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The Metric System... Why not?

Ichapp said:
Fine, if you're going to be part of that sinking ship, I'll cater to you once. Apple, then.

Fact is, Wikipedia is sourced. But that's also another topic, best left for another thread. Any more coming on the metric system?
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Gotta a source that this is widespread, and not Apple's means of making it appear that they aren't REALLY shortchanging you when they sell you a 32 GB device?
 
byteware said:
Gotta a source that this is widespread, and not Apple's means of making it appear that they aren't REALLY shortchanging you when they sell you a 32 GB device?
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Come again? At the risk of sounding disrespectful, you ought to read over what you're posting before you hit the "Submit Reply" button, just to make sure that what you're trying to convey is easily understood.
 
Ichapp said:
Come again? At the risk of sounding disrespectful, you ought to read over what you're posting before you hit the "Submit Reply" button, just to make sure that what you're trying to convey is easily understood.
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Byteware likes hating on Apple (among other things)
ill try get job there to piss him off :p
 
byteware said:
Gotta a source that this is widespread, and not Apple's means of making it appear that they aren't REALLY shortchanging you when they sell you a 32 GB device?
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Can you name any HDD manufacturer that offers a 32 gig drive (or any size, does not matter) that gives the user exactly 32 gigs of storage? Seems to me that every HDD manufacturer states that some space is used for all sorts of stuff the HDD requires to properly function. Bob is not an HDD expert.

You seem to see some con or ripoff because your drive is not as advertised. I say it is as advertised if you read the advertisment.

Bob
 
nope Bob, fraud you are wrong
files are measured using the 1024x1024 system
but HDDs are sold on 1000x1000x1024
hency my "320GB" HDD can only hold 297GB of data
 
Martimus said:
We presently live in a technological age. As such why would we use an archaic system like base 10 (decimal) when much of the world's technology now uses base 16 (hexidecimal).
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Because we don't have 16 fingers?

I suggest that the world adopts octal(base 8). Computers have no problem with octal, and have done so for decades. Everyone has 8 fingers, ignoring thumbs. Computers are happy, people are happy.
 
mikedt said:
Because we don't have 16 fingers?

I suggest that the world adopts octal(base 8). Computers have no problem with octal, and have done so for decades. Everyone has 8 fingers, ignoring thumbs. Computers are happy, people are happy.
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An interesting idea! But then again we could adopt base 18. After all we have 8 fingers and 10 toes (also ignoring thumbs). :p

But with all of this talk on numbering systems what I still don't understand is the former English weight measurement of a Stone. Did someone a thousand years ago search the English countryside for a 14 pound rock and decide it was the perfect unit of measurement to represent weight? Or was that a 12.5 pound rock?

And then there's the old Egyption cubit... 7 palms of 4 digits? :rolleyes:
 
I just wish that we were on the metric system. Any science classes and you go metric and basically any other country that you're in, you go metric. I know that when I go to Europe for 1 1/2 years, I'm going to have to adapt to the metric system.
 
Bob Maxey said:
Can you name any HDD manufacturer that offers a 32 gig drive (or any size, does not matter) that gives the user exactly 32 gigs of storage? Seems to me that every HDD manufacturer states that some space is used for all sorts of stuff the HDD requires to properly function. Bob is not an HDD expert.

You seem to see some con or ripoff because your drive is not as advertised. I say it is as advertised if you read the advertisment.

Bob
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There's a difference between selling a 32 GB HDD with a couple of gigs used up for whatever reason, and selling a 32 GB HDD that is actually 28 GB.
 
mikedt said:
Because we don't have 16 fingers?

I suggest that the world adopts octal(base 8). Computers have no problem with octal, and have done so for decades. Everyone has 8 fingers, ignoring thumbs. Computers are happy, people are happy.
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Actually, octal math is easier on your hands than decimal - I always used my thumbs for flags, like the carry.

By the way - all this talk about the world being metric for everything is nonsense.

I've yet to see a rational proposal that takes us off of Sumerian standards for time, with the 60s and 12s being key.

So this obsession with the number 10 is simply not necessary, imo.
 
Vihzel said:
I just wish that we were on the metric system. Any science classes and you go metric and basically any other country that you're in, you go metric. I know that when I go to Europe for 1 1/2 years, I'm going to have to adapt to the metric system.
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Ditto. I've been in China for a few weeks. I wish we were on metric in the States. Although, I can't speak to anyone here so I guess it doesn't really matter if I can apply the metric system or not at this point. :)
 
I'm British and use metric for everything except miles and stone. I use metres and kilogrammes, it's just kilometres don't make sense to me and kilogrammes are numbered to high for my weight (not that high...)
 
Wow! All this debate, and not one mention of why the US Congress has not adopted the metric system. The answer is very simple; The Congress is unwilling to officially adopt the metric system because they would have to rewrite or amend the Constitution to redefine the area set aside for the "seat of government" (Washington, D.C.). The original wording defines the seat of government as an area, measuring ten MILES square. If the Congress were to redefine this area, they would have to change either the wording to a seemingly arbitrary number (25.8998 km squared) or adjust the area to "round it up" (I will assume they will not round it down...) This will have an impact on the State of Maryland, reducing their area, and could end up spending years in the Supreme Court debating the Constitutionality of the action. This would cost BILLIONS of dollars, for what? So we can be like everybody else? I vote we just remain as we are with the concurrent twin measurement standards we have today. Is this prudent? Maybe not, but it will also not force us to retrofit everything built under the Imperial system to match metric.
Moot argument...
 
Shadow...what's with your United States obsession and what we do? Does it really matter to you? We're not Europe, you're not the United States. Live with it.
 
byteware said:
Or, they can just leave it miles. Just because it's the official measurement system, doesn't mean that miles ceases to mean something.
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That's kind of the point... If it is not officially adopted, it won't be used as the main system of measurement. Another example of the Congress seemingly not doing something, but are waaaay ahead of the game on; An official language for the united States. The arguments for NOT adopting an official language seem fair enough, but are off base. The reason they won't do it is because the courts and congress wold be forced to speak ONLY the official language, and not revert to Latin during clandestine affairs. If they decided Latin would be the official language, we would all know what they've been hiding all these years. Either way, it's like pulling teeth to get them to do anything short of giving themselves pay raises anyway.
 
well there are like 310 million people in the US and only about 5 million Irish people.
Got to love Irish accents though :)
 
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