5 ms·

A reminder that GNU Units still exists, e.g. $ units Currency exchange rates from FloatRates (USD base) on 2021-01-17 3677 units, 109 prefixes, 114 nonl

A reminder that GNU Units still exists, e.g. $ units Currency exchange rates from FloatRates (USD base) on 2021-01-17 3677 units, 109 prefixes, 114 nonlinear units You have: 4 amu * (1000 nm/s)^2 You want: joules * 6.6421563e-39 / 1.5055352e+38 You have: ^D It’s slightly less DWIMish (you have to say “atomicmassunits”, “atomicmassunit”, “amu”, or “u”, not “atomic mass units”) and somewhat awkward as a separate tool, but then resorting to your web browser for unit conversions is awkward in a different way. Non-interactive invocations, like units VALUE-OR-UNIT UNIT, work as well. [1]: https://www.gnu.org/software/units/ https://www.gnu.org/software/units/

BenjiWiebe 5y ago
+1 for 'units'. I like it for conversion between millilightseconds and miles, to get the theoretical best-case latency between two places. i.e. if it's x milliseconds ping, it can't be more than m miles away.
- pxx 5y ago
  You have a missing factor of two.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
neltnerb 5y ago
Thanks for the reminder =) Alas, I often have to do these kinds of calculations on a random publicish computer or my phone and Google's converter is platform-independent. But not using Google services when feasible is certainly net good. And of course my TI-89 had equally good unit conversion for practical purposes (since you can define your own units) so somehow the world is still playing catchup to a calculator from the 90s...
- mananaysiempre 5y ago
  If you’re organized enough to have space for Termux on your phone, it does wonders in this department. I feel silly every time I punch Python code into that teensy touch keyboard, but damned if I know anything else that has a better input UI and isn’t orders of magnitude less versatile. (Maple Calculator and microMathematics are still on the “there was an attempt” level, in my experience.)
- acjohnson55 5y ago
  The TI-89 was/is an amazing device.
- kragen 5y ago
  There's an Android GUI for a units(1) calculator in F-Droid. I have it on my phone.

BenjiWiebe 5y ago

+1 for 'units'. I like it for conversion between millilightseconds and miles, to get the theoretical best-case latency between two places. i.e. if it's x milliseconds ping, it can't be more than m miles away.

pxx 5y ago
You have a missing factor of two.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

neltnerb 5y ago

Thanks for the reminder =) Alas, I often have to do these kinds of calculations on a random publicish computer or my phone and Google's converter is platform-independent. But not using Google services when feasible is certainly net good. And of course my TI-89 had equally good unit conversion for practical purposes (since you can define your own units) so somehow the world is still playing catchup to a calculator from the 90s...

mananaysiempre 5y ago
If you’re organized enough to have space for Termux on your phone, it does wonders in this department. I feel silly every time I punch Python code into that teensy touch keyboard, but damned if I know anything else that has a better input UI and isn’t orders of magnitude less versatile. (Maple Calculator and microMathematics are still on the “there was an attempt” level, in my experience.)
acjohnson55 5y ago
The TI-89 was/is an amazing device.
kragen 5y ago
There's an Android GUI for a units(1) calculator in F-Droid. I have it on my phone.