I think the "high cultural level" thing is more like a culture's awareness of other cultures, no necessarily being haute couture.
Ah, well that could well be the case. It's very difficult to not be aware of other cultures when you have none of your own:) (Or at least, anything local is considered to be provincial and not worth paying attention to; if it is to be admired it must be imported. See for instance, the difference between attitudes of Australian football and soccer.)
Interesting point! I once heard it said that a general measure of the cultural level of a society is the ratio of dubbed-subtitled foreign films.
Really? Because aside from ads that have been dubbed to count as local content, and childrens shows, I don't think there's any dubbed content on Australian (free to air) tv. But there is a bit of subbed content, primarily on SBS. You cannot say that we have a generally high cultural level with a straight face.
but it looks like this study was limited to a couple of hundred people at a single mental health clinic.
In psychology, where an awful lot of research is based on a dozen American psychology undergrads, doing it for extra credit,[1] a couple of hundred people, anywhere, is an awfully large sample set.
[1]: I have never understood how these researchers have got ethics approval to require students to be subjects in research/grant them extra credit. Especially considering that apparently scientific ethics in Australia, where I've studied psychology, is usually about ten years behind the situation in America...
Red Hat, AFAIK, licenses all their patents to software licensed under the GPL for any purpose whatsoever. So you could get a licence for it. It just wouldn't be very useful.
Sure we have to type in code in ASCII because we're stuck with keyboards to enter it with, but that doesn't mean the default view has to be ASCII.
Nonsense. My keyboard at home can type in Latin (including accented and non-standard letters), Cyrillic and IPA (phonetic) symbols and a vast array of real punctuation. It doesn't type many more mathematical symbols than yours does (or, probably it does, but I've never wanted to type the union symbol so I've never tried). And everything is typed in the obvious way. I can type an esh or a theta as quickly as a capital s or t on IM to linguist friends, or modifying Wikipedia articles, or writing Uni assignments/notes to myself.
People who have special needs should have special keyboard layouts to accomodate them. It's not like we don't have the disk space to include a few dozen augmented layouts so that mathematicians can type maths on linguists' computers if they need to.
I think getting programming languages away from ASCII and into formatted Unicode is an exellent idea, even though I'm not a mathematician so I'm not really in Fortress's target market --- but even tho I'm a programmer, I definitely think mathematical notation is a lot easier and more convenient to read that C/Java style syntax.
My only fear is that wasn't LISP originally meant to have a fancy formatted view as well (M-expressions, I think?), and the many brackets and S-expressions were only meant for the computer?
As for the rest of the language... I'll have to skim the spec later:)
Metres are a unit of length. "Fonts" do not have a length.
Ah, I understand your point now. Thing is, it doesn't matter what part of a font you choose to measure, you can always measure it in millimetres. This is why I was confused about your original statement.
What benefits are there: please explain how my life will be easier?
I have found there are applications when being able to think in the same measurements would be useful, instead of having to convert (mostly line spacing rather than x-height)... I am unaware of any application when it would be a noticeable loss, except for legacy concerns and the decimal point (neither of which I thought particularly important--after all, if builders can re-tool, why can't software translate so much easier?).
But as I said, you are the professional and I have only done amateur fiddlings in the area. To me it seems like it would be better if we used millimetres. But if your concerns particularly about the costs involved in with current systems are well-found--something I have not given adequate thought--then maybe I shall repeat that I think millimetres have something to recommend themselves, and that measuring the xheight rather than some arbitrary quantity also does, and leave it at that.
I said an official unit, part of the SI, not a "proposed" unit.
Still confused... The SI doesn't define measurements for particular things. The SI has never said that people's height, table widths and pool depths should be measured in metres or centimetres or any other dimension. The SI has no business saying that font sizes should be measured in millimetres, and never will. The millimetre has been proposed as a metric measurement for font sizes. The millimetre is an official SI unit for length. Therefore, there is at least one official SI unit which has been proposed as a metric measurement for font sizes, and your original statement, "There are proposed metric units to measure type, but they are not offically part of the SI", is false or is based on incorrect understanding or doesn't make sense.
Well, we're both confused as I don't know what "that" refers to.
