[mythtv-users] seagate giving refunds out

[Nick Morrott]

On 03/11/2007, Steve Hodge <stevehodge at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 11/3/07, Nick Morrott <knowledgejunkie at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I completely agree with your points. I'm not singling hard drive
> > manufacturers out in particular, but the general inconsistency that
> > exists, and that HDD manufacturers appear to be the most obvious 'odd
> > man out'.
>
> I disagree that they are the obvious odd man out. Physical storage media
> have often used the prefixes correctly (or at least more correctly - the old
> 1.44MB floppy is actually 1.44 * 1000 * 1024 bytes - it's not like the
> inconsistency has arisen suddenly). Companies use them correctly when
> referring to network speeds and CPU speeds. You speak as if the whole
> industry other than hard disk manufacturers use the terms consistently. They
> don't. Essentially only RAM capacities and the size  figures reported by
> some OSes use the incorrect definition.

IMO the 1.44MB floppy measure is inconsistently incorrect, which is
worse than being consistently incorrect. How is mixing two different
meanings of kilo- (decimal and binary) in the same measure 'more
correct' than consistently using one or the other?

I think we both agree on the need for consistency, and that it's
probably too late in the day for anything useful to be done about it
(OSS software aside). The point I was labouring was that in the
storage world, HDD (and DVD media) manufacturers use the decimal
prefix correctly, but (at least to me) at odds with almost all other
measurements of capacity that a user will come across, the OS and
headline RAM figures being the most frequent.

Maybe we should just wait for the class action against everyone else
to use the decimal SI prefixes correctly? Think of the money the
lawyers could make there...

Disappearing GiBs are probably not the most important issue our
American friends have to worry about.

Caveat civis.

-- 
Nick Morrott

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