Free Hour

Indeed - how are competing systems supposed to ever get going when they are illegal? Doesn't this imply that we've now allegedly reached perfection with the metric system? That no other system has any merit whatsoever? That's patently false.

Agree. I can accept there may be a reason for the state to demand that weights and measures are accurate..... and I may allow one system to be mandated to allow easy comparisons. But to *ban* competing systems is just ludicrous.

Yep. The more I think about it, the more sense de facto standards make, and the more immoral de jure standards (especially compulsory ones) seem. For example, why is the EU trying to force metric-only labelling on products imported into it? http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2003/02/24/focus5.html?t=printable Isn't this a huge waste of time and money? If nothing else, this will reduce our choice. Shouldn't consumers be allowed to decide what form of units they prefer? As a technically minded person, I see the appeal in metric with ease, but it's not government's place to interfere in individual choice.

"Richard, I supposed I deserved that after taking the mickey out of your letter the other day. But I have no issue exploiting my free hour - until we move to Ferrier universal time" Ferrier Universal time is an interesting one. Variable daylight saving time periods are, I guess, a perfect example of the bad things that happen when you let the state take control of anything. The US government's recent changing of their date must have caused costs running into the billions of dollars.... all those software vendors issuing patches, companies applying them, it borders on the unforgiveable.

dps, what I find possibly a little confusing is how you then managed to be adding a comment at 14:10 whilst presumably half-way through takeoff :) - unless you have some fancy in-flight internet connection, in which case I will be jealous.

Richard, I supposed I deserved that after taking the mickey out of your letter the other day. But I have no issue exploiting my free hour - until we move to Ferrier universal time, that is: http://andypiper.wordpress.com/2006/10/18/changing-daylight-saving-time/#comment-3316

It turns out the free hour is particularly useful when you have a flight departing at 1345 which you thought you had to check-in for at 1345...

"I wake up and realise I’ve been given a free hour." Oh, Andrew.... and I thought you were a libertarian..... but it turns out you're just like everybody else... as grateful as the rest of them for a crumb from the state's big table of gifts :-p