On Sun, 26 Jan 2014 14:12:30 +0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:

In message , Jeff Liebermann
writes
[1] It took me about 10 years to stop using micro-microfarads and
switch to picofarads.

But have you started referring to them as "puffs"? This is the normal UK
colloquialism for picofarads, but I believe it raises the American
eyebrow!

I use it and it's quite common among my older friends and accomplices.
I don't know about the younger ones. It's not something that gets my
attention as I use both terms interchangeably. That might be due to
my working for a company full of British engineers (Granger Assoc). At
one point, I accidentally developed a British accent and increase my
talking speed by about 25%. Fortunately, I lost both as I moved on to
other things. However, I vaguely recall that I used "puffs" before I
started working there.

However, in another life, I found myself giving presentations to other
engineers, some of which were from foreign countries. To avoid
confusion, I made it a point of avoiding slang terminology and only
using standard prefixes. It's been mostly like that ever since.

At a previous employer, there was also a move to butcher the uH into
an "ugh". Thankfully, that went nowhere although I have heard it used
a few times over the years.

Currently, I'm also having problems using Becquerels and still prefer
to use the older "clicks per minute" or curies. (One Bq is one
disintegration per second). There are other old/new terms used in
radiation, which seem to cause more confusion than enlightenment. It
will probably take a generation to sort things out.

I can really create confusion when I do calculations in mixed metric
and US units of measure. It doesn't bother me much as I have some of
the conversions memorized, but it certainly drives everyone else nuts.
To maintain sanity, I use metric for engineering, and US at the
supermarket. I refuse to use Imperial for anything other than
inflating my gasoline mileage figures. I sometimes fool myself when I
do mixed units of measure calcs, and forget to qualify the "ton" as a
"metric ton".

Specialists in any industry tend to develop their own language and
slang terminology. I suspect that few people outside the computer biz
know that a "blog" is really a "web log".

Do you still call a telephone a "blower" (even though it's really a
naval term)?

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558