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from the How-many-slugs-to-the-stone? dept.
AnonTechie writes:
"I have the following requests to members of this new forum:
1) Please use SI Units wherever possible. Alternative comparative units such as swimming pools, size of Florida, cars, libraries of congress, etc are also welcome ...
2) Please cover tech/science related stories from around the world. Please do not make this a US only website !!
Cheers and best wishes,
AnonTechie"
[ED Note: We as a community welcome submissions from around the world, as befits our international userbase. The Editorial team in particular is looking closely at including voices from outside the U.S. as we continue to grow. As for the units question in particular, stories will certainly arrive with a variety of units depending on the origin of the submission. We encourage, though do not require, submitters to include conversions where appropriate for clarity out of courtesy to your fellow readers. Though we try to use a light touch when making edits to story submissions, Editors may add these from time to time as well, should clarity demand and time permit.
Soylentils, does the current ad-hoc approach meet your needs, or do you favor a more formal approach from your news discussion site?]
(Score: 5, Informative) by CluelessMoron on Sunday February 23 2014, @09:04PM
(Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Sunday February 23 2014, @09:12PM
You're already using a browser.
Just key it into the search bar:
footballfields per second = ? mph
Google will oblige.
Discussion should abhor vacuity, as space does a vacuum.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @01:49AM
This is a good point. Why can't browsers handle this automatically?
There should be a menu item or button that says "show original units" "show SI units" "show Imperial units" etc., that will automatically translate any units on the page.
Of course, it would be great to have such units marked up using some sort of markup language, but short of that, there ought to be a simple workaround...
(Score: 1) by lord_rob the only on on Monday February 24 2014, @09:21AM
google "20 m to feet" (20 meters)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @03:21AM
google, ewww
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @09:11AM
But that uses American football fields - how do I get that in SI football fields?
(Score: 1) by Crash on Monday February 24 2014, @02:48PM
Do you mean a Canadian football field?
(Score: 1) by CluelessMoron on Monday February 24 2014, @04:07PM
I realize you're joking, but units does actually support "canadafootballfield". It doesn't have soccerfield presumably because there is no standard length for them, strangely enough.
If you want to customize units, just add them to ".units.dat" in your home directory.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @11:11AM
Google will not even get what I type in the search bar. How is it supposed to oblige?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2014, @09:13PM
Very cool. Thank you.
(Score: 3, Funny) by M. Baranczak on Sunday February 23 2014, @09:35PM
Thank you! My productivity on the job just shot up by 420 kirabs per muhurta.
For the record, 'units' is also pre-installed on Mac OS.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Yog-Yogguth on Sunday February 23 2014, @10:56PM
Interesting... my kinetic viscosity of intelligence (it slowly drips through) accelerated by 1 stokes per lentor, or 0.016968364 cobalt if you prefer :3
I don't know how that happened, I don't think it is right or proper, and I do not want to know because that's supposed to be a full 0.1‰ improvement in technobabble! :D
Buck Feta? Duck Fice! And Guck Foogle too!
(Score: 1) by B1ackDragon on Sunday February 23 2014, @10:35PM
Google does this too: 2.5 footballfields per second in miles per hour [google.com]
(Score: 1) by CluelessMoron on Sunday February 23 2014, @10:49PM
And almost certainly they are using the Open Source Unix "units" to do so.
So here we are full circle.