Back in 2007, IP Innovation filed a lawsuit against Red Hat and Novell. IP Innovation is a subsidiary of Acacia Technologies. You may have heard of them -- they're reported to be the most litigious patent troll in the USA, meaning they produce nothing of value other than money from those whom they sue (or threaten to sue) over patent issues. They're alleging infringement of patents on a user interface that has multiple workspaces. Hard to say just what they mean (which is often a problem in software patents), but it sounds a lot like functionality that pretty much all programmers and consumers use.
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Member since:2005-08-18
That's a Canadian problem. The decimeter is frequently used in other places. I've never heard anyone having problems with meters and grams being too small.
I cant help but wonder how you two can work with computers since, you know, there are just way too many bytes to a kilobyte. Where's the decibyte (or perhaps ounce of bytes) when you need it?
Member since:2005-07-06
Congratulations?
And you still haven't. If you read my post, you'll see that I didn't actually say anything about metres or grams being too small.
Since when are bytes or kilobytes used as a measure of distance or mass?
Edited 2009-02-16 14:37 UTC
Member since:2005-07-08
Those are meaningless measurements compounded by the fact that we frequently just increase them by an order of magnitude and expect the world to know what we're talking about. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you cant, w/o the aid of google, tell me how many pages of text fit in a megabyte. Furthermore, there's the whole 1024 versus 1000 thing that really gets some people upset. Further proof is that the layman has no idea that a 10 MP picture mailed over dialup will never leave their machine, let alone how "big" it is. When you start describing things to people in terms of how many you could fit on a DVD, you've pretty much ceased to make sense.
My point is/was that as soon as a base unit of measurement is so large that the common practice is to use fractional chunks of it, it loses attractiveness to those not already using it. "Gimme the 350 gram burger" sounds lame to American ears, and frankly, in America, that's all we care about.
Member since:2007-01-13
The kg is actually a very convenient measure. A litre of water weighs very close to 1kg. In Australia we simply ask for 1/2kg of chicken or say some one is 1.8m tall.
In Australia (like Britain) we never measured height in just inches but always feet and inches eg 6'1" not 73 inches. Weight of people was always expressed in stones (14 pounds) and pounds not just pounds eg 10st 5lbs not 145 lbs.
Member since:2005-07-08
A pint's a pound the world 'round holds true here in the states. A liquid pint is exactly one pound in most liquid measurement (obviously very fatty liquids break the rule, etc) so a quart is exactly two pounds - 33.8 ounces is an unfortunate one for us, but we're usually happy to get a liter instead of a quart, assuming the price is equal. You'll never hear anyone but a baker refer to liquid in measurements of pounds though 
Of course, there are the dumbasses who insist that two cups of flour weighs a pound since it's 8 liquid ounces, and unfortunately this even includes some teachers...
Member since:2005-07-06
Really? Certainly here in Sweden decimeters and hektograms( 100 g ) are used all the time. Hektograms are for example a common unit when buying things like food by weight.
But to be honest I've never seen it as a problem to talk about 400 grams or 170 cm, nor have I ever heard anybody complain about it before.
Member since:2005-07-06
I'm not sure whey "deci" units aren't used frequently here (Canada) - food sold by weight here is usually listed as grams or kilograms.
The metric system is the standard here, but many still use imperial units colloquially. And most measuring devices (thermometers, measuring cups, measuring tapes, etc) sold here will have both imperial and metric units.
I wouldn't call it a problem per se, but I do generally find it easier to visualize 6 ft than the equivalent distance in cm.
Member since:
2005-07-06
Agreed there. I've often thought the same thing about metric distance measurements - centimetres are too small, metres are too large. Canada standardized on the metric system long ago, but most of us know our height in feet rather than centimetres.
There is the "decimetre" unit (1 decimetere == 10 centimetres), and I assume there is an equivalent for mass (decigrams?) - but they're almost never used outside of elementary school math & science exercises.