Use of SI units
I would love to see SI units used in The Register. Imperial units are not fit for purpose and the sooner we eliminate them the better. If you want a good example of how it works in practice see New Scientist, who have been using them in a British publication for decades.
I would add that if you do use SI PLEASE get the typography right.
1. There should be a space between the number and the unit, e.g. 50 km or 20 kg not 50km and 20kg.
2. Use spaces (ideally a printer's thin space) as the digit grouping symbol, not commas.
3. You can have 4 digits before you need a digit grouping symbol, which occurs after every third digit, e.g. it is OK to write 5000 km instead of 5 000 km.
4. Note that there is nothing wrong with using centimetres. They are NOT deprecated!
5. Note that there are two symbols for the litre, so it's best to pick one and use it consistently. The original one is the lower case l but the upper case L is also allowed. In my view the upper case L is less likely to be confused with the digit 1.
There is a useful style guide on the NIST site at http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/checklist.html
It's intended as a checklist for technical articles so it's on the picky side but it covers all the issues.
Regards, Blaise F Egan
Biting the hand that feeds IT
