scott wrote:
>> Screws here go down to 1/32nd or 1/64th of an inch,
> 
> Oh god that just reminded me of working on old stuff when I was 
> younger.  OK so the 1/2" socket is too small, ermm what comes next, this 
> one looks bigger, 5/8", nope too big, hmmm, ummm, 5/8, that's 10/16, ok 
> so let's try 9/16", ah yes cool that fits.
> 
>>> What if you need 5 foot 3 point 85 divided into 2?  Dividing 158.3 cm 
>>> into 2 is much easier.
>>
>> You'd cast everything to inches. That's how construction work is done. 
>> Studs are 16 inches apart, for example. I went to the store and bought 
>> 20-inch hoses to connect wall to sink.
> 
> So the length of a support beam is measured as something like 475 
> inches? Do you have any idea how long something that is 475 inches 
> actually looks like?  Or do you have to convert roughly into feet/yards 
> first?
> 
> Or like the example you gave earlier, if something is 50 thousand feet 
> away, do you know how far that is? Or do you have to do a rough 
> conversion to miles first?
> 
> In metric it's far easier, you buy a piece of wood that is 1200x600x28, 
> you know straight away how big it is without needing to any sums in your 
> head. Ditto if something is 50 thousand metres away, I know it's going 
> to take me about 30 mins to get there straight away - no tricky 
> conversions needed.
> 
And as a bonus I can see that you will use a car and not go by foot, 
bike, boat, or public transport.

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On 25 May 2008 13:49:09 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom>
wrote:

>
>We've been seriously talking about moving over there, but with the recent 
>changes in immigration there, when we get to the point we can, we will 
>probably start in Scotland (we've got friends both in Edinburough as well 
>as about halfway between Edinburough and Glasgow).  Ireland was another 
>possibility, though we don't know anyone directly who lives there (I have 
>a former coworker whom I'm good friends with who is from Dundalk, just 
>outside of Dublin) and he's got family still there.  But if we were to 
>start in Ireland, we really like Galway (though haven't been there, so 
>we'd want to visit first <g>).

Do you mean that you will live in different parts of the country for
periods then move on?
Halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow? Not Cumbernauld? I lived there
for about four years.
Funny enough I am thinking about leaving the country as it is going to
the dogs in a handcart, if you will pardon the mixed metaphor :)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On Mon, 26 May 2008 20:10:40 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 25 May 2008 13:49:09 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> 
> 
>>We've been seriously talking about moving over there, but with the
>>recent changes in immigration there, when we get to the point we can, we
>>will probably start in Scotland (we've got friends both in Edinburough
>>as well as about halfway between Edinburough and Glasgow).  Ireland was
>>another possibility, though we don't know anyone directly who lives
>>there (I have a former coworker whom I'm good friends with who is from
>>Dundalk, just outside of Dublin) and he's got family still there.  But
>>if we were to start in Ireland, we really like Galway (though haven't
>>been there, so we'd want to visit first <g>).
> 
> Do you mean that you will live in different parts of the country for
> periods then move on?

Possibly - though the single biggest inhibitor is the lack of a college 
degree - that has implications in immigration in England, but not 
necessarily Scotland.

> Halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow? Not Cumbernauld? I lived there
> for about four years.

Do you know where Shots is?  It's near there.

> Funny enough I am thinking about leaving the country as it is going to
> the dogs in a handcart, if you will pardon the mixed metaphor :)

LOL, it's all relative. ;-)

Jim

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On 26 May 2008 18:24:39 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom>
wrote:

>> Do you mean that you will live in different parts of the country for
>> periods then move on?
>
>Possibly - though the single biggest inhibitor is the lack of a college 
>degree - that has implications in immigration in England, but not 
>necessarily Scotland.

Skin colour and origin has probably more implications for immigration
in the UK, I would imagine :-) As for work I have never found the lack
of a degree to be a show stopper, experience counts for more here than
it does in the US (I believe). Anyway if you were working for and
being paid by a US company it would be irrelevant, I assume.

>> Halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow? Not Cumbernauld? I lived there
>> for about four years.
>
>Do you know where Shots is?  It's near there.

I do, my father in law worked there at the distillery and it is word
famous in Scotland for the Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band.

>> Funny enough I am thinking about leaving the country as it is going to
>> the dogs in a handcart, if you will pardon the mixed metaphor :)
>
>LOL, it's all relative. ;-)

True, that is what my auntie said :)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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>> In metric it's far easier, you buy a piece of wood that is 1200x600x28,
>
> Right. And why do they sell it at 1200x600, rather than 1000x500? Because 
> you can divide it in thirds and quarters. :-)

Maybe.

