It's a British saying.

Of course if you're familiar with a system, it doesn't matter what the numbers are. I'm only talking about perceptions by the body, not the eyes. My body temperature is important to that feel, that's all. Where I live, knowing that the water is freezing isn't as important as knowing if it feels cold (because it gets cold .... as low as -40F/-40C). Similarly, I don't care when the water boils; who measures it? It's "up there" somewhere. But I do care to know if the weather is hot. With 0 as the dividing point between, say, cold and freakin nasty, I know. With 100 as the dividing point between hot and unbearable, I know. For that matter, of course, I don't need the actual temperature at all, do I? Descriptions will do.

"A pint's a pound the world around"
Human body temperature is about 100F. Human extreme cold is 0F.
Water's state is irrelevant to human perception.
There are reasons beyond history and romance to use non-metric units for non-scientific purposes.

Ugen wrote, What exactly is gained by change in units? As a metric "native" I can tell you that metric units are not based on real-world criteria. There is no way to naturally define an "approximate" centimeter or a gram (as opposed to approximate inch, foot or ounce, for example).

Yes, that. I use metric where (as a previous poster mentioned) it's convenient. Non-metric units of all kinds are human dimensions. Inches, feet, tablespoons, cups, pints, hands, etc., fall within easy human perception. Larger measurements (miles/kilometers, acres/hectares) are fine in any system with a little practice. Meters are great for certain measurements (as are yards), but a multi-number or fractional description is not necessarily helpful (0.2 meters or 20 cm). When doing recipes, for example, those decileters work out on a measuring cup, but I'll bet even metric users think in terms of numerical 'clumps' of decileters when not actually using a measuring cup. Of course, some measurements are simply 'romantic' -- and have specific uses for those who know them and also need to know how to read historical data: the aforementioned hands, plus fathoms, knots, etc.

I recall being confounded when building shelves for a friend in Europe when looking for the metric equivalent of a 2x4. And it's worth recalling that carpentry does divisions by halves, which is very clumsy in metric. How do you say "two inches less a sixteenth" in metric? And there are conventions beyond sizes (which would require retooling one of the largest industries in the world with no gain as there's nothing international about a house in Indiana). It makes me think of learning time in Dutch, when I was rushing for a train and the clerk told me to hurry because it was leaving at "vijf over half negan" ... literally five past half-nine, 25 to 9, or 8:35.

I have a long-term experience to relate. I'm already in an area that doesn't pay -- I'm a composer.

My Bathory Opera site has been around a very long time and gathered lots of goth, vampire, and opera fans. Over the years I'd diligently answered their emails, provided research, and generally made it a useful site. So when it was finally time to produce the opera for about $25,000, I began fundraising. Of the 1,700 on my email list for the site, exactly five made contributions. The funds were raised from about 140 others (plus out-of-pocket) and the opera was eventually produced for about $27,500 (October 2011).

Many others then said, oh, yes, as soon as the DVD comes out, I'll get one (add lots of "!!!!!!!"). It's been available for two weeks as a physical copy with an opening night souvenir book or as a download. Sales: 1.

Yet these same folks continue to write, ask for information, photos, evaluations of their latest Bathory plays, etc. As long as their entertainment costs nothing, they're happy to play along.

Dennis

This was identified, defined and named as "throat creak" on alt.usage.english at least 10 years ago, including its first appearance in television commercials of the day.

Also, Pair is amenable to special circumstances, such as high storage / low volume, nonprofits, etc. Use their homepage as a guide, and then email to ask. They answer.

I've been using Pair Networks for about 15 years. They have the tools and space you need, and you can exactly mirror your present directory structure. It's either shared hosting (some 'dangerous' tools are limited) or your can lease a server. They have high reliability, near zero downtime, a software/hardware maintenance schedule (no surprises). It's FreeBSD Unix and they won't hold your hand with automated tools, so you're on your own.

Everybody deals with anger and stress; both you and the OP seem to think you're special victims. You're not. If you continue to take the attitude that users need 'fixing' or need to 'get over it', then people will rightly continue to hate IT. And you're creating two 'rules'? Rules? Seriously? That is the height of arrogance, and another reason to hate IT. You have provided the perfect example of both being wrong and incurring dislike. Remember, you're a tech secretary. You don't get to make rules or 'fix' people.

Replace "is" and "are" in your post with "should not be" and you have the user point of view. The frequency of screw-ups, changes, and work interruptions is often higher than with any other kind of productivity interference. Even the copier running out of paper reflects on you because a copier is undifferentiated from a printer. Copiers are tech. You're tech. QED, truth or not. In some examples I gave earlier, tech problems are the most significant workplace issue.

And in reality, their problem should trump all others when they are in your presence. It doesn't mean they will ultimately take priority, but at least they should feel that their requests are treated seriously and promptly, with a reasonably accurate schedule of response. Not like they "have the technical IQ of a carrot". In addition, IT often does the tech equivalent of stonewalling; they provide no information or provide it only in tech-speak.