Pardon me, the difference in opinion on things which should be measured by millimetres when specifying font sizes.
I was talking about integers, i.e. no decimal points (usually), not significant figures.
True, but if you got used to the single decimal point, you'd barely even see it. That's why I changed to talking about significant figures. When I'm adding or subtracting money, I tend to ignore the decimal point and just work in large values of "cents", and put in the decimal point again at the very end...
Yes, but it's only the relative x-height that matters. Whether you measure it in Angstroms, twips or points, doesn't matter.
Well, yes. I thought it was a given that I thought millimetres were the optimal choice. Most proposals I've seen for using millimetres for measuring type cover this well and in more detail than I could on a slashdot post, so I suggest you read one. But really, it comes down to the same reason why I don't think we should be measuring tabletops in inches and everything else in (centi-/milli-/kilo-)metres. (OTOH, you appear to have had professional experience in the area, so there might be something more practical than "tradition" and "argh, decimal point" that you have on your side I haven't thought of.)
Whatever the units, it's the ratio that's important. And I'm reading these out of the AFM files, which would have to be redefined and rounded up or down if metrication was imposed, making a nightmare of compatibility, and vast expense to everyone who uses fonts professionally.
I see absolutely no reason why a program that is generally designed around metric font sizes should suddenly be forced not to be able to deal with legacy fonts and documents that use traditional point sizes. What rounding (if any) that occurs would surely be no worse than the fact that a lot of American software is eventually able to tell me I'm using a page of width 20.9996 mm.
As I said, if starting with a clean slate, I could imagine a metric point of.0001 m, but the quad is just a stupid hybrid unit. No SI units use a factor of 4.
I more-or-less fit that description, but still: It deeply offends me. I would not apply for a job at a company that said that. If I don't need them to do the job, my social skills should be completely irrelevant. Why should they mention them? I don't choose to live in a box... please don't put me into one.
Yes, the mm is an offical unit. But it isn't endorsed by anyone as the unit to measure fonts.
I am confused. Who needs to endorse it for it to be a proposed unit? Isn't that the point? Or are you saying you're unaware of any actual proposals to use millimetres to measure type?
if you note my post, it's not quite that simple and there would be a lot of argument as to how to do it.
Again, I'm confused as unless I misunderstand you it was my post that said that.
Why do would you actually care how many mm the x-height is? And the problem is that you immediately have to use tenths of mm, at least point specced type is mostly in integers (or halves).
Well, yes, but point-specced type is frequently two significant figures (10 point, 16 point, 72 point), whereas millimetre-specced type could also be two significant figures (1.5 mm, 2.7 mm, 3.0 mm; or 1 2/4 mm, 2 3/4 mm, 3 mm). The x-height is convenient because almost everything with type has lowercase letters so there's almost always something to measure off, and because most fonts look the same size if they've got the same x-height. It's not always going to be the best option, but it seems to me it will usually be a more useful than anything else.
Integers are pleasant to work with, and the whole idea of metrication is to simplify.
Simplify yes, by having all units of measurement for a given dimension differ only by powers of ten. If we're simplying by trying to make sure everything can be measured with integers, we'll end up with so many different units with different conversions (that, or measure everything in yoctametres).
There are proposed metric units to measure type, but they are not offically part of the SI.
Err... Aside from the Japanese Q (0.25 mm, i.e. a quarter of a mill), the only (to my knowledge) and most common proposed metric unit to measure type is the millimetre. That is very much officially a part of the SI.--And why should we use anything else, when it would either be a synonym (e.g. 1 pt (metric) = 1 mm) or add another complicated conversion that metricating should be removing (e.g. 1 mm = 4 pt (metric)). In fact, what metric typographic systems disagree with is what should be measured: Do we simply convert 12 point to (rounded) 4.25 mm? should we measure the tallest character? cap height? ascender height to decender depth? x-height? Of course, the question of what to measure is very much outside of the scope of the SI...
Personally, I feel that font sizes of the form 'xheight/linehight mm' (e.g. 1.5/5 mm) has much to recommend itself, and I have abused LaTeX until I'm able to actually design my documents with such specifications. Of course, I don't suppose anyone will ever notice that my Computer Modern Roman/Times/Junicode/... is neither quite 10 pt, nor 11 pt, but something in between.
