Markus Kuhn wrote on 2002-07-23 11:08 UTC: > Last time I contacted NOAA about this, they replied that their internal > software is capable of producing products in both FFU and SI units, it > is merely a configuration option. However, they also noted that > practically none of their media customers asks for the SI data.
I just asked them again about use of FFU vs SI on their web pages and got immediately a positive reply: ------- Forwarded Message Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 08:02:26 -0400 From: "Charles Sun" <Charles.Sun @ noaa.gov> To: Markus Kuhn <Markus.Kuhn @ cl.cam.ac.uk> CC: Mary Hollinger <mhollinger @ nodc.noaa.gov>, WIT Team <wit @ nodc.noaa.gov> Subject: Re: Celsius temperatures? Dear Markus, You got an excellent point and I share it with you. I will include the international system of units in the new version. It should not take too long. Thank you for visiting our web site. Regards, Charles Markus Kuhn wrote: > You maintain an excellent website, but I noted with some disappointment > that little progress has been made with the introduction of standard > units (�C, mm, hPa, m/s, etc.). US Congress decided in 1988 that federal > agencies should use the international system of units by 1992, but now > 10 years later, little seems to have changed on the NOAA web site in > that direction. Most data is still available in "Flintstone units" (�F, > inches, etc.) and readers have to use a conversion calculator to get > access to standard units. This does not seem to help to get the US > public finally more familiar with standard units ... :-( > > Best regards, > > Markus ------- End of Forwarded Message I have the feeling that many employees of federal agencies are privately perfectly enthusiastic about international standard units, but they need regular friendly external requests and reminders in order to be able to justify any related activities and changes to their colleages and managers. Therefore writing frequently to all government agencies, expressing enthusiasm for the metric system and disappointment about perceived lack of support for it, along with a very brief summary of the legal status of SI units can easily lead to some significant progress. Don't delay, write today ... Markus -- Markus G. Kuhn, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK Email: mkuhn at acm.org, WWW: <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/>
