|
-----Original Message-----
-----Original Message-----
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mighty Chimp" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, 2003-11-06 21:54 Subject: [USMA:27484] old units
----- Original Message ----- From: "Han Maenen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, 2003-11-05 13:44 Subject: [USMA:27477] Re: Australian metrication
Dear Euric,
In the first place, I live in a traditionally metric nation. One should not be exposed to ifp in such countries in whatever way. Marketing can be a powerful anti-metric weapon.
I agree 100 %. Nor should it be used in countries in transition. Marketing then should be regulated to prevent attempts to use units other then metric.
The problem is that things like screens, disks and resolutions are marketed in inches to a METRIC AUDIENCE by that industry. I would have no problem if that industry used ifp for users of ifp and metric for users of metric in its marketing.
What the computer industry has been doing up to the present day is comparable to building metric designed cars, but then exporting these metric cars to metric countries with Imperial or USC dashboards and with Imperial/USC instruction booklets in the French, German, Dutch etc. languages. However, the car industry has not done things like this. I know that floppy disks do not measure 3.5 inches, but why are they then marketed as 3.5" in METRIC COUNTRIES? I have changed the name of my A: disk on Windows XP to 90 mm disk.
Just because a computer product is MARKETED in imperial, does not make it an imperial product. This has been my argument with people of the BWMA who get all excited because something carries an imperial name, even when the product is not imperial. Marketing a computer product that is metric, does not make the computer industry an imperial industry. That was my point.
I think some of this imperialisation has a lot to do with the computer industry originating in the US. With so much of it now done in Asia, those habits may take time to die out, but they are dying out.
But, I agree, there is no need to market a metric product in imperial in a metric country. If there is any consolation in this, the 90 mm floppy disk is on the way out. I doubt in the next generation computers you will find support for them.
When I use my scanner I HAVE TO use the ifp unit dpi. When the dot matrix printer ruled supreme I HAD TO use 12 inch paper. The boxes with non metric paper were stacked high in our computer shops. It was a real threat to the international A paper standard. At least, with the inkjet printer I have been able to revert to A4 and the inch sized paper has vanished.
I’m sure the machine internally does not do dpi. That is what the software programmers use. Somewhere in the programme there is a conversion to dot pitch, in order for the machine to actually print a dot in the right spot. Many people do things according to a procedure which they have been told is the way it has always been. Unless someone with vision comes along and says things can be different, such as using micrometer pitch instead of dpi, the change will never take place.
As you see the 12 inch paper didn’t last and computers have become more metric friendly.
There are computer programs that work well in inches, but their metric options are inferior; coming up with things like 209.9 mm for what should be 210 mm. There was a drawing program for the AMIGA computer with a metric option: a ruler saying 2.54........5.08......7.63..... etc. cm!!! I know what that really is. A fine metric option indeed.
Is this still this way, or has it changed? If not, then it is up to you and other users of such programmes to contact the company that produces such nonsense to either amend their ways or you will cease using their products. It may help to find a person who is good in programming to see if they can modify the software, or to start a business writing metric versions of software for the metric market. Hopefully a loss of sales will make them see the light.
CD's measure 120 and 80 mm exactly, but in the not so distant past, some crazy idiots tried to market them in metric countries as 4.72 and 3 inch sized CD's. I do not see this nonsense at present, thank goodness. What good would it have done of these 120 mm disks were sold in German or Dutch shops as 4.72 inch CD's?
Again, that may have been the past and enough complaining got these companies to see the error of their ways. Many may have not been informed that the disks were a true 120 mm and thought they really were an inch product and had to be called out that way. But, keep your eye open and make an issue of it when and if you see it again. Why must we use a vulgar reference like 4.72 inches when a sweet 120 mm sounds better and is more comprehensible to our people?
That would have been another point for the BWMA. It did not go further, thank goodness. Some years ago I saw the dimensions of a lap top computer expressed in inches in a Dutch ad. That industry hides it use of metric even to people who live in metric countries. Why? THAT is what irks me. If screens are metric, then they should be marketed and sold in metric countries in metric sizes.
I agree, they should. And, here is where you and you friends can make a difference. Complain, complain and keep on complaining until the change occurs. Never accept the excuse that it is done that way elsewhere or has always been done here that way.
The BWMA knows about these 'trade names' and loves their use by the computer industry in metric countries and uses or used it this in its propaganda. It is the exposal of metric using people to ifp that counts, for the BWMA and for me -they want it, the more, the better- / -I do not want it- therefore I am opposed to these so-called trade names. They contaminate metric nations. The American cosmetics industry sometimes uses the same strategy: using metric containers and then market them in France as 1.7 ONCE LIQUIDE - 50 mL. This joke is being perpetrated by the US cosmetics companies Estee Lauder and Donna Karan. I sent them letters of protest, to no avail. Estee Lauder was at the forefront of having the EU directive on measuring units delayed or cancelled altogether. Imperial 'trade names' used outside the USA and the UK could be the beginning of a slippery slope. Stop the beginnings!
The BWMA does not treat this usage as trade names, even though they are. They insist these industries actually design, engineer, manufacture and market strictly in imperial. Even though we know different, the BWMA only hope of ever seeing a return to imperial is to keep imperial alive as much as possible.
Yes, I am aware of the delay until 2010 of the elimination of imperial from the EU. I doubt they can expect another delay, as there are moves both in Europe and the US to comply. The UK has already amended their WMA to make the elimination of imperial effective in 2010. Even if the EU directive were delayed again, the British laws are not contingent on a delay and will go into full effect, making a delay a moot issue.
There is also work being done in the US to amend the law requiring dual labels. The EU and the euro are getting stronger and won’t be in a position in 2010 to cower to pressure to implement yet another delay.
The handwriting for imperial is on the wall. With people like us, we can keep the fires burning and the imperialists on the run.
Don’t give up! Keep on fighting.
Han
Where exactly is imperial used in computing? Ever assemble a computer? If you did, you will see the fasteners are now metric. Older ones were imperial when the computers were made in the US. Once the manufacturing and assembly moved to Asia, the change to metric was abupt.
> If you are talking about monitor screens, I would say that is one small > aspect of a computer system and its use is as a trade name. One has to ask > oneself, if the computer parts marketed in imperial are really imperial in > design and manufacture or metric? We know all to well that the 3.5 inch > floppy is just a trade name and not the real dimensions of the disk. Just > like the CDs and DVDs of today are 120 mm for the standard and 80 mm for the > minis. > > You seem to agree with what the BWMA says without verifying first the truth. > I do the opposite. I take everything they say first as a lie, until it is verified. > > Euric
--- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.537 / Virus Database: 332 - Release Date: 2003-11-06
--- --- |
