Here comes the metric system!"
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