Serviette must be the international word as it is the same in German and French.
I knew right away what it meant and saw no need to make a translation to napkin. I have the feeling that the world would adjust to using the word napkin a lot more readily then to get an American to adopt to, use or even understand the term serviette. The same is true with units. I'd bet you would find more people world-wide who have some comprehension and would have no problems using FFU, then you would find Americans comprehending and using metric. Euric ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Potts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, 2004-05-22 04:47 Subject: [USMA:29902] Re: Floppy Disks in Australia > As I pointed out to Stephen in my reply, you can change drive names in > Windows XP and ME. I think you can also do it in Windows 2000. I have > Windows 98 SE on one of my older computers and it has no provision for > changing the drive names. (I haven't looked into changing it the registry, > although I suspect it can't be done there either.) > > For those who've never heard of a "serviette," it's British, Canadian, > Australian, etc. for "napkin." Even though I was born and raised in England > and spent 20 years in Canada, I prefer "napkin." "Serviette" sounds so twee > (to use a word often used by Michael Palin (of Monty Python fame)). > > Bill Potts, CMS > Roseville, CA > http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] > > > >-----Original Message----- > >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Behalf Of Pat Naughtin > >Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2004 01:27 > >To: U.S. Metric Association > >Subject: [USMA:29900] Re: Floppy Disks in Australia > > > > > >Dear Stephen, > > > >Unfortunately floppy disks were marketed in Australia not in their original > >designed sizes but rather in the sizes that were dumbed down for the USA > >market. > > > >The 90 millimetre disk was marketed as a 3 1/2" floppy, despite the fact > >that it was designed and made as a 90 millimetre disk. > > > >One of the key components of this fiasco was directly built in to the > >Microsoft Windows software where the name of the 90 millimetre > >disk appeared > >as a 3 1/2" and I believe that this was very difficult (impossible) to > >change to its real size. I know � I tried. > > > >The 5 1/4" disk, as I heard the (probably apocryphal) rumour, was designed > >by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak at a lunch one day. The story goes > >that when > >they discussed how big a floppy disk should be, one of them picked up a > >folded serviette and said, "It should be about this big'. They > >then took the > >serviette back to work and used it for a model. As to the original > >dimensions of the serviette, I can only guess that it looks a lot like a > >400 millimetre serviette folded into three. But this is purely > >conjecture on > >my part. > > > >Cheers, > > > >Pat Naughtin LCAMS > >Geelong, Australia > >-- > > > > > >on 2004-05-22 02.45, Stephen Gallagher at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > >> Does anybody know how 3.5 inch and 5.25 inch floppy > >> disks were marketed in Australia. Were they marketed > >> with metric or imperial sizes and, more importantly, > >> how does/did the public refer to them. > >> > >> Just wondering. > >> > >> Stephen > >> > >> P.S. This may have been posted twice. Sorry. > >> > >
