I didn't notice any of that when I was in London in November. 
Maybe it's just the area you're in. 
When I wanted a shower I just turned on the faucet. 
And the keyboard in the cafes all looked normal to me except 
for the British pound sign replacing the $ sign. But maybe 
I'm not observant enough. There are plenty of primitive places
in the US too. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jonathan Hutchins [mailto:hutchins@tarcanfel.org]
> Sent: Friday, April 11, 2003 7:29 AM
> To: kclug@kclug.org
> Subject: Things are different here...
> 
> 
> Things are different in England.
> 
> For one thing, there's the keyboard.  Left shift key is too 
> short, and has the 
> pipe/backslash right next to it.  @ is with single-quote, 
> down by L, along 
> with ~#.  Right-alt doesn't usually work.
> 
> The plumbing is different too.  We're not in one of those 
> quaint cottages 
> where the drains run down the outside wall, but it still 
> seems primitive.  The 
> toilets have these great deep bowls, and when you flush it 
> feels like you're 
> pumping the water up a well.  To take a shower, first you 
> pull the ceiling 
> chain next to the stall to turn on the heater.  Then you turn 
> the dial on the 
> heater counter-clockwise to open the valve, and further 
> counter-clockwise is 
> cooler, back towards off is warmer.
> 
> Need to track down the local interest groups and see what's 
> what over her.
> -- 
> Live from Andover, England
> Jonathan
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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