🚀 go-pugleaf

Bill Muyanja (muyanja@hpbs2571.boi.hp.com) wrote:
: In article <1994Apr8.224856.25548@rosevax.rosemount.com>,
: >
: >What I find amazingly dumb is when they specify a drive size in MB where
: >1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes rather than 2^20.  Don't tell me they're quoting
: >

: (I may yet regret this ... but here goes!)

: Maybe it's my metric background, but I don't find anything particularly
: "dumb" about anything prefixed with "mega" referring to 1 million
: (or anything prefixed with "kilo" referring to 1,000 for that matter).

: In fact, _every_ definition of mega and kilo that I'm aware of refers
: to 1,000,000 and 1,000 units, respectively.  Except for the Computer
: Science definitions of memory capacity (2^20 and 2^10, respectively).

Quite true, but Seagate _is_ talking about computer memory capacity.
When you're talking about computer stuff, you oughtn't use words with
specific "computer science" definitions, and then say "oh, I was using
the equestrian definition of "bit."

All fields of endeavor have their own particular vocabularies, and to
intentionally misuse a word by assuming a definition different than
the accepted one is dishonest.  When discussing tack, "bit" is
something you put into a horse's mouth.  When discussing woodworking
tools, "bit" is something you use to drill holes.  When discussing
computer memory "bit" is a unit of storage that may exist in one of
two states (usually called "0" and "1").  To intentionally use a word
that the reader will think it means something else is deceptive.

How would you feel if I sold you a 320 MB disk and you found out it
only held 26,000 bytes.  When you complain, I reply that I used to be
a used car salesman and the abbreviation "M" means 10^3, and the "B"
stood for bits, and the 320 was base-8.

Everybody in the computer field uses MB to mean 2^20 bytes, and KB to
mean 2^10 bytes.  Language is defined by usage, so within the field,
that _is_ what megabytes and kilobytes mean.

Look in any technical dictionary that contains computer related
terminology, and you will see that megabyte and kilobyte are defined
as I (and everybody else in the field) use them: 2^10 and 2^20,
respectively.

If the discrepancy between the general usage and the computer specific
technical usage made the disks sound smaller with the non-technical
usage, you can bet your eyes that Seagate would use the technical
usage.

There's enough sloppy langugae caused by ignorance, we don't need
people intentionally misusing technical terms to decieve people.

--
Grant Edwards                                 |Yow!  Loni Anderson's hair
Rosemount Inc.                                |should be LEGALIZED!!
                                              |
grante@aquarius.rosemount.com                 |