I put a 32MB hard card in my Amstrad PC1512. It was the first hard disk of any type that I ever owned; I guess this was around 1988. Before that the machine just had twin 5.25" floppies.

Actually I do pretty much always try to figure out how to do things myself. When I needed some wiring doing in my house I researched what needed to be done and realised that it would probably take more time to get a quote from an electrician than to actually do the work myself. The same thing applied to plumbing; I was astonished at how easy basic plumbing is - I re-plumbed my entire bathroom in about an hour.

On the other hand, when my car needed work doing, I found out that the equipment required would cost more than getting the work done professionally, even if I was being over charged. Also, I don't like getting my hands dirty!

If I needed my appendix removing I would trust a doctor, rather than try the operation myself. Probably.

On this faceless internet, it seems like you're supposed to hate everybody and everything.

Have you noticed that, in the UK, newspapers report cold weather in Celsius - 0C sounds colder than 32F, but hot weather is reported with Fahrenheit - 100F sounds much hotter than 37C.

About a decade ago I saw a ruler (rule for the pedants) which had been issued when the UK converted from imperial to metric back in the 70s. It had a guide to metric units - it included definitions of micrometer, millimeter, centimeter, decimeter, meter, decameter, hectometer, kilometer and megameter. No wonder people were scared by it all!

I guess converting to the lowest common denominator is something that you do on a regular basis and I guess it wouldn't occur to you that somebody could struggle with something so trivial; however, I (in the UK) vaguely remember doing this in one maths lesson at junior school (aged about 8). I haven't done it since. I don't know how to add two fractions, never mind multiply or divide them. There is never a need to use fractions with the metric system.

I think the easiest system to use is whichever you have most experience with.

You might be shocked to hear that I (a UK metric user) have no idea how to add or subtract two fractions. I can do simple things like 1/16 + 1/16 = 2/16 = 1/8, but I wouldn't know where to start with something like 1/16 * 5/6 - there simply isn't a need for fractions with the metric system.

My point is that, if an imperial user is forced to use metric, it will seem clunky and complicated, but the exact same thing applies to a metric user who tries to use imperial for the first time.

(By the way, if you ever need to use metric again in the future, just use millimeters. That way you only ever deal with whole numbers. One millimeter is more than accurate enough for carpentry (it's about the thickness of the pencil line).)

There is a move/rotate/scale manipulator that can be used to constrain to certain planes. Many blender tutorials suggest turning this off because it "gets in the way" and blender is so dependent on keyboard shortcuts* that it's just as easy to press x, y or z. * keyboard shortcuts are a Good Thing - much faster than moving the pointer across the screen to an icon, only to move back again to perform the operation. I think this probably applies to every application, not just 3d.

Agreed - Houdini has the best general purpose particle system, although there are some very good standalone specialised solutions, too.

I agree. Many times I've avoided software on sourceforge because the author's description is badly punctuated. It doesn't instil confidence if a programmer doesn't know where to put an apostrophe in a plain English sentence - how can I trust him/her to use them properly in C++?

Autodesk released AutoCAD for the Mac a few months ago. It's not inconceivable that a Linux version is in the pipeline. Maya has always been available for Windows, Mac and Linux. If Solidworks gets ported to Linux and becomes popular, Autodesk will follow. My point is that Autodesk is the kind of company that will go wherever they think they will make money.

Architects aren't the only people who use CAD. I agree that, for designing a building, BIM is much, much better than "dumb" CAD. However, at $5,495, Revit is overkill for somebody who just wants to plan their kitchen, or design themselves a new desk. A decent, free 2d CAD system is exactly what a lot of people need. There are now quite a few available for Windows (Draftsight, DoubleCAD XT: Free, ProgeCAD 2009 Smart for starters) but last time I looked (about a year ago) nothing on Linux. Personally, this is pretty much the only reason why I don't use Linux on my home PC.

Microsoft ought to take a leaf out of Autodesk's book. The ribbon interface was added to AutoCAD 2009; however there were two big differences. 1) AutoCAD's ribbon is fully customisable (as is just about everything in AutoCAD). 2) The ribbon can be turned off, and the menu bar and tool bars turned back on. In fact, it is possible to make AutoCAD look - almost - like it did pre Windows.