37 has plenty of oomph. I know that if the temperature is sub zero, it's in a freezer; if it's less than ten, I need a jumper (i.e. the article of clothing Americans call 'sweaters' or something like that) on; if it's less than fifteen, I need a jumper with me; if it's less than twenty, it's cool, but I can't be bothered taking a jumper with me; 20-25 and it's warm; 25-30 and I prefer to wear shorts; 30-35 and I will wear shorts; above 35 and I'll avoid going outside, and when there will remain in the shade as much as possible; and above 50 and I'm probably in a heater that's warming um.
I really don't see the value in changing these to 30, 40, 50, 60, 68, 77, 85, 95 and 120. Now all of a sudden I'm getting confused by too many options ("is 46 or 47 more like 40 or 50?") that I can't feel well enough to care about anyway.
Sure, we'll let you off the hook--once you've filled out Forms 11G, 17B and at least sections one, three, five and ten of form 28L. Unfortunately, we've run out of copies of 28L so you'll need to come back on Wednesday. Form 17B can usually be picked up from the office on the other side of town; otherwise, ask for it here when you come back. Filling in forms 2B and 110-2007 will also provide income assistance if you can demonstrate that your procrastination has caused un- or underemployment and thereby financial hardship, but these won't be available till after the others have been processed. Form 11G must be accompanied by proof that you carry the procrastination gene and stat decs from yourself and at least three past employers or schoolteachers that procrastination has caused underacheivement. Note also the fine print on from 17B that states it is invalidated by evidence that you can get around to things if you try hard enough.
(Also, why are people who look after sick cats protected under discrimination laws? Do I misunderstand 'vet'?)
2) In a larger view, the difficulty in getting people to switch is symptomatic of our long-BROKEN educational system.
You realise, of course, that in order to get people to convert, you need to teach them less? At the moment, Americans get taught US and Metric units. A widespead conversion won't be noticeable till about a generation after you stop teaching US.
(Also, your observation that Canada hasn't fully converted after thirty-something years is an incorrect analogy to draw for America; you emphasise this by pointing out that Mexico uses US units, too. Once America successfully converts, Canada and Mexico will be able to follow. In Australia and New Zealand (where we have much less US influence in this regard), we've converted almost almost completely aside from things like 2x4s-which-aren't or the fact that people's height is frequently estimated in feet and inches. (People's weight is, however, exclusively given in kilograms. It's funny that people's height and weight are the things that seem to be the hardest to metricate in AU, CA, IE, UK.) Oh, and large Vegemite jars are still to this day 455 g.)
There is a drive to convert road signs to metric - again, partly because of our EU membership - but there's no easy, straightforward way to do it.
Apparently in Australia when we converted some years before I was born, what they did, was they picked one long weekend and literally overnight, almost every single sign was replaced. Those that weren't were done by the next working day. There's still a few old historical ones left (e.g. a milestone here, and wooden direction sign there), but they were old and historical before the conversion too... The signs have no dimensions on them, so it's kinda important to get the conversion quick. It's not easy, but if you're serious about metricating, it's not impossible.
Um, that's not a huge advantage. In the city I come from, the lowest it gets is 0 degrees Celsius. It never gets below 0; normally the lowest low in winter is between 0 and 5. Why would I care what's under that? Now, I don't have much experience with temperatures around 0F to know if it's obvious that you have to be careful, but you can tell that it's very hot as the temperature approaches 40C, and that you can't just expect to go outside and play football for an hour without being concerned about your health. After you've been doing that, say, all your life, the fact that it's hot is what counts...
The metric system is perfectly capable in everyday measurements, just the imperial system.
(I come from Australia, and people's heights still tend to be estimated in feet and inches, but measured heights are in centimetres. Aside from that, we're about as metric as they come after about 30 years. At a pub, beer is also bought by the 'pint', but this isn't a pint; depending on which state you're from it ranges from about 400 mL to about 600 mL, and is simply a name, same as a 'glass', a 'pot' or a 'schooner'.)
