| |||||||||||||
Metric system (was OOXML gets ISO approval)Metric system (was OOXML gets ISO approval)Posted Apr 3, 2008 14:55 UTC (Thu) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630)In reply to: OOXML gets ISO approval by jschrod Parent article: OOXML gets ISO approval
An other ISO standard slowly coming are SI units, i.e., the metric system, -- the hell might freeze over before the US starts to use it. Well, that's just stupidity on the part of the US. Every other industrialized country has standardized on SI. In fact, are there even any other countries that have not standardized on SI? I even recall hearing that the US is "officially" metric. It's about time American citizens were dragged into the 19th century and forced to learn about kilograms, metres and litres! :-)
(Log in to post comments)
Metric system (was OOXML gets ISO approval) Posted Apr 3, 2008 15:11 UTC (Thu) by jschrod (subscriber, #1646) [Link] Being from Germany, I can fully sympathesize with your view. But then, I have been in many international projects where we had to cater for the US folks who insist on using inches, feets, and other obscure stuff in their technical specs. mm/dd/yyyy, anyone? What's the logic behind that order? Mind you, I don't care if they use it in private life or in local business, we also use "dozen" or "pound" at our local store. (Though our pound is different than that from the UK and from the US. :-) I'm also willing to get myself aquianted with that strange Fahrenheit notion when I'm on the road privately. That's a cultural matter, and then I'm a visitor; I don't run around with short trousers in islamic countries either. But in documents of international projects, that's completely different. Here it is a pet peeve of mine, due to several severe problems that I have experienced first-hand. Metric units should be a must here (and also date notation in form of YYYY-MM-DD), but try to convince my fellow US project partners of that. No chance, and it just brings out the label `not constructive'. :-( Anyhow, anough rambling, back to work. :-)
Metric system (was OOXML gets ISO approval) Posted Apr 3, 2008 19:21 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] The UK is wabbling, but a lot of us under about the age of 40 are wholly or largely metric, with only distances-driven and car speeds seeming to be persistent holdouts. (I'm not even sure what a stone is, and I hardly ever use feet.)
Metric system (was OOXML gets ISO approval) Posted Apr 3, 2008 20:39 UTC (Thu) by moreati (guest, #5715) [Link] We also buy our milk and beer in multiples of 0.568261485 litres, for some quaint historic reason. Incidentally, until now I never knew there is both a US pint & a UK (aka imperial) pint.
Metric system (was OOXML gets ISO approval) Posted Apr 3, 2008 20:47 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] Oh indeed. That sort of wild regional variability (same names, different units) is why the French came up with the metric system in the first place...
|
|||||||||||||