Weekly Classic Computer Trivia Question (20141205)

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2014-12-06 05:35, Mouse wrote:
>>>>> Assuming that 1 terabyte is 2 ** 40 bytes [...]
>>>> It's not, it's 10**12.
>>> You don't get to tell us how we use language any more than anyone
>>> else does.  [...]
>> While you have a half point, Mouse, the fact is that for disk
>> capacities, the standard is actually to use K to mean 10^3 and not
>> 2^10, so Fred is absolutely right.
>
> "The standard"?  That disagrees with my experience.  I have numerous
> disks from the days when capacities were several tens of megabytes, or
> low hundreds of megabytes; they are all labeled accurately.  Somewhere
> around the time of single-digit gigabyte capacities, disk manufacturers
> started mislabeling their disks.  That they were doing so knowing it
> was an actively misleading practice is evidenced by the notes in ads
> from that era (and even on some drives), saying things like "based on
> 1GB = 1 billion bytes", which, if the metric meanings were indeed the
> standard you seem to be claiming they were, would not have been worth
> mentioning.

Well, since single digit gigabyte disks have been around for at least 20 
years now, I think it's safe to say that it now is the "standard".
As much as I dislike it, I've come to accept it.

And I mentioned it as well, it was a dirty trick to be able to write 
higher numbers in their marketing...

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol