Re: CHAT: browsers

Sarah Marie Parker-Allen wrote:
> I thought I read somewhere that they
> actually were switching from driving on one side of the road to the other,
> but I don't think I'm going to believe it until I see it again from a
> reputable source.
In the Simpsons episode where Ned Flanders opens up his Leftorium, one
of the complaints about the problems of being left-handed is that it
makes it hard to drive a standard transmission, which I'm assuming is
what I call a manual car. In Australia, we drive on the left of the
road, so the gear box is on the left of the driver. We still have about
the same proportion of lefties and righties, and right-handers don't
find it impossible to drive manuals. (Trust me on that. In fact, I find
driving an auto harder, because I keep trying to reach for non-existent
things, and it feels like the car is driving, not me. I like my tools to
be my servant, not me theirs.)

> I still doubt we're going to switch here in the US.  I think it's more
> likely that some other revolution in transportation will happen first.
> Especially since amongst most people I know my own age, the sense is very
> strong that consumers/citizens end out with the short end of the conversion
> stick (2 liters is less than a gallon; half a liter/litre is less than 20
> ounces, etc.)
If that's really a problem, just have 600 mL bottles of drink, 1.25 L
bottles of drink (and you've already converted your 2 L bottles? if not,
2.2 L). No-one said the numbers had to be round. And half a kilo (500 g)
is larger than a pound (454 g)...

> In speeds, especially -- a lot of us are revelling in our
> expanded ability to go fast, with speed limits in the 65-75 mph range.
> 60mph, I believe, corresponds with 100kph, which is entirely too convenient
> a number to assume that it wouldn't get picked as the new typical speed
> limit (especially since no one wants to convert 110 or 115 kilometers to
> miles, ESPECIALLY while travelling at 115kph!)
kph is totally meaningless. Aside from being incorrect, it requires a
pronounciation of 'kays/kilometres per hour'. The normal pronunciation
in Australia is 'kays/kilometres *an* hour'. Please use km/h. (And using
kph would suggest you use mph for metres an hour, but mph is miles an
hour...)

Freeways in the city in Victoria (i.e. in Melbourne) have speed limits
of 100 km/h, but in the country, and apparently in other cities, 110
km/h is used, as is 120 km/h. Also, 35 mph is something like 49.5 km/h,
so you get an extra half a kilometre an hour on local roads.

And as the ads said when we converted from 60 km/h to 50 km/h on local
roads: driving slower is safer!

> And no, those little numbers
> on the inside of my speedometer do NOT help.
Are your cars dual labelled? (Ours aren't.) If so, they would help if
the difference between getting a fine and/or losing your licence was
sticking to a metric speed, I would imagine.

> The only metric conversions I
> can do in my head involve meter/yard sticks, the 2.5 thing for centimeters
> to inches, and remembering which metric-converted liquid measurements end
> out making things worse off for consumers.  I am still annoyed with Coke and
> Pepsi for selling six-packs of plastic bottles that are half-liter/litre
> size, or around 16oz, instead of 20oz.
I'm confused. 0.5 L and 1 L can correspond only to one measurement, not
two, so I'll assume you're just talking about 500 mL. I'm sure you could
just demand the same packaging we have in Australia. Convince enough
people to boycott Coke and Pepsi (and Schweppes and what-have-you) until
you have 600 mL drinks, which are, apparently 20.3 fl oz. Exercise your
capitalist rights! (Ditto for 1.25 L, which are larger than a quart.) If
they'll do it for one country that doesn't even *have* looney ;)
measurements to compare with, you'd expect that they'd do it for one
that does...

> The math for determining the
> relative cost of 20oz and 12oz sizes was bad enough...
So what, they're selling drinks in 12 oz, 500 mL and 1 L denominations?
That sounds incredibly confusing. You should demand that they replace
12 oz drinks with 375 mL drinks, too. ;)

One thing about the metric system, though, is temperatures. In
Australian cities, perhaps excluding Hobart, negative temperatures
degrees Celsius are incredibly rare (lows in winter in Melbourne,
accused of being freezing cold by people from other states, rarely get
below 2 degrees Celsius), so it's more appropriate than Fahrenheit(sp?).
Getting a temperature in the negatives shows you've either wandered into
a freezer or up a mountain... The same probably could not be said of
parts of the US.

Tristan.

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