[ILUG] Shameless plug

[Martin Pegman]

I had not heard this whole argument in a while and then  after I had  
finished reading my ILUG mails for the morning I head over to Slashdot  
to find:

http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/08/05/02/0128239.shtml


Martin P

On 1 May 2008, at 09:12, James McBoyle wrote:

> 2008/5/1 Niall O Broin <niall at linux.ie>:
>> On 1 May 2008, at 08:33, James McBoyle wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Just to get on a soap-box for a bit... One argument I've had with  
>>> disk
>>> drive manufacturers is how they are trying to co-op gigabyte's  
>>> meaning
>>> to gibibyte. one gigabyte is 1024 megabytes is 1024*1024 kilobytes  
>>> is
>>> 1024*1024*1024 bytes is ... Trying to pretend that the 'real'  
>>> meaning
>>> of gigabyte is a decimal, when the rest of the computing world has
>>> standardised on the base-two meaning is pure HD makers' marketing
>>> speak.
>>>
>>
>> Sorry, wrong. You're right that the computing world has used the  
>> base-two
>> meaning for a long time but being wrong for a long time doesn't  
>> make you
>> right. The definitions of kilo, mega, giga etc. as quantity  
>> indicating
>> prefixes are the subject of an international standard which has  
>> already been
>> referred to in this discussion. Now international standards are  
>> perhaps not
>> as shiny as they once were thanks to the despicable actions of a  
>> certain
>> convicted monopolist, but that's another story.
>>
>> Disk drive manufacturers have right on their side here and if
>> insufficiently educated customers get upset, that's tough (as I  
>> mentioned,
>> the vast majority of endusers of disk drives don't even know what  
>> we're
>> talking about. The majority of the minority probably feel as you do  
>> but
>> they're as wrong as you are, and repeatedly saying "We've always  
>> meant it
>> that way" doesn't make it so.)
>>
>> Note that I don't do very much enduser support, and there are good  
>> reasons
>> for that :-)
>
> *grins* I know this is something that the world+dog has argued over
> forever (seemingly) and I'm afraid that, right or wrong, the
> 'standards' might be defined by someone somewhere, but like all huiman
> things if everyone (and it is the majority) say 'x is so' then no
> 'standard' definition will change that.
>
> Of course I also realise that my definition is not the 'defined
> standard' but it's what has been in use since day one, and that means
> people will think in the way they've been taught regardless.
>
> So, as I say, the HD makers can argue til they're blue in the face on
> this, but I'll be soap-boxed on this until I get a X gigabyte drive
> that has X  * (1024*1024*1024) bytes of unformatted space :-)
>
> (they don't let me near customers either (-: )
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