Silly signs

[Kim]

All proper British people mix units.  Fractions like 11/32" are just too hard, so you switch to millimetres when things get too small for inches.

No you don't - you stop using fractions and start using thou...

Except only oily Brits call them thou.  The entire electronics industry calls them mils.  I blame the USAnians.

[bobb]

All proper British people mix units.  Fractions like 11/32" are just too hard, so you switch to millimetres when things get too small for inches.

No you don't - you stop using fractions and start using thou...

Except only oily Brits call them thou.  The entire electronics industry calls them mils.  I blame the USAnians.

I don't know anything about the electonics industry - it just works by magic as far as I can tell. But most American wood and metal workers say thou. Some of them do say mils though, which confused the fuck out of me the first time I heard it!

[Kim]

Electronics has a thing for doing pin spacing in decimal fractions of an inch, specified in millimetres.  It wasn't so bad when everything was through-hole, because multiples of 0.254mm are messy, but clear.  But as surface-mount components got smaller, people started inventing new - increasingly millimetre-based standards.  And now it's just confusing.  Measure once, check the datasheet three times, send the CAD files off to to the board manufacturer, and discover that *something* doesn't fit in n weeks time because you subconsciously read 'mil' as 'mm'

Enclosures and other aspects of physical design are of course done in metric.  Except by USAnians, no doubt.

[hatler]

Thou up to 1mm.

Millimetres from 1mm up to about an inch.

Inches, feet, yards and miles thereafter.
That's how I work. A product of 1960s and 70s schooling and a dad who was wholly imperial.

[Bluebottle]

For measurements of things smaller than a thou, I believe the correct unit of measurement is the ba' hair.

For measurements of things smaller than a ba' hair, I believe the correct unit of measurement is the midgies willy.

[bobb]

On the subject of conversions and mixing units - this sign has been bugging me for a long time now:



I need to go back and GPS it to find out which one is correct, as everyone knows that 1/8th of a mile is 201.168 metres - more than double the metreage shown. That's a fairly hefty error....

[T42]

You'd need good bladder pressure, too.

[phantasmagoriana]

Sring is my favourite season.

[hellymedic]

Siring, misspelt.
That makes sense!

[Mrs Pingu]

Never mind all the bollox around detox....

[Kim]

Seen on the back of a kevved-up Vauxhall of some description^[1]:  "SPEED BUMP?  Please be patient - I'm lowered!"

I think that makes the sign itself technically sensible, but the silliness is in the admission of the ridiculousness of customising a car in order to enhance its suitability for driving like a dick, and then not being able to drive it like a dick.



_{[1] Bigger than a Corsa, badges lost as part of the kevving-up process.}

[Arellcat]

Seen in various places along the M8 in the vicinity of junction 8, "SIGN NOT IN USE".

So the sign that is ostensibly not in use is in fact in use precisely to tell the reader that it is in fact not in use.  Thank you Transport Scotland, that makes perfect sense. 

[Pingu]

Seen in various places along the M8 in the vicinity of junction 8, "SIGN NOT IN USE".

So the sign that is ostensibly not in use is in fact in use precisely to tell the reader that it is in fact not in use.  Thank you Transport Scotland, that makes perfect sense. 

Yes, I saw them and was a bit baffled 

[Kim]

I've seen that before, and assumed they were testing the sign (or perhaps that's the message the sign displays when it loses comms for whatever reason).

I suppose there's a semantic difference between "SIGN NOT IN USE" and a blank sign that could become important in an emergency situation: eg. if you'd passed a couple of signs saying "SLOW DOWN: ACCIDENT AHEAD" you might assume a blank one meant you'd passed the scene of the accident and that it had all been cleared up.

[Mr Larrington]

In similar vein, the "For X follow Y" signs.  Wouldn't it be cheaper and simpler just to have a sign reading "X ^^^"?

[Cudzoziemiec]

In similar vein, the "For X follow Y" signs.  Wouldn't it be cheaper and simpler just to have a sign reading "X ^^^"?

Those seem to be used in three situations: diversions, where following the sign for X will lead to a closed road; where lots of sign-worthy destinations are close together, "For Clever Carl's Crispy Corner follow City Centre"; and symbols, "For rugby follow <rugby ball>".

[Mr Larrington]

The M25 has had "For Stansted airport follow Harlow" since forever.

[Paul]

I can’t help finishing “Think Bike, Think Biker” with “Think Bikest”

Might be a TEFL thing.

[Pingu]

IMG_0771_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[Kim]

"SOMEONE'S GETTING MARRIED SO WE'RE OPEN AS USUAL"

Outside the Daily Mail branded Little Shop in Wootton Wawen

[Pingu]

IMG_0841_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[MattH]

Is the issue the Bees, or that they expect someone to pay £5.50 for John Smiths?

[Mr Larrington]

Give it to The Soft Boys:

[spesh]

The next addition to Trump's legal team?



https://twitter.com/ijukes/status/916735686333681664

[David Martin]

Chuckle a little bit. by David Martin, on Flickr
Another engineering use for duct tape?