I reject SI byte units *because* they are SI/metric, not just because I'm used to the original units.
Count me in the minority among geeks, but I do also. The British system is superior to the French "innovation" which is based on an inaccurate estimate of the distance from the equator to the north pole through Paris. The British system is far more intricate and interesting, both in its history and its accuracy.
The meter was *originally* inaccurate, and remains so, although the appearance of accuracy has lately been improved by formulas involving the speed of light. But I'm not fooled, not being a "dumb American" on the subject:
Rather, an informed one who has no interest in blindly following SI/metric because I know the 200-year-old political agenda behind it, which I still have no interest in supporting, for the same reason that Brits and Americans rightly rejected it in the first place. Most people who advocate metric have no idea of its origins, and think they are irrelevant. So be it.
People who prefer to study the origins of things quickly reject the metric system.
Decimal is annoying. If we're going to fix units, they should be based off binary or hexadecimal. At least here in the US we have binary measurements for liquids (1 peck = 2 gallons = 4 pottles = 8 quarts = 16 pints = 32 cups = 64 gills)
I wouldn't call it annoying -- it is designed to be simpleminded -- but it *is* arbitrary. The French did not develop metric because of its superiority, but they have convinced a lot of people of this fact, even though their equally innovative calendar of the same era long ago failed.
The foot is not arbitrary, nor is it "the length of some king's foot." It is part of an accurate measuring system based on the extremely stable distance from the core of the earth to the north pole, which I'm delighted to use at any opportunity.
But people have a hard time believing that the ancient Egyptian culture knew more about the dimensions of the earth than the fact that it was flat, and so this subject is controversial, and drifting off-topic, and thus suffice it to say that Luke's desire for accuracy is in line with his appreciation of the imperial measuring system, and I agree with him on both counts.
-Jared