I'm not a mathematician, but I also tend to use LaTeX and the like. I have very few skills in Office, but because I'm a programmer, people assume I'm great at computers and ask me how to do such-and-such in Word (or whatever). Most of the time I've never done it, but I poke around for half a minute and it's done, and so they ask me next time. (Some times, of course, I give up and say "I don't know".)
You'd think, but the only binary-only software I know of for PPC/Linux is Opera, and they're a bit of an unusual case in other ways... PPC systems run in big-endian mode, whereas x86s are big-endian, so if they haven't written sufficiently portable code it could cause some issues, so it might be more than just an incapabilitly to recompile with a few switches changed...
I may be wrong, but I think it's i386 only, yes? (At least, I can't find any explicit reference to the processor type, but there's only one download option I can find.) But if they do have a PPC version out, could you post a link?
And here was me only glad it wasn't a damn flash video that I can't play on my own computer... At least, if there's a way to play flash videos on a PPC/Linux box, I'm unaware of it.
Is more info available about this? (webpage, mailing list, source or something?). OLPC (and this version of AbiWord) sounds awesome but I don't know anything about it...
Debian/Ubuntu packages often depend on TeX. So if you install TeX Live from the DVD, you'll probably end up having TeX installed twice: once TeTeX, once TeX Live. So make sure you know which one you're executing (usually/usr/local/bin is in the search path before/usr/bin, so you'll almost certainly be executing TeX Live's version of pdflatex or whatever you use).
TeX Live now also has Debian packages available (in Etch, at least), which are supported for every Debian architecture (including PPC-GNU/Linux, which has no support form TeX Live as distributed by TUG, much to my dismay). If you use these packages, beware that while most packages depend on either TeTeX or Debian TeX Live, many still don't. And if you install one that doesn't, it'll uninstall your Debian TeX Live distribution! So if you're install TeX-related packages, always make sure it doesn't say 'removing texlive-blah'.
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I think the "high cultural level" thing is more like a culture's awareness of other cultures, no necessarily being haute couture.
:) (Or at least, anything local is considered to be provincial and not worth paying attention to; if it is to be admired it must be imported. See for instance, the difference between attitudes of Australian football and soccer.)
Ah, well that could well be the case. It's very difficult to not be aware of other cultures when you have none of your own
I don't have a clue, but certainly more than I'm likely to use... I'm also not entirely sure why you're asking.
Interesting point! I once heard it said that a general measure of the cultural level of a society is the ratio of dubbed-subtitled foreign films.
Really? Because aside from ads that have been dubbed to count as local content, and childrens shows, I don't think there's any dubbed content on Australian (free to air) tv. But there is a bit of subbed content, primarily on SBS. You cannot say that we have a generally high cultural level with a straight face.
but it looks like this study was limited to a couple of hundred people at a single mental health clinic.
In psychology, where an awful lot of research is based on a dozen American psychology undergrads, doing it for extra credit,[1] a couple of hundred people, anywhere, is an awfully large sample set.
[1]: I have never understood how these researchers have got ethics approval to require students to be subjects in research/grant them extra credit. Especially considering that apparently scientific ethics in Australia, where I've studied psychology, is usually about ten years behind the situation in America...
Red Hat, AFAIK, licenses all their patents to software licensed under the GPL for any purpose whatsoever. So you could get a licence for it. It just wouldn't be very useful.
Sure we have to type in code in ASCII because we're stuck with keyboards to enter it with, but that doesn't mean the default view has to be ASCII.
... I'll have to skim the spec later :)
Nonsense. My keyboard at home can type in Latin (including accented and non-standard letters), Cyrillic and IPA (phonetic) symbols and a vast array of real punctuation. It doesn't type many more mathematical symbols than yours does (or, probably it does, but I've never wanted to type the union symbol so I've never tried). And everything is typed in the obvious way. I can type an esh or a theta as quickly as a capital s or t on IM to linguist friends, or modifying Wikipedia articles, or writing Uni assignments/notes to myself.
People who have special needs should have special keyboard layouts to accomodate them. It's not like we don't have the disk space to include a few dozen augmented layouts so that mathematicians can type maths on linguists' computers if they need to.
