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Admin
In the 80's when I worked for General Dynamics, we were required to provide a flow chart for every application we sent to the Air Force. We had a program that generated it after the application was complete, with one symbol per page. The average height was around around a foot (1/3 of a meter or so).
Admin
And thinking about this...Why does the CFL measure the field in yards? If it's a 110 yard field shouldn't they just make it 100 meters? (OK, 100.58 but we'll just forget about the .58...)
Crap, gotta go. That loony moose is eating my maple syrup!
Admin
The metric system won't catch on in the US because it's either too specific or too "big" for how we use measurements verbally.
Hey, where do you want this? a. Oh, set it 1/3m to 2/3m away from the wall. b. About 33-66 cm from the wall. c. Just put it a foot or two from the wall.
Do people really use decimeter that frequently?
They taught us the metric system in elementary school, but the only conversion we ever cared about was how to get to feet or inches.
Admin
Hey, where do you want this? a. Oh, set it 1/3 foot to 2/3 foot away from the wall. b. About 10-20 cm from the wall. c. Just put it a decimeter or two from the wall.
Rarely have I seen such a retarded argument.
Admin
As silly as it sounds, this one is actually halfway reasonable, despite the arbitrary "eight metres" requirement.
Now the government in question has a hard copy of all the source code, specs, everything that went into the project, all in a secure facility with their other archives.
An example of a project that didn't do this is the NASA Apollo project. Huge hunks of data are missing. The source code (and binaries, as well) for the Guidance system is partially missing, for instance. The original recording of Armstrong's famous quote was lost for many years.
Admin
It was a fairly large system and the documentation required filled up 2 forklift pallets. Everyone would develop, test, and integrate their assigned software first in the most expediently way possible and THEN write their required design documents, and all the other unread documents, as the last painful step in the development cycle to comply with the specification. Project progress was measured by how many trees were killed.
Admin
See appendix Z for the used value of PI with 8e15 decimal places, and appendix AA for the 2e16 bits public key of this specification's author.
Admin
You're an idiot.
The US Military uses the metric system. I have a feeling that they would take exception to being tagged communist.
The CIA? Yep, metric.
NASA? Metric. In fact, they lost at least one craft in the past as a result of an error that wouldn't have happened if they had been metric at that time.
Are Canadians communists? Nope.
Mexicans? Nope.
Drug dealers? Hell, no. They are capitalists to the point of absurdity.
As I said, you're an idiot.
Admin
If I remember correctly, there are three countries in the world that don't use metric. Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States.
Captcha: xevious? I think that's the real WTF here.
Admin
Hey! Not everyone who uses the metric system is a communist! There are also the Nazis! </sarcasm>
Admin
Who is reading the documentation?
Top men.
I know every pilot in this country. Who are they?
Top men.
Admin
The US system is probably the largest WTF mentioned. The real WTF is that people still use it...
Admin
Since 33cm is almost a foot, I guess you are trying to think of the problem in "feet". It doesn't make sense in your example. Since it doesn't matter if it is placed 33cm or 66cm from the wall, you could just say "put it a half meter from the wall"...
BTW: Decimeter is used sometimes, but we have no problems with using centimeters. I guess we can imagine a number without looking at our fingers at the same time.
Captcha = Darwin... I'm glad my country uses the same system as other countries, because we can adapt better.
Admin
We have. Using the Metric System since 1857. (I think we were the first in the Latin American block that started using it.)
There was some weird "Spanish Imperial measure" in use before that, that seems was even uglier than the "English Imperial measure". There was one measure called "arroba" ... which is who the @ character is called today.
Hm... I wonder ... give me 2 @'s ...
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Bootnote: That funky non-metric system is the reason one of the NASA probes crashed. See???
Admin
So...
The Soviets were duking it out with, umm, the Luftwaffe? The Mujaheddin's crack jet jockeys? I'll agree that there were likely some encounters with the PR China during the border disputes of the 1960s. But such police actions as the USSR found necessary during this guy's prime--Hungary and Czechoslovakia--were as far as I recall ground stuff only, and only the former involved much shooting.
