• HazMat (unregistered)

    Chemicals that can explode have their own label, called "EXPLOSIVE." "Combustible" is just less flammable than a "Flammable" designation. No explodey. And "Combustible" is only a proper shipping name in the United States, the international regulations have no designation for American "Combustible."

    The more you know!

  • Pisquali (unregistered)

    They actually call it "American Combustible" much like they call football "American Football"

  • Anon (unregistered)
    He wasn't specific about which dangerous materials they deal with, so I'll speculate: radioactive, flammable, toxic, corrosive, or biohazardous chemicals, and maybe bees and cobras.

    Or snakes, on planes!

  • (cs) in reply to Pisquali
    Pisquali:
    They actually call it "American Combustible" much like they call football "American Football"
    We call it "American Football" because we already had a game called "football" before that ever existed.

    American Football is quite similar to our rugby, but with a lot more protective clothing. Either you play a rougher game than rugby, or you're paranoid about being hurt.

  • D.T.N. (unregistered) in reply to HazMat
    HazMat:
    Chemicals that can explode have their own label, called "EXPLOSIVE." "Combustible" is just less flammable than a "Flammable" designation. No explodey. And "Combustible" is only a proper shipping name in the United States, the international regulations have no designation for American "Combustible."

    The more you know!

    What? Americans aren't known for going against the grain? Next you're going to tell me that the United States is the only country that doesn't use metric.

  • someone (unregistered)

    Football is a game where you play a ball with your feet. American "football" is a game where you play some ellipsoid, leathery thing (definitely not a ball, since those things are round) with pretty much your whole body.

  • newbie, but American (unregistered) in reply to Thief^

    Well considering the size of some of the players, and the injuries they are infamous for sustaining, I'd say its a rougher game.

    Although, as little knowledge I have of "American Football", I have even less knowledge of rugby.

  • anonymous coward (unregistered)

    Americans use the metric system all the time. For example, just the other day I was said that the sport called soccer sucks exactly the same one metric buttload of fanny packs.

    As computer nerds we shouldn't even bring up the metric system. One kilobyte = 1000 bytes right? That's pretty sad.

  • dude (unregistered)

    "warning: this package is full of goddamn cobras and bees!"

    That is blow-coffee-out-your-nose funny. Ouch.

  • (cs) in reply to newbie, but American

    A step in the right direction ? I would say a step in the right direction would be to scrap the whole thing and design the database correctly. maybe then the application will actually print something.

  • fanguad (unregistered) in reply to anonymous coward

    If you don't mind sounding like a retard, you can always just call them kibibytes.

  • Ubersoldat (unregistered) in reply to Thief^
    Thief^:
    Pisquali:
    They actually call it "American Combustible" much like they call football "American Football"
    We call it "American Football" because we already had a game called "football" before that ever existed.

    American Football is quite similar to our rugby, but with a lot more protective clothing. Either you play a rougher game than rugby, or you're paranoid about being hurt.

    Paranoid or a pussy! There, I said it, American Football players are pussies!

    CAPTCHA: And STINKYs... jajaja

  • dude (unregistered)

    funny, was it mentioned that it didn't print?

  • (cs) in reply to Ubersoldat
    Thief^:
    Pisquali:
    They actually call it "American Combustible" much like they call football "American Football"
    We call it "American Football" because we already had a game called "football" before that ever existed.

    American Football is quite similar to our rugby, but with a lot more protective clothing. Either you play a rougher game than rugby, or you're paranoid about being hurt.

    Rugby is much more of a close-quarters game. Most of the players are bunched up in one group with some outliers spread around. In American football, the players are much more spread out and you're more likely to see two players collide at a full sprint. Or one player jumping in the air to catch a ball while another guy creams him in mid-air. There's definitely a need for pads. Either players would be dying every game or they would have to change the way they play.

    Rugby requires more FAR more stamina. American football requires some players to be incredibly skilled and others to be big galoots. Personally, I like them both.

  • (cs) in reply to fanguad
    fanguad:
    If you don't mind sounding like a retard, you can always just call them kibibytes.

    Question of the day: Why haven't we risen up and burned the kibibyte crowd yet?

  • (cs) in reply to Someone You Know
    Nobody I Know:
    Question of the day: Why haven't we risen up and burned the kibibyte crowd yet?
    Am I the only person who reads "kibibyte" and thinks of dry pet food?
  • (cs) in reply to dude
    awesomeApp:
    "warning: this package is full of goddamn cobras and bees!"

    But would the cobras eat the bees?

  • Hunter (unregistered) in reply to bob the dingo
    bob the dingo:
    awesomeApp:
    "warning: this package is full of goddamn cobras and bees!"

