That state of metric conversion in the US

[[email protected]]

Everyone thinks they are "central" politically - not too far left and
not too far right.

Not at all true. There is a big difference between "not too far left"
or "not too far right" and "off the edge socialist". Obama is *OFF*
the edge.

Even Karl Marx wouldn't call Obama "far right" or "virtually
indispensable from a Republican". That takes inconceivable ignorance.

That drawing does not say that the "right-wing" tendency of western
economies is *wrong* - or that Obama is not to the left of Romney. Just
that there is a wide spectrum beween - say - Obama and Chavez, or
Stalin. And that the right-left spectrum is orthogonal to the
authoritarian-liberal spectrum.

You're wrong. The only difference between Obama and Chavez is the
Constitution and he's doing everything he can to nullify that.

 

[Joerg]

It says "3043" in arabic numerals on the right
and for your onvenience "3043" in european numerals
on the left.

There appears to be more information in the Arabic info than just four
numbers.

 

[Tim Williams]

Your post just sounded so contradictory that I just *had* to ask for
clarification. ;-)

You're probably right about the sleepy part too ;-)

What's wrong with the refresh rates? It's not like you're getting
flicker. It's a computer monitor not a movie theater (which isn't any
better).

Again, not a big deal with CAD and such, but it's actually noticeable with
games. Very skilled players have reaction times under 100ms, and when
you've already got 50 in the pipeline for network lag, you can't spare
much more for display. A few ms here and there becomes important!

The perfect geometry of LCDs is, however. I can't stand CRTs. There's
always visible distortion. Can't stand my new glasses, either
(no-line bifocals), but that's a whole different topic.

That's a good point, and I still occasionally notice the faint lines of
the aperture grill support wires. I find the screen is flat enough to
work with (it's vertically flat, and horizontally curves maybe 5
degrees?). Old spherical CRTs, of course, stink in comparison -- every
time I sit down in front of one I feel all fish-eyed!

Tim

 

[Jamie]

What pressure units do europeans use to fill tires?

They use the foot kick method don't they?

Jamie

 

[Tim Williams]

Not true, there is always the golden ratio, about 1.62:1

From what I said, yes, in fact, any aspect ratio could still be used. I
forgot one last constraint: that each sheet can be folded to get the same
dimensions as the next smaller size. This was mentioned later, I forget
by who. This can only be done with a sqrt(2) ratio, because you get the 2
from folding in half, and the sqrt from halving the area. (Now, changing
this constraint to a five-folded-plus-offset construction could yield the
Golden Ratio. We should propose it to the EU as a new G0, G1, etc. series
paper system! )

The Golden Ratio is nice for some things, but it's not the universal
design constant some make it out to be. Legal size paper is about that
ratio; it's very tall in portrait format. It's also not used very often,
and frequently despised as Letter's distended bastard child.

You can keep your stinky Traintitron with is permanent color fringing.

Mine is quite well adjusted -- I see a tinge of red from the bottom-right
edge, maybe half a pixel out. Rest of the display is quite well adjusted.
After dialing in, I haven't had to change it for years -- wish my circuits
were as stable!

Tim

 

[Tim Williams]

one more who understands the idea of european paper sizes.

But if 8.5 x 11 is a more comfortable ratio, 11 x 17 is not so
comfortable and 17 x 22 is comfortable again?

Indeed!

I only use Ledger (11 x 17) for spreadsheets (big, ugly, odd sizes and
aspect ratios..), and landscape-format schematics that tend to drag on,
signals flowing from left to right and all. The wide format helps when
you have a long signal path, and I think the wider format (but not
taller -- I don't think I've seen a portrait Ledger used before) helps
when you have to draw it out, and can't really simplify it further.

The old C-size sheets (I haven't written any myself, but I've read plenty)
are a reasonable aspect ratio. They throw a lot on them, so they aren't
any easier to read, overall.

I'd rather keep things in nice, Letter-sized chunks, using heirarchical
design practice where possible. (As of late, I've been making better use
of Letter, deprecating my use of Ledger. I figure, if you can't represent
a subsystem on a Letter-size diagram, it's not worth implementing!)

Tim

 

[Tim Williams]

I wonder if there is some significant advantage of the American way of
sizing paper. I guess it was just about making the dimensions fit round
numbers... well in the sizes above A anyway. BTW, what do they call
half an A sheet? I know it is used, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, for something, I
guess just not engineering drawings. B size is called "Tabloid" in the
printing industry.

Hmm, I've used half-folded Letter for a booklet before. It's unpleasantly
tall (the aspect ratio is on the other side of sqrt(2)), but you can
compensate with book folding and margins. The main advantage is, it's
easy to print a mess of pages. Most printers (at least that support
duplex / two-sided printing) also support a 4-pages-per-sheet format in
the driver.

Tim

 

[MrTallyman]

I don't think Americans invented the rectangle.

However, were we to claim so, the Russians
would certainly file a counter-claim that they
did it first.


