Posts by Nick Kramer

Pints under attack as Lord Howe demands metric-only UK

Metic OK but not Centimetric

I can work in feet and inches meters and millimeters but I consider the centimetre an abomination.

The centimeter can too easily be confused with the good old inch and is not a metric unit. It was introduced during the French revolution with the 10 day week and the 40 day month, 400 day year and should have gone the same way.

As for Lord Howe he has never recovered from Denis Healy's rebuke that being attacked by Geoffrey Howe was like being nuzzled by a dead sheep.

Think of the children - stop teaching the centimeter in British schools. A policy that would appeal to Imperial minded Luddites and Metric advocates alike.

Ten... DAB kitchen radios

DAB Doesn't Actually Work

I bought a DAB radio, and not a cheap one or an unknown make, and can not reliably receive any stations. Total waste of time and money. An FM radio, even a cheap one, does what it says on the tin and DAB does not.

Gates, Woz, and the last 2,000 years of computing

Plug for Bletchley

Just a reminder about the National Museum of Computers at Bletchly Park http://www.tnmoc.org that not only has the first computer I owned (a BBC) but the first calculator (A Sinclair Scientific and, Lord Lien, the build quality was rubbish) a black board slide rule just like we had at school etc etc.

Pedant bit ,your sub-editor has let you down; for Sir Maurice Wilkes, "Sir Maurice" or "Wilkes" is acceptable but never "Sir Wilkes".

UK arms industry 'same as striking coal miners' - Army head

Certainly not a Dropshort.

In the Punch cartoon, it was a Yeomanry officer who, when asked to explain the role of the cavalry by an inspecting officer, made the oft quoted reply.

Yeomanry regiments were the mounted version of the old Volunteers and formed the cavalry element in the 1908 Territorial Force. After the Kaiser war, most Yeomanry units were mechanised some became Armoured Recce, and some Gunners, in the Territorial Army.

In 1939 the remaining mounted Yeomanry were the only part of the British Army still mounted on horses * they were sent to what was then called Palestine. The last British mounted engagement was by the Queen's Own Yorkshire Dragoons in 1941in French Lebanon/Syria - they were mechanised on 1 March 1942.

*Compare to the Germans -The standard German infantry division (1939 pattern) required anything from 4077 to 6033 horses to move.

Google bolts 'stable' Chrome 3 onto interwebs

Google Toolbar

Why can't they have the option of the Google toolbar. Seems common sense to me.

Germans and Swiss snub DAB

DAB is Rubbish

I endorse everything David S said, he put it better than I could.

Sony DAB on my HiFi is useless so I use FM.

The technology does not work.

Nothing more to say

Force listeners onto DAB by killing FM

Problem is DAB Doesnt Work

I made a point of replacing my HiFi when it died recently with one that has DAB but thankfully it has FM as well, as the DAB doesn't work - sometimes it sees some stations sometimes none rarely many. The manufacturer is Sony so I think the KIT is ok. I've tried the antenna wire vertically, horizontally and it makes little difference. We are inn a dip and get rubbish UHF TV reception but no problem with FM.

I wonder if they will still broadcast on Medium and Long Wave, if so stopping FM is a retrograde step.

Nick