    But would the cobras eat the bees?

    That just makes the cobras more dangerous. The bees sting you when the cobra bites.

  • (cs)
    Jake Vinson:
    And like the rings of a beautiful, majestic redwood, chunks of code bearing each fallen developer's coding style left unique impressions in the code.

    Needless to say, Trevor should make like a tree and LEAVE!

  • Mr Moo (unregistered) in reply to Hunter

    Or What? You'll release the cobras or the bees or the cobras with bees in their mouths so when they hiss they shoot bees at you?

  • Lurker McGee (unregistered)

    Ummm the difference between U.S. and the rest of the world's shipping labels might be important in this scenario... Given that they appear to be using U.S. terminology IN EUROPE.

    At least when english-speakers try to use their language in other countries it usually just results in embarrassed and confused scares. Not huge massive explosions.

  • (cs) in reply to gwenhwyfaer
    gwenhwyfaer:
    Nobody I Know:
    Question of the day: Why haven't we risen up and burned the kibibyte crowd yet?
    Am I the only person who reads "kibibyte" and thinks of dry pet food?

    Nope.

  • (cs) in reply to akatherder
    akatherder:
    Thief^:
    Pisquali:
    They actually call it "American Combustible" much like they call football "American Football"
    We call it "American Football" because we already had a game called "football" before that ever existed.

    American Football is quite similar to our rugby, but with a lot more protective clothing. Either you play a rougher game than rugby, or you're paranoid about being hurt.

    Rugby is much more of a close-quarters game. Most of the players are bunched up in one group with some outliers spread around. In American football, the players are much more spread out and you're more likely to see two players collide at a full sprint. Or one player jumping in the air to catch a ball while another guy creams him in mid-air. There's definitely a need for pads. Either players would be dying every game or they would have to change the way they play.

    Rugby requires more FAR more stamina. American football requires some players to be incredibly skilled and others to be big galoots. Personally, I like them both.

    Well put. To Ubersoldt and anyone else thinking that American Football players are "pussies" because they wear pads: Watch some football. Because you've obviously never watched football and therefore are not informed enough to make any statements regarding it. Yes, the name is stupid. Yes, football players tend to be huge, overpaid, lumbering idiots. But they are not "pussies". It's modern day gladiatorial combat, but since we have this <sarcasm>pesky</sarcasm> "no slaves" and "value of life" thing, we can't just toss slaves in with weapons and tell them to kill each other, so to get close enough we use helmets and padding. (Personally, I don't like football, but I dislike uninformed persons making falacious statements far, far more. Ever seen experts on television, like say, Jack Thompson? Gads how I would like to throw him in the Roman Collosseum with a few tigers. It's not video games that make people violent, it's testosterone!)

  • Yazeran (unregistered) in reply to D.T.N.
    D.T.N.:
    What? Americans aren't known for going against the grain? Next you're going to tell me that the United States is the only country that doesn't use metric.
    Well i do think one or two other use non metric as well (Like the 'excelently democratic' Burma (Myanmar) ....)

    Yours Yazeran

    Plan: To go to Mars one day with a hammer.

  • AnonCoder (unregistered)

    I'm not getting this one. Why have they even bothered with a bespoke application in the first place?`

  • gary k (unregistered)

    Really?? A reference to Biohazard? Goddamn i love this site

  • InTheKnow (unregistered) in reply to AnonCoder

    I know the guy. They sell the software to other companies to use. Basically their business is the development of the software. The fact that behind the scenes it's a sordid mess doesn't mean that the user knows this. As far as the users are concerned it works just fine, but good luck trying to support it.

  • (cs) in reply to Someone You Know
    Someone You Know:
    fanguad:
    If you don't mind sounding like a retard, you can always just call them kibibytes.

    Question of the day: Why haven't we risen up and burned the kibibyte crowd yet?

    You think that's bad? My mother can't get it through her head that "kigabytes" isn't a word. She's heard "kilobytes" and "gigs" and somehow mashed them together, much to my annoyance.

    -- Seejay

  • a/c (unregistered)

    It should be mentioned that American football, association football, and rugby were all once the same sport. Football was just a loose term for several different games played on foot and the rules varied considerably wherever you went. Some British clubs got tired of having to negotiate the terms with the opposing team before each game, so they settled on one set of rules. The Americans simply settled on a different set of rules.

  • RevLee (unregistered)

    "biohazardous materials get the logo of defunct New York old-school hardcore band Biohazard"

    The biohazard symbol existed long before the band. I first saw it on a medical school door during the late 60's.

  • RON (unregistered) in reply to Someone You Know
    Someone You Know:
    fanguad:
    If you don't mind sounding like a retard, you can always just call them kibibytes.

