[muglo] RANT on Canadian imperial settings & politics (was Re: OS Autoconnect)
- From: "Eric D" <hideme666@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 13:07:39 -0400
RANT WARNING:
Apple has always had a bizarre relationship with us Canuks. They treat us
like Yankees, Brits, or some bizarre Canadian format.
Canada is a *metric* country (for that matter, only the US and the UK are
the last major dimwits... perhaps Australia as well?).
Our date format is *logical*, day/month/year or year/month/day (preferred
since not even the Yankees can muck that one up) not month/day/year! Our
keyboard is American but I despise having an American flag (or any symbol of
an overly jingoist/patriotic (the notion that patriotism<>jingoism is
laughable... here in Canada we have the vulgarity of the national anthem &
religious observances being brainwashed into children in schools... I don't
know the situation was any better before the repatriation of the
constitution in 1982 (although, I imagine they had the religious crap before
then (I was in high school here from 1987-1992 so just around the time they
were finally realising that unwanted exposure to religion is a human rights
violation)), or if we've always been as backwards as our neighbours to the
south (a segment of which descended into the perversion of school enforced
nationalism & religion in the 1950s (hope the ruling on the pledge of
alegiance holds up to appeal :))) nationality for that matter... I find
jingoism and patriotism to be equally repugnant). Anyway, if I *have* to
have a north american symbol of nationality I'd prefer the Canadian flag --
it's prettier and has fewer ugly connotations but on the whole I prefer *no*
symbol of nationality (it's doable, you have to fiddle with your settings
and delete the Canadian keyboard).
Setting your computer up to be "Canadian" (which would be correct for us
Canadians for settings and internet stuff, etc) unfortunately means using an
archaic CSA version of the keyboard (plus, it means a !@#!@# Canadian flag
in the menu), but it screws up date, and other settings as well. Setting US
is equally annoying since it screws up date & settings as well, but less so
than the Canadian setting. A European setting would be best, but you run
into keyboard, date and currency problems!!!
I find that the safest setting to use is the US setting (for both OS 9 and
X) but to correct for the buggered up date and
What Apple really needs is a Canadian - metric and Canadian - obsolete
(stick the backwards stuff in there like mucked up date, CSA keyboard,
imperial measurement units)!!!
PS I measure all volumes in mL, cc or m^3 (what the !@#!@# is a quart or an
ounce), weigh myself in pounds, *everything* else in kg, measure myself and
printer paper in feet and inches, measure *everything* else in m, and, of
course, temp in C (pounds and inches I can "sort of" see why people would
use them, but degrees F are so completely useless since the freezing point
of water is 32, and the boiling point of water is 212 -- the two most common
reference points). What a messed up system (and the Brits are even more
screwy from what I gather since they weigh in stones and measure in
miles)!!!
If people want to be dumb enough to use imperial measures, why don't they
just start using base-12 or base-16 for calculations (base-16 would be about
as logical and easy to use as pounds, inches, feet, yards, miles, ounces,
quarts, gallons, etc.)?
Anyway, that's my _incoherent_ rant on the subject!!!
Eric.
>From: Tee Cashmore <tee.cashmore@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [muglo] Re: OS Autoconnect
>Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 00:47:52 -0400
>
>Alex wrote:
>
> >hmm... I don't recall that behaviour in 9, esp with the british layout.
> >
> >X seems unwilling to cooperate without the US layout "choice"
> >
> >
> >
>The British layout has very few quirks, but the "Canadian English" one
>was wierd in O/S 7.5 to 9.
>Typical of the Yanks who have never understood Canada.
>TTFN,
>TeeC
>
>
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