I think getting programming languages away from ASCII and into formatted Unicode is an exellent idea, even though I'm not a mathematician so I'm not really in Fortress's target market --- but even tho I'm a programmer, I definitely think mathematical notation is a lot easier and more convenient to read that C/Java style syntax.
My only fear is that wasn't LISP originally meant to have a fancy formatted view as well (M-expressions, I think?), and the many brackets and S-expressions were only meant for the computer?
As for the rest of the language
Metres are a unit of length. "Fonts" do not have a length.
Ah, I understand your point now. Thing is, it doesn't matter what part of a font you choose to measure, you can always measure it in millimetres. This is why I was confused about your original statement.
What benefits are there: please explain how my life will be easier?
I have found there are applications when being able to think in the same measurements would be useful, instead of having to convert (mostly line spacing rather than x-height)... I am unaware of any application when it would be a noticeable loss, except for legacy concerns and the decimal point (neither of which I thought particularly important--after all, if builders can re-tool, why can't software translate so much easier?).
But as I said, you are the professional and I have only done amateur fiddlings in the area. To me it seems like it would be better if we used millimetres. But if your concerns particularly about the costs involved in with current systems are well-found--something I have not given adequate thought--then maybe I shall repeat that I think millimetres have something to recommend themselves, and that measuring the xheight rather than some arbitrary quantity also does, and leave it at that.
I said an official unit, part of the SI, not a "proposed" unit.
.0001 m, but the quad is just a stupid hybrid unit. No SI units use a factor of 4.
Still confused... The SI doesn't define measurements for particular things. The SI has never said that people's height, table widths and pool depths should be measured in metres or centimetres or any other dimension. The SI has no business saying that font sizes should be measured in millimetres, and never will. The millimetre has been proposed as a metric measurement for font sizes. The millimetre is an official SI unit for length. Therefore, there is at least one official SI unit which has been proposed as a metric measurement for font sizes, and your original statement, "There are proposed metric units to measure type, but they are not offically part of the SI", is false or is based on incorrect understanding or doesn't make sense.
Well, we're both confused as I don't know what "that" refers to.
Pardon me, the difference in opinion on things which should be measured by millimetres when specifying font sizes.
I was talking about integers, i.e. no decimal points (usually), not significant figures.
True, but if you got used to the single decimal point, you'd barely even see it. That's why I changed to talking about significant figures. When I'm adding or subtracting money, I tend to ignore the decimal point and just work in large values of "cents", and put in the decimal point again at the very end...
Yes, but it's only the relative x-height that matters. Whether you measure it in Angstroms, twips or points, doesn't matter.
Well, yes. I thought it was a given that I thought millimetres were the optimal choice. Most proposals I've seen for using millimetres for measuring type cover this well and in more detail than I could on a slashdot post, so I suggest you read one. But really, it comes down to the same reason why I don't think we should be measuring tabletops in inches and everything else in (centi-/milli-/kilo-)metres. (OTOH, you appear to have had professional experience in the area, so there might be something more practical than "tradition" and "argh, decimal point" that you have on your side I haven't thought of.)
Whatever the units, it's the ratio that's important. And I'm reading these out of the AFM files, which would have to be redefined and rounded up or down if metrication was imposed, making a nightmare of compatibility, and vast expense to everyone who uses fonts professionally.
I see absolutely no reason why a program that is generally designed around metric font sizes should suddenly be forced not to be able to deal with legacy fonts and documents that use traditional point sizes. What rounding (if any) that occurs would surely be no worse than the fact that a lot of American software is eventually able to tell me I'm using a page of width 20.9996 mm.
As I said, if starting with a clean slate, I could imagine a metric point of
That, at least, is a point on which we can agree.
I more-or-less fit that description, but still: It deeply offends me. I would not apply for a job at a company that said that. If I don't need them to do the job, my social skills should be completely irrelevant. Why should they mention them? I don't choose to live in a box ... please don't put me into one.
Yes, the mm is an offical unit. But it isn't endorsed by anyone as the unit to measure fonts.
I am confused. Who needs to endorse it for it to be a proposed unit? Isn't that the point? Or are you saying you're unaware of any actual proposals to use millimetres to measure type?
if you note my post, it's not quite that simple and there would be a lot of argument as to how to do it.
