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Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

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Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#171

Post by jpalomaki »

irrational wrote: post #77
petepete wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the whole point of cups was that the actual quantity didn't matter, so long as your ratios were consistent.

Measuring by volume was from a time period before we had reliable digital scales. These days all baking measuring should be done by weight since it is far more accurate. I won’t even consider a recipe that goes by volume. Fortunately those are all written by amateurs.

I’d say measuring by weight is also faster, cleaner and easier for my overloaded brains (how many cups did I put, was that cup semi-full, ...)

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#172

Post by kube-system »

Carpetsmoker wrote: post #168
swebs wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just a bit of fun. Not everything has to be some sort of statement.

I guess ... but "God Bless America!" seems like a statement to me.

It’s Independence Day in the US. Patriotism is the theme of the day. This is just a humorous holiday-themed style sheet with a readme to match. It is not a serious style sheet that the author expects anyone to use.

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#173

Post by anonytrary »

dylan604 wrote: post #158
anonytrary wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW I'm not saying I dislike the project, I love when people post quirky projects like this to HN for fun. I'm just saying that even the smallest change to this project would cause the author to lose the "1776 USA" marketing strategy. One could say it's an unstable strategy at a local maximum.

What name are you concerned about? The file is called 'usa.css'. The file size is specifically listed right next to the download link. Not unusual. If the file size does change, it'll just be another number, yet the name of the file/project is still 'usa.css'.

I'm talking about the cute fact that the library is 1776 bytes. It was obvious that author deliberately tweaked the file size to be 1776 bytes, to aid in the marketing of the library, and that expecting to keep the file size at 1776 bytes is an unrealistic goal if the author wishes to iterate on the code. I don't get why this is being made into a huge issue. It's a simple observation.

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#174

Post by [deleted] »

mazeltovvv wrote: post #97
nxc18 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Patriotism is about fighting for the principles and values espoused in the constitution, and working towards improving an imperfect republic, not worshiping the flag. It’s a fun project and I like the colors, but let’s not pretend that the flag and the idea of ‘patriotism’ are anything other than distractions from the work that needs to be done.

Interestingly, everytime I hear this I feel like the constitution is treated like the bible, some holy book holding the truth. That is very dangerous imo

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#175

Post by skrause »

amyjess wrote: post #140
chrismorgan wrote: post #98

Feels strange to have single decimal places in your inch figures. I’d have expected something like eighths, sixteenths and thirty-seconds of inches, even though the decimal representation of them is unwieldy (1⁄32″ becomes 0.03125in). That also helps you avoid fractional pixels, which is worth doing if convenient: 1⁄32″ is 3px, because 1in is defined as 96px. (As an Australian, the main place I’ve ever seen fractions…

All small measurements in the US are done in power-of-two fractions of an inch. In fact, much of the initial opposition to the metric system here was led by the construction industry, who has found from experience that 1/2" 1/4" 1/8" 1/16" etc. measurements are too convenient to ever give up.

How this that convenient when you then have to use something like 13/16?

Just look at the standard wrench sizes (https://www.cnm.edu/programs-of-study/programs-a-z/automotiv...):

* Standard Combination Wrenches: 1/4, 5/16, 11/32, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 11/16, 3/4, 13/16, 7/8, 15/16, 1.

* Metric Combination Wrenches: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Measured in millimeters.

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#176

Post by jfkebwjsbx »

saagarjha wrote: post #130
jfkebwjsbx wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be very surprising considering how small it is compared to eg Europe alone. So citation needeed, I guess.

The United States is the world's third most populous country, and home to a number of technology businesses–one of the main draws of the site. I don't know if anyone has officially disclosed Hacker News's traffic data, but a lot of people have done analysis of what kind of traffic they get from being on the front page and it's invariably dominated by the United States: https://nicklafferty.com/blog/what-happens-when-…

1) Even if you combine the top 3, they would be quite smaller than the rest combined.

2) The actual markets is what you should look at, since you are talking about business, trade, etc. The EU is bigger than the US.

3) You wrote "most websites", not just HN. That is just incredibly wrong. Even if you had written "most English-speaking websites", you would still be wrong for the most popular sites.

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#177

Post by VyperCard »

skrause wrote: post #175
amyjess wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All small measurements in the US are done in power-of-two fractions of an inch. In fact, much of the initial opposition to the metric system here was led by the construction industry, who has found from experience that 1/2" 1/4" 1/8" 1/16" etc. measurements are too convenient to ever give up.

How this that convenient when you then have to use something like 13/16? Just look at the standard wrench sizes ( https://www.cnm.edu/programs-of-study/programs-a-z/automotiv... ): * Standard Combination Wrenches: 1/4, 5/16, 11/32, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 11/16, 3/4, 13/16, 7/8, 15/16, 1. * Metric Combination Wrenches: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Measured in millimeters.

Thanks for this illustration.

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#178

Post by DerekRobot »

cjsawyer wrote: post #119
chrismorgan wrote: post #98

Feels strange to have single decimal places in your inch figures. I’d have expected something like eighths, sixteenths and thirty-seconds of inches, even though the decimal representation of them is unwieldy (1⁄32″ becomes 0.03125in). That also helps you avoid fractional pixels, which is worth doing if convenient: 1⁄32″ is 3px, because 1in is defined as 96px. (As an Australian, the main place I’ve ever seen fractions…

Engineering and machining specifications are usually in 0.001” and referred to as thousandth’s or “thou’s”. Tools like wrenches or drill bits use fractions in the form x+1/2^n like 2 1/2 == 2.5”. It goes down to 1/64, I think.

It's a really well-sized unit for that kind of work. I know exactly what a thou is and how to keep things in spec, but I'm lost using mm.

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#180

Post by 2038AD »

jacquesm wrote: post #115
mhh__ wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Système international ? We already use french units

No, 'international' does not mean 'French'. Yes, the French came up with it but since it now has international adoption it is the international standard with the United States as one of the last hold-outs. That's what you get when you have a country run by lawyers with very limited input from science.

Inches are in fact an international standard to which multiple nations have formally agreed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_yard_and_pound

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