Origin or 1.44 MV FD label [WAS: RE: Weekly Classic Computer Trivia Question (20141205)]

[Chuck Guzis]

On 12/07/2014 12:56 PM, Fred Cisin wrote:

> The disk is 1440 K, which is NOT 1.44M, it is 1.40625M,
> or simply "1.4M".
>
> Was it an ERROR?  Or the work of cheating assholes?

Who's cheating?  The maker of your formatting program?  (Reaches over to 
the top of his PC and grabs a high-density 3.5" floppy)  I see three 
lines of writing on the shutter.

Line 1: "IMATION"
Line 2: "2HD"
Line 3: "2.0 MB"

And, as I pointed out, at the customary western high-density clock rate 
of 500KHz and 300 RPM rotation--and 8 bit bytes, comes out to exactly 
2,000,000 bytes.

Don't blame the manufacturer for getting less than you bargained for. 
It's very clear that "2.0 MB" means 2 x 10**6 bytes.

--Chuck