[muglo] RANT on Canadian imperial settings & politics (was Re: OS Autoconnect)

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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