Interesting in that I have never seen a 3 1/2 inch fan for a computer, only
90 mm or 120 mm.  Seems like the American computer-buying public can handle
it just fine.  

I also had the experience of going to a Best Buy to get an optical audio
cable.  I asked a salesperson where I could find an optical cable and he
asked, "What length?"  
I replied, "I need a 1 meter."  
He said, "They are over here and we also have 2 meter ones as well."
The package was clearly marked that the cable was 1 m with USC in
parentheses and much smaller.  I believe the product was also made in the
USA.

Phil

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
Of Stephen Gallagher
Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2004 9:54 AM
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:29904] Re: Wikipedia

Looks like I was successful in convincing one of the editors to 
agree to the removal of a sentence in the  "floppy disk" article 
where someone stated that the reason the 3 1/2 inch floppy disk 
was not marketed as 90 mm was because the public "was not 
ready"  for a metric sized disk.  

Given the fact that the public was "ready"  for 35 mm film and 2 liter 
soda bottles, they would have been ready for 90 mm disks, if they 
had been given metric names from the start.  

They agreed that the decision to use an ifp designation was to 
emphasize that it was smaller than the 5 1/4 inch disk, which was
the standard storage device on home computers up to that time.
Plus the first widely marketed computer with a 3 1/2 floppy drive 
was the Macintosh, made by an American company.

If the disks had been given metric identities from the start, then 
that's how they would known today, most likely.

Stephen Gallagher

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