Re: OT: Standards was Re: Does everything depend on everything?
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 John Hasler wrote: The difference is that US residents are still permitted the liberty of using the units with which they are comfortable rather than those which the all-knowing government imposes. Of course, units is always there to do the conversions for you... Unfortunately units fails to convert any of my nice set of metric allen wrenches to 3/64 inch. And that is the point of my signature. The US system of units puts unnecessary barriers on trade and use of hardware from other countries. - -- Johannes Three nations have not officially adopted the International System of Units as their primary or sole system of measurement: Burma, Liberia, and the United States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_units -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkruza8ACgkQC1NzPRl9qEW8YQCfZD5XaSb8dHZbjDgIKDrK0HyN +/sAnAvcOZO3NzYUt0u8S6K7YSU4lUdb =niAr -END PGP SIGNATURE- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
RE: OT: Standards was Re: Does everything depend on everything?
Original Message From: johan...@physik.blm.tu-muenchen.de To: debian-user@lists.debian.org Subject: RE: OT: Standards was Re: Does everything depend on everything? Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:05:09 +0100 -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Dennis Wicks wrote: Sadly, only three nations have the good sense not to spend 10's of millions of their GNP converting to Yet Another Arbitrary System Of Measurement. Burma, Liberia, and the United States. FWIW, I don't think that it makes sense that different countries, etc. use different sets of standards. The standards [1] of the ISO [2] are not 'Yet Another Arbitrary System Of Measurement'. They are *the* common standard that exists. All other systems are arbitrary (ie. different for different countries, different purposes, etc.). Note that this very mailing list would not exist in its present form, if instead of a common standard there were different implementations for email for the different applications and/or countries. There are many more examples, why common standards are important. Johannes [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_units [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standards_organizations#International_S tandards_Organizations -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkrspoUACgkQC1NzPRl9qEVNEQCfV+lo95RVEBi1yiQ63TY6l+Ao SYMAniNYXcUsWjyQS7yxc9qKFdsOB0vF =8oZ7 -END PGP SIGNATURE- In support of Johannes there is a common set of standard units in Physics called SI (The International System of Units). Use of SI allows the computation of quantities as simple as Force to as complex as Entropy without having to worry about unit conversion. Larry -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: Standards was Re: Does everything depend on everything?
On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 4:05 PM, Johannes Wiedersich johan...@physik.blm.tu-muenchen.de wrote: -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Dennis Wicks wrote: Sadly, only three nations have the good sense not to spend 10's of millions of their GNP converting to Yet Another Arbitrary System Of Measurement. Burma, Liberia, and the United States. FWIW, I don't think that it makes sense that different countries, etc. use different sets of standards. The standards [1] of the ISO [2] are not 'Yet Another Arbitrary System Of Measurement'. They are *the* common standard that exists. I wish that were true, but it is not. It is just ISO propoganda. All other systems are arbitrary (ie. different for different countries, different purposes, etc.). Wrong. The system of natural units is not arbitrary. So it is the One True System if you want to get religious about it. However, the individual metrics in all possible systems, including those based on natural units, have several equivalent forms, the choice of which is necessarily arbitrary, but only slightly. Note that this very mailing list would not exist in its present form, if instead of a common standard there were different implementations for email for the different applications and/or countries. By that reasoning the US component of this mailing list is necessarily incompatible with the rest of the internet. Since that conclusion is manifestly false either your factr or your reasoning is wrong. IMHO both are. There are many more examples, why common standards are important. That statement confuses common with right, which is a serious error. It also implicitly assumes that common standards are intolerant of alternatives, which is also manifestly wrong. And at one time the ISO system was uncommon, so it would have been subject to the same criticisms that you now level against its competitors. That indicates that your assertions are based on the shifting sands of history and its accidents rather than on objectively measureable merits. So why should anyone care about the current fads of metricians? After all they are certain to change. (C.F. the shrinkage in the ISO national standards for weight as compared to the master standard.) Please consider these propositions: Resolved: that the existence of standards is a Good Thing(tm). Resolved: that the existence of standards zealotry is a Bad Thing(tm). Since we have adequate standards we should not tolerate any kind of standards zealotry. -- Lee P.S. Astute observers will note that the Imperial/American system of units has already been converted to an ISO basis. That is why the modern inch is DEFINED to be 2.54 cm. -- L. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: Standards was Re: Does everything depend on everything?
Lee Winter writes: Astute observers will note that the Imperial/American system of units has already been converted to an ISO basis. And that the metric system has been an official standard and legal for trade in the USA since 1866. The USA was one of the original signatories to the Metre Convention. International metric standards have been the fundamental standards for length and mass in the USA since 1893. That is why the modern inch is DEFINED to be 2.54 cm. -- L. As of 1959. The difference is that US residents are still permitted the liberty of using the units with which they are comfortable rather than those which the all-knowing government imposes. Of course, units is always there to do the conversions for you... -- John Hasler -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
