"Hadron" <hadronquark@googlemail.com> wrote in message
news:g0n0pr$rpf$2@registered.motzarella.org...
> "Canuck57" <dave-no_spam@unixhome.net> writes:
>
>> "Moshe Goldfarb" <brick.n.straw@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:9t96hqagi7vh.172qilsj253n$.dlg@40tude.net...
>>> On Fri, 16 May 2008 19:55:15 -0600, Bruce Grubb wrote:
>>>
>>>> In article <1l1i4zt4ow56w.1le5ew7pmd4of$.dlg@40tude.net>,
>>>> Moshe Goldfarb <brick.n.straw@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, 16 May 2008 17:00:21 -0500, Ivan Marsh wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, 16 May 2008 17:57:01 -0400, Moshe Goldfarb wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Fri, 16 May 2008 16:47:58 -0500, Ivan Marsh wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Fri, 16 May 2008 14:06:43 -0700, The Ghost In The Machine wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Ivan Marsh <ivanmarsh@yahoo.com>
>>>>>>>>> wrote
>>>>>>>> At least Java went to Mars.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Was Java running the innards of that 40 million dollar Tonka Toy
>>>>>>> that
>>>>>>> went brain dead on Mars 10 minutes after it landed?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Suggesting that hitting Mars much less landing safely on the surface
>>>>>> is
>>>>>> trivial?
>>>>>
>>>>> Not at all.
>>>>>
>>>>> The thing fscked up.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm just wondering if Java was what fscked it up.
>>>>
>>>> Might have been who ever NASA used as the subcontracter. Remember how
>>>> Lockheed Martin went off and put English standard units into equations
>>>> designed for Metric units and got the Mars Climate Orbiter clobbered?
>>>
>>> I believe they did a similar thing with the Hubble as well.
>>> One team was using English the other metric.
>>>
>>> Personally, as an Engineer, I could never understand the reasoning for
>>> Englsih vs MKS.
>>>
>>>> When I went to college in the mid 1980's our physics book used metric
>>>> so
>>>> I
>>>> couldn't understand this. I mean why on Earth would anyone outside the
>>>> automotive industry use English standard units?!
>>>
>>> The problem is thinking and converting.
>>>
>>> Example: Typical American (like me) knows a foot is *this long* (stretch
>>> your arms out) but has no idea how big a meter is.
>>> They are constantly trying to convert which makes a mess of things.
>>>
>>> If they were taught in terms of MKS their would be no problem.
>>
>> Anyone in engineering and science had better know MKS. Not 100% sure of
>> this, but is not the US the last market on earth using metric? Even the
>> British sell gas by the litre.
>
> Is there some subtle joke in this ludicrous statement?

Oops, no. Should read...

.....but is not the US the last market on earth using imperial measurement?