    Question of the day: Why haven't we risen up and burned the kibibyte crowd yet?

    I tried on wikipedia, but it turns out that the site is full of pedantic nerds who have even written programs to automatically turn all kilobytes references back to kibibytes if we change them back.

    I got into an argument with them, and posted 10 very good reasons why kibibytes should be ignored, but then they got all snooty and claimed I was "unintelligent".

    /yeah, I'm unintelligent because I spend all day at work, making lots of money, while you're sitting around all day making free contributions to an encyclopedia website that no one will ever take seriously. // right.

  • (cs) in reply to Someone You Know
    Someone You Know:
    fanguad:
    If you don't mind sounding like a retard, you can always just call them kibibytes.

    Question of the day: Why haven't we risen up and burned the kibibyte crowd yet?

    Finally! Someone that understands my hate for "kibibyte", "mebibyte", "gibibyte"...

    I have been using computers for some 10 years now, and have NEVER seen a piece of hardware documentation that uses those terms.

  • (cs) in reply to RevLee
    RevLee:
    "biohazardous materials get the logo of defunct New York old-school hardcore band Biohazard"

    The biohazard symbol existed long before the band. I first saw it on a medical school door during the late 60's.

    Jesus H. Christ on crutches. Did you honestly read this article and think that sentence was serious?

  • Hunter (unregistered) in reply to H3SO5
    H3SO5:
    Someone You Know:
    fanguad:
    If you don't mind sounding like a retard, you can always just call them kibibytes.

    Question of the day: Why haven't we risen up and burned the kibibyte crowd yet?

    Finally! Someone that understands my hate for "kibibyte", "mebibyte", "gibibyte"...

    I have been using computers for some 10 years now, and have NEVER seen a piece of hardware documentation that uses those terms.

    That's because, as far as I can tell, those are strictly marketing terms. I've never seen them used seriously except on the packaging of a hard drive. Anyone technical is usually smart enough not to need a stupid word to differentiate 1000 from 1024. I heard a while back that the whole thing was started by manufacturers to keep from getting sued for false advertising the capacity of hard drives.

  • BlueKnot (unregistered)

    Application needs a warning label of it's own... "Don't get any on ya!"

  • suutar (unregistered) in reply to H3SO5
    H3SO5:
    Someone You Know:
    fanguad:
    If you don't mind sounding like a retard, you can always just call them kibibytes.

    Question of the day: Why haven't we risen up and burned the kibibyte crowd yet?

    Finally! Someone that understands my hate for "kibibyte", "mebibyte", "gibibyte"...

    I have been using computers for some 10 years now, and have NEVER seen a piece of hardware documentation that uses those terms.

    Does the fact that prefixes defined as powers of 10 are widely used to represent powers of 2 make it somehow accurate? Or do you just not care? It's only 7% difference, after all...

  • (cs)

    Error! Unexpected end of joke!

  • (cs) in reply to Someone You Know
    Someone You Know:
    RevLee:
    "biohazardous materials get the logo of defunct New York old-school hardcore band Biohazard"

    The biohazard symbol existed long before the band. I first saw it on a medical school door during the late 60's.

    Jesus H. Christ on crutches. Did you honestly read this article and think that sentence was serious?

    Why "Yes", yes he did. But he will blame it on the "Beatles" eating his brain turning him into a "Cannibal Corpse" using a "Switchblade Symphony" against the "Queen". I really feel sorry for "Him".

  • hprotagonist (unregistered) in reply to Thief^
    Thief^:
    Pisquali:
    They actually call it "American Combustible" much like they call football "American Football"
    We call it "American Football" because we already had a game called "football" before that ever existed.

    American Football is quite similar to our rugby, but with a lot more protective clothing. Either you play a rougher game than rugby, or you're paranoid about being hurt.

    Hurley! There's a sport for real men.

  • Andrew (unregistered) in reply to RevLee
    RevLee:
    "biohazardous materials get the logo of defunct New York old-school hardcore band Biohazard"

    The biohazard symbol existed long before the band. I first saw it on a medical school door during the late 60's.

    That was satire. Of course the biohazard symbol existed first.

    My mother's microbiology lab had trash bags with biohazard symbols. I used them to store dirty laundry back in college. They were great cheap luggage. I doubt I could get on a plane with biohazard-labeled bags today.

  • Aaron (unregistered) in reply to suutar
    suutar:
    Does the fact that prefixes defined as powers of 10 are widely used to represent powers of 2 make it somehow accurate? Or do you just not care? It's only 7% difference, after all...
    That's nice, except that these are English words, not Latin. "Megabyte" doesn't necessarily mean "exactly one million bytes" any more so than "Megaman" means "exactly one million men".