Keep in mind that you are the 21st century equivalent of a secretary. Your job is piddle in the larger scheme of human endeavor. You do a job that will ultimately be replaced by the technology you now tend. For the moment, end users are your clients. They do not need to respect you, and will not respect you until you earn that respect in your skills and behavior.

Fortunately, I'm mostly self-employed, not in technology (any more), and maintain my own network and software at home.

But I do hear IT hate from colleagues (who remember when I ran a computer company and think I still have a clue)...

One works in a highly time-stressed professional setting where she moves from room to room to deal with clients, using the computer in the room (no laptops). The system responds slowly and the main reporting software (written by the organization's IT people) has an inconsistent interface and commands. Changes to commands are implemented without notice and using the wrong 'old' command causes lost work. She's given up calling IT because technical explanations are irrelevant to her work. Now she hand-writes everything to enter when she can concentrate on what the system expects.

Another works where the previous system's back-end changed from Windows to Linux. The change seemed smooth enough because the employees' machines remained Windows, but previously functioning software -- particularly media software, which he uses in this job -- no longer integrates well or functions at all. He is given technical explanations about network issues, all irrelevant to his work. Material that once got out promptly now lags hours or days until IT comes up fixes as problems arise. Nothing is comprehensively solved.

A third teaches at a college. Each instructor has to log in to the whiteboard computer -- at which point updates begin installing. The system hangs for upwards of a minute when media apps are called up (such as audio/video players, Flash, or PDF readers). He's way into IT hate for losing class time. And yes, he's one who tapes his monthly required password change on the desk. The Moodle system recently installed is so slow that he's stopped using it entirely (the previous system called Blackboard having been abandoned for the same reason!).

What these have in common, I think, is that either IT wasn't interested in knowing or wasn't required to understand how the people actually work in their jobs. Of course, understanding or not, it seems to me you shouldn't be building systems that make people wait in time-sensitive situations, nor should you create complicated and changing interfaces. Ultimately, the organizations should be aware that IT is hindering effectiveness, not enhancing it. In the meantime, there's some seething IT hate!

You can recover those degraded tapes. Contact me privately for info/help on this.

Dennis

I didn't delete files. Some materials are converted, some aren't, some are in original media, some are recovered from those media and restored when needed.

My response was to your comment about 10-year-old backups: "Do you even have any idea what is in those 10 year old backup tapes? If it's not on the computer, your company's not making efficient use of the stored info ". Whether archives and backups are different is really not relevant -- the OP was about opening old files, which is a combination hardware/software issue. That extends to backups as well as opening original media, including pre-digital ... Read Michael Gerzon's essay "Don't Destroy The Archives" for more on these issues.

What it comes down to is this: There's a simple limit to the time available to up-convert ... this afflicts artists, especially composers. The sheer quantity is hard to deal with. I have composed 1000+ pieces (about 1/4 electroacoustic since the 1960s), written nearly 1000 articles, written books, done graphics, and recorded thousands of hours of performances in formats encompassing mono open reel, those old Beta F1 digital tapes, dbx I open reel, 4-track 3.75 cassette, DAT, flashcard... and, of course, photographs on thousands of 35mm negative strips through digital formats (including proprietary raw formats.

These are formidable archives and backups and original media. Didn't mean to get into semantic differences ... just that the issue of preserving useful (and even significant) materials can be overwhelming.

Dennis
http://bathory.org/

I suppose companies have legal resposibilities and have to keep archives.

As for my own work, I have musical score and book/article backups to 1993 and text materials brought forward from cassette tapes dating from 1978, plus paper scores and articles dating from 1963 and tens of thousands of scans of that material and pre-digital artwork and photography, as well as recordings (including source tracks for electronic music) dating from 1969.

Why? I'm an author and composer, and for us, history doesn't stretch back just a year or two -- it stretches back a lifetime. I was very happy to have those ancient electronic sources from 1972 when an ensemble wanted to premiere that composition in Amsterdam in 2003.

Dennis
http://bathory.org/

A couple of points.

First, by its nature of being forward-looking and leading cultural change, much art, music and literature outside the popular realm does not get attention for quite a while -- that means the rewards don't come until there is a sufficient public to pay for it. (My own compositions from the 1970s are finally getting performances.) Items in the popular realm make their money at the beginning; other forms make it much later. Seven years would not recognize this split that began showing up about 100 years ago.

Second, the lifespan when the Constitution instituted copyright was about 35. It's now nearing 80. The 28+28 old copyright law showed how the copyright term based on the Constitution (Article I Section 8) grew with that, and I think it makes sense for the creators.

I support Creative Commons-style licensing and oppose unlimited copyright extensions, and especially the 19th century legalization of corporations as artificial persons. Take that away, and copyright has much less commercial value and would slowly fade as an issue.

Dennis
Please support my Blood Countess opera. Do it now unless you want me to depend a whole lot on copyright!