[mythtv-users] seagate giving refunds out

[Peter Schachte]

Michael T. Dean wrote:

> The problem is that the units of capacity /are/
> accurately specified on the drive/retail box, but those reading the box
> misinterpret the meaning of those units because of ignorance.

Sure.  And Seagate could be expected to know that customers would
misinterpret it.  I wonder whether the decision to quote capacity in SI units
was made by engineers or marketers?  It's like if Apple were to advertise
MacOS as the penultimate desktop OS in popularity.  Sure, it's true, but they
should know that most English speakers who recognize the word "penultimate"
think it means something like "beyond the ultimate," so they should know it
would be misleading.

Unlike formal langauges, the meaning of statements in natural language (and
marketing-speak) is what most people think they mean, much as we as engineers
might like to think it's their formal meaning.

-- 
Peter Schachte              I worry that 10 or 15 years from now, [my child]
schachte at cs.mu.OZ.AU        will come to me and say 'Daddy, where were you
www.cs.mu.oz.au/~schachte/  when they took freedom of the press away from
Phone: +61 3 8344 1338      the Internet?' -- Mike Godwin