    Computer scientists may have borrowed heavily from Latin (it was the most logical way to express approximately one thousand/million bytes at the time), but if you pedants are serious about being true to the Latin, then perhaps you ought to realize that "kibi" and "mebi" are not words or prefixes in either Latin OR English (or any other language, as far as I know).

  • (cs) in reply to Aaron
    Aaron:
    suutar:
    Does the fact that prefixes defined as powers of 10 are widely used to represent powers of 2 make it somehow accurate? Or do you just not care? It's only 7% difference, after all...
    That's nice, except that these are English words, not Latin. "Megabyte" doesn't necessarily mean "exactly one million bytes" any more so than "Megaman" means "exactly one million men".

    Computer scientists may have borrowed heavily from Latin (it was the most logical way to express approximately one thousand/million bytes at the time), but if you pedants are serious about being true to the Latin, then perhaps you ought to realize that "kibi" and "mebi" are not words or prefixes in either Latin OR English (or any other language, as far as I know).

    Which to them makes it even more appropriate because there is no single word meaning 1024 in any language. With that in mind, why not create a new term to represent this.

  • ThingGuy McGuyThing (unregistered) in reply to KattMan
    KattMan:

    Which to them makes it even more appropriate because there is no single word meaning 1024 in any language. With that in mind, why not create a new term to represent this.

    But you missed the point. "Megabyte" is now an english word, like "teapot" - despite it's quasi-latin roots. And every single person smart enough to be aware of the term "kibi" is also smart enough to recognize the meaning of the "mega" prefix from the context.

    Can you point out a single situation where the meaning is not clear from the context? If not, why not accept the slightly-different meaning of "mega" in certain contexts as the normal evolution of language? You're going to lose this war anyway.

  • Suburban Decay (unregistered) in reply to Andrew

    I imagine you are correct in that you wouldn't be able to take them on a plane now. And I am equally certain you wouldn't be able to ship it (USPS, FedEx, etc) without the required paperwork for hazardous materials either. Damn laws just take the fun out of everything...

  • MX5Ringer (unregistered)

    It makes me sad to remember but I'v coded as similar app where there was no integrity or anything slightly sensible but the sheer complexity of the code behind it meant that there was lots of scope for speed improvements and that the lack of referential integrity didn't (couldn't) cause a problem.

    This has now been replaced by a stupid system that uses 3 Unique ID's for every record across dozens of tables (Non of the unique ID's are Unique) and the coder trouble shoots problems every day that are caused by the most bizzare WTF's I'v ever seen.

    Please organise a OMGWTF that uses VB6 or VB.Net (I know most of you don't think they are real languages but I could give it to him as a project and win a new laptop with no problems at all)

    Glass empty, going for topup, That is all....

  • Suburban Decay (unregistered)
    Andrew:
    That was satire. Of course the biohazard symbol existed first.

    My mother's microbiology lab had trash bags with biohazard symbols. I used them to store dirty laundry back in college. They were great cheap luggage. I doubt I could get on a plane with biohazard-labeled bags today.

    I imagine you are correct in that you wouldn't be able to take them on a plane now. And I am equally certain you wouldn't be able to ship it (USPS, FedEx, etc) without the required paperwork for hazardous materials either. Damn laws just take the fun out of everything...

    (makes much more sense with the proper quote)

  • Jim Bob (unregistered) in reply to HazMat

    I have big fat balls

  • Jorge (unregistered) in reply to suutar
    suutar:
    Does the fact that prefixes defined as powers of 10 are widely used to represent powers of 2 make it somehow accurate? Or do you just not care? It's only 7% difference, after all...

    7% I was expecting something more in the order of 2.4% I should assume that the extra space is needed to store the difference between calculations

    Captcha gotcha like in a James Bond%

  • (cs)

    While I was in school, I worked as a dock worker for a shipping company in the states.

    We moved a lot of drums / tote tanks and such with a lot of chemicals in them.

    The sticker that always got me was "spontaneously combustible". The first time I had drums I had to move with that label, I was a little hesitant! =)

    It had something to do with "Corrosive" materials.... "Spontaneously Combustible" materials were always put on the back of the truck, and they weren't allowed to be on the same truck that contained ANY materials labeled "Corrosive".

  • Sgt. Preston (unregistered) in reply to Thief^
    Thief^:
    American Football is quite similar to our rugby, but with a lot more protective clothing. Either you play a rougher game than rugby, or you're paranoid about being hurt.
    I'll grant that calling the American game "football" is a long-standing WTF. As for the rougher game, I assure you that if these nearly-naked rubgy players hit each other as hard as 'football' players do, there would be no player left conscious after the first thirty seconds.

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