Again, I'm confused as unless I misunderstand you it was my post that said that.
Why do would you actually care how many mm the x-height is? And the problem is that you immediately have to use tenths of mm, at least point specced type is mostly in integers (or halves).
Well, yes, but point-specced type is frequently two significant figures (10 point, 16 point, 72 point), whereas millimetre-specced type could also be two significant figures (1.5 mm, 2.7 mm, 3.0 mm; or 1 2/4 mm, 2 3/4 mm, 3 mm). The x-height is convenient because almost everything with type has lowercase letters so there's almost always something to measure off, and because most fonts look the same size if they've got the same x-height. It's not always going to be the best option, but it seems to me it will usually be a more useful than anything else.
Integers are pleasant to work with, and the whole idea of metrication is to simplify.
Simplify yes, by having all units of measurement for a given dimension differ only by powers of ten. If we're simplying by trying to make sure everything can be measured with integers, we'll end up with so many different units with different conversions (that, or measure everything in yoctametres).
Oops! I confused two replies there. Only the first paragraph is relevant here; the other belongs elsewhere. My apologies!
There are proposed metric units to measure type, but they are not offically part of the SI.
Err... Aside from the Japanese Q (0.25 mm, i.e. a quarter of a mill), the only (to my knowledge) and most common proposed metric unit to measure type is the millimetre. That is very much officially a part of the SI.--And why should we use anything else, when it would either be a synonym (e.g. 1 pt (metric) = 1 mm) or add another complicated conversion that metricating should be removing (e.g. 1 mm = 4 pt (metric)). In fact, what metric typographic systems disagree with is what should be measured: Do we simply convert 12 point to (rounded) 4.25 mm? should we measure the tallest character? cap height? ascender height to decender depth? x-height? Of course, the question of what to measure is very much outside of the scope of the SI...
Personally, I feel that font sizes of the form 'xheight/linehight mm' (e.g. 1.5/5 mm) has much to recommend itself, and I have abused LaTeX until I'm able to actually design my documents with such specifications. Of course, I don't suppose anyone will ever notice that my Computer Modern Roman/Times/Junicode/... is neither quite 10 pt, nor 11 pt, but something in between.
37 has plenty of oomph. I know that if the temperature is sub zero, it's in a freezer; if it's less than ten, I need a jumper (i.e. the article of clothing Americans call 'sweaters' or something like that) on; if it's less than fifteen, I need a jumper with me; if it's less than twenty, it's cool, but I can't be bothered taking a jumper with me; 20-25 and it's warm; 25-30 and I prefer to wear shorts; 30-35 and I will wear shorts; above 35 and I'll avoid going outside, and when there will remain in the shade as much as possible; and above 50 and I'm probably in a heater that's warming um.
I really don't see the value in changing these to 30, 40, 50, 60, 68, 77, 85, 95 and 120. Now all of a sudden I'm getting confused by too many options ("is 46 or 47 more like 40 or 50?") that I can't feel well enough to care about anyway.
Sure, we'll let you off the hook--once you've filled out Forms 11G, 17B and at least sections one, three, five and ten of form 28L. Unfortunately, we've run out of copies of 28L so you'll need to come back on Wednesday. Form 17B can usually be picked up from the office on the other side of town; otherwise, ask for it here when you come back. Filling in forms 2B and 110-2007 will also provide income assistance if you can demonstrate that your procrastination has caused un- or underemployment and thereby financial hardship, but these won't be available till after the others have been processed. Form 11G must be accompanied by proof that you carry the procrastination gene and stat decs from yourself and at least three past employers or schoolteachers that procrastination has caused underacheivement. Note also the fine print on from 17B that states it is invalidated by evidence that you can get around to things if you try hard enough.
(Also, why are people who look after sick cats protected under discrimination laws? Do I misunderstand 'vet'?)
2) In a larger view, the difficulty in getting people to switch is symptomatic of our long-BROKEN educational system.
You realise, of course, that in order to get people to convert, you need to teach them less? At the moment, Americans get taught US and Metric units. A widespead conversion won't be noticeable till about a generation after you stop teaching US.