Actually they had 1000x500 too, and a whole range of other sizes.  I got the 
1200x600 because I'm making a stand for my TV and other equipment to go 
underneath.  After I worked out the required dimensions it came pretty close 
to 1200x600 so I fixed the design to that.  When I got to the shop it was a 
coincidence that the exact size was available, I was expecting to have to 
ask them to cut it for me.

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>> Well yes (I experienced a crazy 3-lane road once in Finland where the 
>> middle lane was for both directions!)
>
> No, you haven't ;). You might have experienced a 3-lane road where 2 lanes 
> are for one direction and 1 for another and the single-lane direction 
> going cars are allowed to overtake on the middle lane *IF* there's no cars 
> going another direction and using the middle lane.

Yeh sounds about right - it was a blizzard so you couldn't see very far, but 
it still didn't stop our taxi driver using the middle lane at 120 km/h and 
swerving back and to when approaching cars were also using the same lane!

> One might think so, but that's not true. You don't need a traffic jam to 
> render all overtaking-places unusable. Waiting for a realistic and safe 
> place to overtake a 80km/g going car on 100km/h limit might easily take 
> 20+km.

I guess it depends how much power your car has and whether you are happy to 
go over the speed while overtaking.

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And lo on Fri, 23 May 2008 22:45:29 +0100, andrel  
<a_l### [at] hotmailcom> did spake, saying:

> Stephen wrote:
>> On Thu, 22 May 2008 15:40:07 +0100, "Phil Cook"
>> <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote:
>>
>>> That's so we can have a meter that measures in metres and not get   
>>> ourselves confused.
>>  I've worked on meters that measured cubic metres. The spelling saves
>> confusion as you say.
>
> We don't have that distinction. That is one of the reasons that I try to  
> convince people that the scales they use to measure their weight should  
> be called kilometers. Up till now with very minor success.

[groan] :-) We'd probably hyphenate it though.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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And lo on Sun, 25 May 2008 01:40:10 +0100, Jim Henderson  
<nos### [at] nospamcom> did spake, saying:

> I often have to read it a second time to 'Americanise' the
> spellings just to avoid having half my audience tell me I can't spell.  
> ;-)

Shouldn't that be Americanize :-P

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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And lo on Sat, 24 May 2008 00:08:48 +0100, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> did  
spake, saying:

> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>> A cm is about right. You need something about a foot, tho. Otherwise you
>> get things like "he was 197 cm tall".

or "just under 2 metres"

>> Kilograms are too heavy and grams are too light.
>
>   Too heavy and light for what? It's very common to buy eg. "400 grams of
> meat", etc.

And nothing to stop you asking for 4 hectograms of meat, well except the  
fact that nobody would understand you :-)

>> Liters are too big and centiliters are too small.
>
>   For what? And in cooking a deciliter is a very common measure.
>
>> Basically, the factor of 1000 in common units
>> is the problem. :-)
>
> There are 10 millimeters in a centimeter, and 100 centimeter in a meter,  
> and 10 deciliters in a liter.

Important not to be confused with a decalitre.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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On Tue, 27 May 2008 07:53:14 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 26 May 2008 18:24:39 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> 
>>> Do you mean that you will live in different parts of the country for
>>> periods then move on?
>>
>>Possibly - though the single biggest inhibitor is the lack of a college
>>degree - that has implications in immigration in England, but not
>>necessarily Scotland.
>
> Skin colour and origin has probably more implications for immigration in
> the UK, I would imagine :-) As for work I have never found the lack of a
> degree to be a show stopper, experience counts for more here than it
> does in the US (I believe). Anyway if you were working for and being
> paid by a US company it would be irrelevant, I assume.

Well, I know the recent changes in UK immigration state three criteria - 
money (to invest), age (lower is better - and I'm over the rather 
arbitrary age threshold), and a college degree.  In the old points 
system, I was good to go, but they changed all that within the last 
year.  (My wife follows it fairly closely.)

Possibly coming over while employed by a US company would work (it does 
here in the US - my last boss was a Canadian immigrant, and my current 
boss lives in Canada).

>>> Halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow? Not Cumbernauld? I lived there
>>> for about four years.
>>
>>Do you know where Shots is?  It's near there.
> 
> I do, my father in law worked there at the distillery and it is word
> famous in Scotland for the Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band.

Wow, small world, isn't it?  Almost makes me wonder if you know the guy I 
know there.  That'd be weird.  IIRC, he said the population was fairly 
low there...

>>> Funny enough I am thinking about leaving the country as it is going to
>>> the dogs in a handcart, if you will pardon the mixed metaphor :)
>>
>>LOL, it's all relative. ;-)
> 
> True, that is what my auntie said :)

<groan>!

Jim

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