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Author Topic: Am I being snobby?
Lisa
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Link.

I have an LCD monitor, and I almost broke it just now. I went to that link, and saw the following line:
quote:
Note: There are 1000 milliseconds in one second.
Am I wrong to think that no one who doesn't already know that has any business coding anything?
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Steev
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It's quite common for amateur or beginning programmers to not be familiar with such things. Especially when they never actually get to use a computer until college.
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Morbo
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No, you're not being snobby. milli=1/1000 is easy. But if I were writing the page linked to, I might include that definition anyway.

The true test is whether they think kilobytes=1000 or 1024=2^10 bytes.
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ketchupqueen
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quote:
Originally posted by Morbo:
milli=1/1000 is easy.
Sadly, I would not expect all the graduates of the local public HS to have a firm grasp of this fact.
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anti_maven
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Maybe they were merely following good documentation practices and leaving no room for doubt.

Something which may be unfamiliar to the average code-slinger...

*dons flameproof underwear* [Evil]
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katharina
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*laugh* No kidding. It's like acronyms - never use an acronym alone on a page unless you have defined it at its first appearance. It doesn't matter if someone should know what it means - define it anyway.
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BlackBlade
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quote:
Originally posted by ketchupqueen:
quote:
Originally posted by Morbo:
milli=1/1000 is easy.
Sadly, I would not expect all the graduates of the local public HS to have a firm grasp of this fact.
I am the only person in a group of 7 trainees, and our most uneducated is a HS graduate, that knew that. I spent the next 15 minutes explaining to them how the metric system is oddles easier then the imperial system. It was mildly funny to point out that the imperial system's smallest measure of length is the inch, and have them respond with, "nu uh! What about the centimeter!"

[ROFL]
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Lisa
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quote:
Originally posted by anti_maven:
Maybe they were merely following good documentation practices and leaving no room for doubt.

Something which may be unfamiliar to the average code-slinger...

*dons flameproof underwear* [Evil]
Heh.
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Lisa
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quote:
Originally posted by BlackBlade:
It was mildly funny to point out that the imperial system's smallest measure of length is the inch, and have them respond with, "nu uh! What about the centimeter!"
Mildly funny? I would have been utterly speechless.

(But isn't the smallest English unit of length the quarter inch?)
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HollowEarth
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quote:
Originally posted by Lisa:
(But isn't the smallest English unit of length the quarter inch?)
What? I claim its the thousandth of an inch. I win. No, wait maybe its the millionth. (Or maybe its the billionth of a fathom? Some fraction of league?) Reductio ad absurdum.

This is a meaningless argument.

Edit: You can see all of the defined U.S. units of measurement here: http://ts.nist.gov/WeightsAndMeasures/h44-06.cfm
Specifically, Appendix C, has some lists.
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Mr.Funny
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You could argue that the smallest unit of length in the metric system is the meter, and that deci-, centi-, milli-, etc. are just like "1/4 inch".
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Lisa
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quote:
Originally posted by HollowEarth:
quote:
Originally posted by Lisa:
(But isn't the smallest English unit of length the quarter inch?)
What? I claim its the thousandth of an inch. I win. No, wait maybe its the millionth. (Or maybe its the billionth of a fathom? Some fraction of league?) Reductio ad absurdum.

This is a meaningless argument.
Alternatively, it could, y'know, be a joke.

Sheesh.
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Juxtapose
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quote:
Originally posted by ketchupqueen:
quote:
Originally posted by Morbo:
milli=1/1000 is easy.
Sadly, I would not expect all the graduates of the local public HS to have a firm grasp of this fact.
I wouldn't expect all of anyone anywhere to have a firm grasp of this fact.
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Dragon
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Maybe not a firm grasp, but if I had been asked that would probably have been my first guess.
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aspectre
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"(But isn't the smallest English unit of length the quarter inch?)"

"What? I claim it's the thousandth of an inch."

The millipede, 1/1000th of a foot.

"No, wait maybe its the millionth...Reductio ad absurdum.
This is a meaningless argument."

Further reduction in scale becomes absurd at the planck length, and thus meaningless. ie One cannot apply current physics to ascribe any sort of quantity or quality to measurement at less than planck scale.
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The Reader
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The largest unit of measure in the US system is infinity x infinity for infinity. That's what I learned in the second grade, on the playground.
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