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I once had a report that a client insisted on printing - and would've sat in a box somewhere.
THAT was about 44,000 pages - dunno how many metres it would've been - anyone want to guess ?!?
More here : It's all about the doco
Admin
Of course, metric is too simple for us. We need to remember a billion ratios of different quantities, write 100s of lines of code to do trivial taks, etc. Metric would just make our lives too easy, we don't want that.
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YHBT. YHL. HAND.
Man, people just don't pickup on trolls like they used to.
Admin
A word to all my fellow Americans. Please lay off the rest of the world. It's important for them to use the metric - a matter of life and death, in fact. Let me explain.
Here in the USA, we measure temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit. Excluding Alaska, extreme temperatures range from about -20F to 110F. Now, both -20F and -20C are pretty darn cold, but light a fire and you'll live. However, if the temperature ever reached 110C, everyone in Europe would die as all the water in their bodies boiled away. A pretty grisly death, I'm sure you agree.
An now you understand why Europe is forced to use the metric system.
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If you think anyone is going to go to the 8 meters of documentation stored in some offsite facility to see how to change some lines of code you're smoking something.
Admin
I was wondering how detailed I needed to be. I guess I can just dumb it down a bit. It is quite common to say half a foot or 6 inches. I guess the fact that it seems a lot easier to break something down into inches because it is broad enough that you don't sound like an anal retentive loon.
If you're speaking in unspecific terms, you can describe where to put something within 6 inches without it sounding awkward. With the metric system you would need to say a fraction of a meter or very specific measurement in cm or make very liberal use of the decimeter.
As I said, it's the verbal conversion that Americans just can't stomach. If you don't live here, you might not get it.
Admin
That would be 8 yards. A meter's just a bit longer. 1 yard = 3' = 90cm. 1 metre = 3'4" = 100cm.
This sounds eerily familiar to where I work...
Admin
Er, don't see any difference between English miles and American miles, I'm pretty sure that miles are the same everywhere.
What the article does say is that NASA use the "more conventional" metric system, which I don't believe has miles in it.
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Is that nautical miles, or ground miles?
Admin
DUKE NUKEM FOREVER!
captcha: "quake" ...how appropriate
Admin
Can't anybody recognize f***ing sarcasm anymore? I thought it couldn't possibly have been made more obvious by the OP.
Admin
And weight in stones. (I always wondered: Big stones? Small stones? )
Admin
You might want to thump your history teacher on the noggin, or yourself for not paying attention. There were air battles in the Korea and Vietnam conflicts where Soviets supplied fighters and pilots to the North Koreans and North Vietnamese. And yes in this case they would have been flying against US pilots - we did the same thing to "our side".
Admin
You know I "live here" and I don't get it. How is 6 inches any more/less precises than 10 centimeters?
So your whole argument is the English System is better because feet is smaller than a meter? And yet a mile is much bigger than a kilometer...
Admin
Football was grandfathered in. So much effort to redraw all those lines, you see.. :)
I'm Canadian, and most folks are bi-lingual for measurements (bi-measural?). Probably from living too close to the US. I can go into a restaurant and choose between a pint of beer, a Coke with an ounce of rum, or a liter of wine. Generally, we just use whichever makes more sense. Personally, I'll use metric for math/sciences and road distances, imperial for rough-measurements.
Admin
I don't think Viktor Belenko http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko would agree with that. When he defected to the West by flying his MIG25 over to Japan, he told people interviewing him that the MIG25 was built to last 25 hours in operations, by which time it would be replaced!!!
Addendum (2007-03-05 17:27): In response to
Admin
Long ago I had a teacher that I drove nuts. He wanted to make sure we actually read over the stuff we were supposed to so we were to turn in our notes. He was expecting something like 10 pages. I turned in 2 or 3 and drove him up the wall because he couldn't find anything wrong with what I did but it was way too short.
The difference between typed and handwritten didn't occur to him. (This was back before everyone had a computer to do such stuff on.)
Admin
I never use the metric system for anything. Which reminds me: I need some .1 horsepower light bulbs.
Admin
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What do Americans use instead of watts? Candlepower? Glow-ness?