(Also, your observation that Canada hasn't fully converted after thirty-something years is an incorrect analogy to draw for America; you emphasise this by pointing out that Mexico uses US units, too. Once America successfully converts, Canada and Mexico will be able to follow. In Australia and New Zealand (where we have much less US influence in this regard), we've converted almost almost completely aside from things like 2x4s-which-aren't or the fact that people's height is frequently estimated in feet and inches. (People's weight is, however, exclusively given in kilograms. It's funny that people's height and weight are the things that seem to be the hardest to metricate in AU, CA, IE, UK.) Oh, and large Vegemite jars are still to this day 455 g.)
There is a drive to convert road signs to metric - again, partly because of our EU membership - but there's no easy, straightforward way to do it.
Apparently in Australia when we converted some years before I was born, what they did, was they picked one long weekend and literally overnight, almost every single sign was replaced. Those that weren't were done by the next working day. There's still a few old historical ones left (e.g. a milestone here, and wooden direction sign there), but they were old and historical before the conversion too... The signs have no dimensions on them, so it's kinda important to get the conversion quick. It's not easy, but if you're serious about metricating, it's not impossible.
Um, that's not a huge advantage. In the city I come from, the lowest it gets is 0 degrees Celsius. It never gets below 0; normally the lowest low in winter is between 0 and 5. Why would I care what's under that? Now, I don't have much experience with temperatures around 0F to know if it's obvious that you have to be careful, but you can tell that it's very hot as the temperature approaches 40C, and that you can't just expect to go outside and play football for an hour without being concerned about your health. After you've been doing that, say, all your life, the fact that it's hot is what counts...
The metric system is perfectly capable in everyday measurements, just the imperial system.
(I come from Australia, and people's heights still tend to be estimated in feet and inches, but measured heights are in centimetres. Aside from that, we're about as metric as they come after about 30 years. At a pub, beer is also bought by the 'pint', but this isn't a pint; depending on which state you're from it ranges from about 400 mL to about 600 mL, and is simply a name, same as a 'glass', a 'pot' or a 'schooner'.)
I'm not a mathematician, but I also tend to use LaTeX and the like. I have very few skills in Office, but because I'm a programmer, people assume I'm great at computers and ask me how to do such-and-such in Word (or whatever). Most of the time I've never done it, but I poke around for half a minute and it's done, and so they ask me next time. (Some times, of course, I give up and say "I don't know".)
So my guess: Almost everyone lies.
You'd think, but the only binary-only software I know of for PPC/Linux is Opera, and they're a bit of an unusual case in other ways... PPC systems run in big-endian mode, whereas x86s are big-endian, so if they haven't written sufficiently portable code it could cause some issues, so it might be more than just an incapabilitly to recompile with a few switches changed...
I may be wrong, but I think it's i386 only, yes? (At least, I can't find any explicit reference to the processor type, but there's only one download option I can find.) But if they do have a PPC version out, could you post a link?
And here was me only glad it wasn't a damn flash video that I can't play on my own computer... At least, if there's a way to play flash videos on a PPC/Linux box, I'm unaware of it.
Evidently you didn't notice that they'd rebranded themselves! :)
Cool, thanks; will poke at it when I get a chance.
Is more info available about this? (webpage, mailing list, source or something?). OLPC (and this version of AbiWord) sounds awesome but I don't know anything about it...
Warning with using TeX Live:
/usr/local/bin is in the search path before /usr/bin, so you'll almost certainly be executing TeX Live's version of pdflatex or whatever you use).
Debian/Ubuntu packages often depend on TeX. So if you install TeX Live from the DVD, you'll probably end up having TeX installed twice: once TeTeX, once TeX Live. So make sure you know which one you're executing (usually
TeX Live now also has Debian packages available (in Etch, at least), which are supported for every Debian architecture (including PPC-GNU/Linux, which has no support form TeX Live as distributed by TUG, much to my dismay). If you use these packages, beware that while most packages depend on either TeTeX or Debian TeX Live, many still don't. And if you install one that doesn't, it'll uninstall your Debian TeX Live distribution! So if you're install TeX-related packages, always make sure it doesn't say 'removing texlive-blah'.