Din

DIN stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung, the German Institute for Standardization. It was originally known as "Normenausschuss der Deutschen Industrie (NADI)", the Standards Association of German Industry. The institute was founded in 1917 and became part of the ISO, International Organization for Standardization, in 1951. The organization takes part in the international work of standardization and sets up the technical standards in Germany (the DIN standards). Some standards have been accepted worldwide, for example the dimensions of several cable connector types like those used between MIDI devices (specification DIN 41524).

Sources of information:
http://www.din.de/

One of my friends has a brother whose friend has access to vast quantities of antiquated computers, so he has this habit of getting 486's and such in mass quantities. It just so happens that he 'lent' one to my friend (i.e. It's on indefinite loan, so we might as well just own it), without a monitor, keyboard, or anything. I had the fun of poking at it with him.

It's important to point out that my friend's family is religiously devoted to Apple, and thus their house is filled with Macintoshes. The 486/DX that he had obtained was, for blatantly obvious reasons, not afiliated with Apple in any way shape or form. I didn't make much of a note of it until we booted it up.

"What? It's got 640K of RAM?!?"
"That's what we like to call conventional memory."

We immediately noticed the fact that we had no keyboard. We also took a look at the back of the box, taking note of the nature of all of the connectors. We found what we thought was the one for the keyboard.

"What the hell is that?"
"I have no fucking clue"

Seeing as how my first computer was an IBM XT, and the one after that a 486/SX, I expected to know what the hell that connector was. After a long while, we were able to ascertain, with the help of my friend's vast resources, that it was a 5-pin DIN connector. All of the keyboards I had were PS/2. Where did we go from here? Goodwill. After rumagging through their half-functional electronics, we emerged with a keyboard that fit our criteria, returning to his house only to find out that Tom's RTBT didn't boot properly. Bollocks.

I hope this is a good laugh for all of you old, wizened hackers that think microcomputers are the new kids on the block. Otherwise, I hope it's just an anecdote that doesn't prove to be complete and utter crap. I just find amusement in playing with (relatively) antiquated hardware.

The DIN (Deutsche Industrie Norm) rating system for film speeds is based on a logarithmic scale where each increase by one represents one third of a stop. Most photographers are more familiar with the ASA system which doubles in number with an increase of one stop. However, the ISO rating system used today lists both, as in this example:

ISO 400/27°

The DIN rating comes second and is easily recognized by the degree symbol after it.

Here is a list of the DIN speeds matched with their ASA equivalents:

ASA         DIN

3            6°
4            7°
5            8°
6            9°
8            10°
10           11°
12           12°
25           15°
32           16°
40           17°
50           18°
64           19°
80           20°
100          21°
125          22°
160          23°
200          24°
250          25°
320          26°
400          27°
500          28°
640-650      29°
800          30°
1000         31°
1200-1250    32°
1600         33°
3200         36°
6400         39°
12500        42°

Din (?), n. [AS. dyne, dyn; akin to Icel. dynr, and to AS. dynian to resound, Icel. dynja to pour down like hail or rain; cf. Skr. dhuni roaring, a torrent, dhvan to sound. Cf. Dun to ask payment.]

Loud, confused, harsh noise; a loud, continuous, rattling or clanging sound; clamor; roar.

Think you a little din can daunt mine ears? Shak.

He knew the battle's din afar. Sir W. Scott.

The dust and din and steam of town. Tennyson.

© Webster 1913.

Din, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dinned (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Dinning.] [AS. dynian. See Din, n.]

1.

To strike with confused or clanging sound; to stun with loud and continued noise; to harass with clamor; as, to din the ears with cries.

2.

To utter with a din; to repeat noisily; to ding.

This hath been often dinned in my ears. Swift.

To din into, to fix in the mind of another by frequent and noisy repetitions.

Sir W. Scott.

© Webster 1913.

Din, v. i.

To sound with a din; a ding.

The gay viol dinning in the dale. A. Seward.

© Webster 1913.