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We're sure many CJ readers have wrestled with the problem of A4 versus letter-size paper, so Tom is preaching to the choir. Get ready to shout "Amen!"

by Thomas Caldwell

Ronald Reagan and retaa saizu

It's no secret that US Presidents attract a lot of ridicule and criticism. The press have vilified almost all chief executives, from John Adams on down. (George Washington was treated with respect by the boys with printing presses; it pays to be the father of one's country.)

Now that he is out of office, Ronald Reagan is being blamed for most of the problems the US now has -- especially the budget deficit. It doesn't matter that he implemented a strategy that destroyed America's nemesis, the Soviet Union (although some now think it was a bad idea to do so); the poor man is being blamed for all sorts of ills.

However, this is a computing magazine, not a political rag, so I'll come to the point. I have my own reasons to dislike the Republican Era of the 1980s. It's not the budget deficit, nor the rise of Christian fundamentalism, nor the Soviet Union landing on the Ash Heap of History. I'm angry at conservative America over... the metric system.

Early in the Reagan administration, somebody made the unbelievably stupid decision that having the US switch over to the metric system, as well as other internationally accepted standards, was a waste of time and money. Wrong!

A case in point: I've received quite a few notes from readers, some bordering on desperate, asking where they can get letter- and legal-size paper and printer trays in Japan, and how to send letter- and legal-sized faxes as well as do binding, filing, and just about everything you can imagine with US-standard paper sizes.

For those of you who don't reside in Japan, here (and in most other parts of the civilized world) we use the international "A" and "B" paper standards. A letter is printed on A4 paper, and small memos on A5 paper (half an A4 sheet). A3 is equivalent to two A4 sheets side by side. B4 paper is a bit bigger than US "legal" size, with the next size down being B5, and... you get the idea. Almost everyone around the world, except the United States, uses this standard. It makes paper handling, and business, run much more smoothly.

Many of the larger shops in metropolitan Japan do stock US stationery supplies (paper, files, binders, etc.). And while most suppliers of plain paper copy (PPC) paper can supply US letter-size by special order (though I couldn't find anyone who knew what legal-size paper was), few keep the stuff in stock.

I've spoken with office managers who complain that transmitting fax messages between Japan and the US is a real problem. Letter-size software, being shorter and wider than A4, cuts A4-size messages off early, creating lots of blank "second" pages. This can be fixed by selecting the page size on most word processors (assuming you are sending through a fax modem), but it can be a real pain when sending a single fax message to offices using different standards.

One horror story I heard concerned an A4 contract that was received by everyone on the "CC" list, but not by the intended recipient in the US. It seems the fax got cut off on the bottom when received on letter-size paper, and the American secretary insisted it be resent in "complete" form before passing it on to her boss. This process wasted a day and -- you guessed it -- someone else won the contract because the deadline was missed.

On a recent trip to the States, I saw files from overseas with several centimeters (I never use inches) of A4 paper sticking out of the bottom of letter-size folders. This makes for messy filing and torn pages. All this because the US doesn't adhere to international standards. Well, we can't change the world... but we can sure as hell try. If you're one of the many business executives who read this column while flying on a transPacific airline, or if you're in any position of authority (even a member of the local PTA), please help bring the metric system to the States.

It's not some international, Liberal-led, conspiracy to force devil worship on children. It's just a good idea that makes a hell of a lot of business sense. (You know, like $$$ and ¥¥¥.) Your children, who will have to survive in a smaller, computer-literate, metric and A4 world, will thank you for it -- even as they curse you for letting the US national debt get so out of control.

The death of dot matrix

While recently shopping in Akihabara, I made a rather disturbing discovery: the good ol' cheap and reliable dot matrix printer is virtually impossible to find anymore, except in second-hand shops. Although the butt of jokes since lasers became priced so that humans could afford them, dot matrix printers still have their uses. They are simple to set up, very cheap to operate, and (used to be) cheap to purchase. If you only need to print out text without any fancy formatting, a dot matrix does the job well.

At one time, they went for as little as ¥20,000 or ¥30,000. Now, they go for more than ¥65,000, and A4-size dot matrix printers are almost non-existent. If you have one of these old, reliable friends sitting around the office, resist temptation: don't throw it away. It could be a real lifesaver someday when you have a lot of general text to print out. And since replacing it could be costly, it's money in the bank.

Thomas Caldwell is a radio correspondent and Japan marketing manager for the United Press International Tokyo Bureau. You can reach him by e-mail as caldwell@gol.com, or check out his Web page at http://www2.gol.com/users/caldwell.

Got a computer-related question, or a better answer to a previous query? Send it to The Query Column by mail, e-mail (question@cj.gol.com), or fax (03-3447-4925).