(Actual question, only slightly sarcastic - units of measurement are really muddled these days, that's why we keep flinging expensive spacecraft into planets.)
CAPTCHA - smile: if we only have to fight about measurements, the world is a good place...
Admin
Actually freelancer, yes you do still have a socialist government. Whether the current governors are socialist does not change what your government currently is. But don't feel too isolated. We in the USA have been putting up with socialist governors and government since FDR. Ours just don't like to admit, even to themselves, that they are socialist.
Does your government "provide" any of the following? Schools Retirement programs "Welfare" programs to those who make less than others (you know, wealth redistribution by another name) A "progressive" income tax? "Health care?"
If yes, then you have a socialist government, whether the PTB want to admit it or not.
And yes, my fellow Americans, this means you too.
Admin
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There's a saying the the airplane biz, the plane can't be delivered until the paperwork weighs more than the plane.
And it's pretty well documented that when Lockheed got the contract for the U-2, the contract officer said there would be no problem if the plane didnt fly, as long as all the paperwork was okay.
Admin
Captcha: tesla... smart guy.
Admin
Eight meters of documentation. Hmmmm! It might have been cheaper and faster to use eight meters of dollar bills.
Admin
Canada uses the Metric system exclusively.
Well, not really. I'm five-nine and a-hundred-and-ninety pounds. I eat quarter-pounders and foot-long subs. (Although a "30.5 cm sub" would be awesome.
For technical work, or any sort of actual specification, though, I wouldn't touch anything but the metric system. It's just easier to deal with.
Imperial is a vocal system, Metric is a scientific/mathematical system. People tend towards Imperial when describing ("That musta' been ten pounds 'a beef") and towards metric when doing math/computing. This is true in the United States, as well- the only noticeable difference is that they use miles instead of kilometres, gallons instead of litres, and fahrenheit instead of celsius- they learn Chemistry in metric like everybody else, because any other system would just be asinine. So what's the problem? Metric is more mathematically beautiful, Imperial is more complex, but contains a few really solid, memorable units (Because the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon is pretty clear).
So stop all the fussin' and the feudin'. Learn whatever you want, and use Google to convert things if you need to.
Admin
re: NASA. Not accurate. They use both metric and SAE, still do. The incident you referred could also be stated that had they used SAE thought there would not have been an incident. The problem was not the use or non-use of metric for measurement, it was the improper input of data values. Yeah, human error. An error that a program could have checked but did not.
By your argument here we could say the Soviets were failing to make successful moon landing attempts due to using metric, because clearly the US using SAE made it just fine. It would be equal WTFery.
Furthermore, the Canadians, Europeans, Russians, British, etc. also use SAE. It's called Minutes, Seconds, Hours, Days, months, Years. Yup, time is not metricated. How about degrees of an angle? Yup, more non-Metric.
Switching back and forth isn't that bad, I do it daily. No more than using more than a single programming language as best fits the situation.
And actually, drug dealers are not capitalist. They are fascists. If you ever were to examine how they run things you would find that out real quick. Further, word has it many have been supporting politicians that want to keep their product illegal. Just because someone sells a service or product at large margins does not make them capitalist or "capitalists to the point of absurdity". Opportunists, perhaps. But not necessarily capitalists.
The OP was being sarcastic, and you missed it. Then in reply you made some idiotic comments, whist calling the OP an idiot.
It seems the real WTFs have moved from the stories to the comments
Admin
Best laugh I've had all day! Thanks for that. But don't you want to include: diaphragm (two birth control pills, perhaps) 10 Christmas partiers = 1 decahalls (with boughs... okay, forget that one) 1 million beans = 1 teranewasshole
Admin
I guess I would be an Idiot Redneck Hick Civilian(tm). So to all the USA is Stupid for not Going Metric(tm) crowd: Any good reasons to switch to metric? Since I learned both of them, I can't think of any reasons why my odometer has to measure kilometers instead of miles.
And changing all the road signs, just to switch from a system that seems to be doing just fine wouldn't be a waste?
Admin
In Soviet Russia, flight simulator software documents YOU.