Lord Valve
Square

He won't get that pineapple upside-down cake thing.

 

[Chairman Meow]

Serge Tanks!

 

[rickman]

Every board I've done in the last 20 years has had a mix. I don't see
that changing, at least in my lifetime. ".100 (and less so, .050")
spacing connectors will be with us forever. I don't see it as an
issue, though. PCB layout software is quite happy working in both
systems.

You mean 2.54 mm connectors? That is what the Europeans call them. I
see true metric a lot more often at 2mm, 1mm and even 0.5mm pitch.

 

[rickman]

In my first college chem lab session I was told that a drop of water
was 1/10 ml.

Hmmm... I seem to recall it was 20 drops to the ml. In chemistry
measurements could be *very* important!

 

[rickman]

It appears that even endless isn't endless.

http://www.endless.com/

I looked up "endless" in wikipedia and it has a link to this discussion...

 

[rickman]

Two As (portrait) side by side makes a B (landscape). Two Bs, a C.
Two Cs, a D...

It really does make sense. Europeons are the ones who have to have
everything figured out for them. It's probably a function of being
brought up as a ward of the state.

Uh... that also works for the European sizes. Two sheets of each size
combine to form one of the next larger size. The point is that the
ratio of the sides doesn't change. Each size is still 1:1.414 unlike
the US sizes where A is not the same ratio as B and B is not the same as
C...

 

[rickman]

The perfect geometry of LCDs is, however. I can't stand CRTs. There's
always visible distortion. Can't stand my new glasses, either
(no-line bifocals), but that's a whole different topic.

I tried exactly one pair of no-line (Varilux) bifocals and gave them
back. For any given distance there is exactly one pencil diameter spot
that will give you focus and I spent all my time moving my head around
looking for it. What a PITA! So I gave up on vanity and got lined
bi-focals and never went back. With very strong astigmatism in one eye,
the variables just didn't hack it.

Actually these days I don't bother with prescription glasses so much. I
have two pair of reading glasses, one for the computer and one for
driving. Using the computer with the lower half of bifocals just isn't
for me. Too hard on the neck. Much better to have a pair of glasses
where the entire lens can be used to view the screen. Also, when I drop
them and they get scratched, I spend another $6 and get a new pair. I
tried the $1 glasses, but they were pathetic. There really isn't much
in a dollar store that is actually worth buying at a dollar, even if it
is made in China. I guess you can get four quarters that you can use to
buy penny candy.

 

[Mr Stonebeach]

It says "3043" in arabic numerals on the right
and for your onvenience "3043" in european numerals
on the left.

There are no such thing as european numerals, the
ones we use are of arabic origin. So, in the plate
you're referring to, there are arabic numerals on
the left and someting else in arabic on the right.
If the arabaic stuff on the right were numerals,
you'd have recocgized them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals

Regards,
Mikko

 

[[email protected]]

You're probably right about the sleepy part too ;-)


Again, not a big deal with CAD and such, but it's actually noticeable with
games. Very skilled players have reaction times under 100ms, and when
you've already got 50 in the pipeline for network lag, you can't spare
much more for display. A few ms here and there becomes important!

Crap. Gamers have infinite money to spend on such things. LCDs are
still the way to go.

That's a good point, and I still occasionally notice the faint lines of
the aperture grill support wires. I find the screen is flat enough to
work with (it's vertically flat, and horizontally curves maybe 5
degrees?). Old spherical CRTs, of course, stink in comparison -- every
time I sit down in front of one I feel all fish-eyed!

You can never get the guns (circuits) aligned perfectly, either. LCDs
are made that way. Color corrected LCDs are also available (at a
slightly higher cost ;-).

 

[[email protected]]

  There are no such thing as european numerals, the
ones we use are of arabic origin. So, in the plate
you're referring to, there are arabic numerals on
the left and someting else in arabic on the right.
If the arabaic stuff on the right were numerals,
you'd have recocgized them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals

Regards,
          Mikko

the wiki shows two different numerals, european/western arabic and
eastern arabic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EgyptphoneKeypad.jpg

compare that to the license plate

-Lasse

 

[Fred Abse]

{shudder} I do like the metric version better 3x10E8.

One foot per nanosecond is a useful, easy to remember approximation.

 

[Fred Abse]

Not to mention the Japanese standard (JIS) "not quite" Phillips head that
doesn't properly fit Phillips drivers. The JIS screws usually have a dot
on the head. The Japanese design depends on torque limiting in the driver,
wheras the older Phillips was deliberately designed to cam out.

Japanese screws aren't Phillips, but Pozidriv. Different profile, designed
*not* to cam out.

Also the norm in Europe.

Tektronix used them, too.

Phillips are only to be found in the USA, these days.

Using a Pozidriv screwdriver on a Phillips screw works fine. Using a
Phillips on a Pozidriv screw is almost guaranteed to wreck the screw.

 

[Fred Abse]

But to use 'F which is non-linear is so wrong to be used by any engineers
compared to 'C.

Nonlinear? how so?