Floppies are DEAD and this is how it should be, didn't used one in the last
3 years and there is no reason for.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, December 26, 2003 1:31
AM
Subject: [USMA:27979] RE: Binary
prefixes--not strictly an SI topic
Euric wrote:
"If the suit is silly wouldn't that be for a court
to decide?"
In terms of what happens next, yes. However, anyone is entitled to an
opinion that may or may not agree with that of the court. Often an opinion not
agreeing with that of a court is vindicated when the decision of a lower court
is overturned by that of a higher court. My opinion still stands
(as an opinion).
"But if the court decides not to throw it out then it must have some
merit."
In that particular court's opinion,
yes. Others are free to continue to think otherwise. Their opinions just
don't have the weight of law.
"I'd still be curious to see if such
a suit is still going to proceed and if it does what outcome will
result."
So would I.
"Hopefully one that will force the
industry to either choose binary or decimal prefixes or both for their
products, but not a mixture of both."
That may or may not be the outcome. As long as a
manufacturer provides an unambiguous specification (e.g., capacity in bytes,
using no prefix at all), the advertising may or may not be an issue. After
all, how many consumers who have bought 90 mm diskettes, thinking they
contained 1.44 mebibytes, would not have bought them if they knew they only
contained 1440 kibibytes.
I'm sure the defense counsel(s) will raise many relevant issues, including
that of the capacity of the diskette when it contains multiple files, as
opposed to its capacity when it contains one conventional file, or its
capacity when it contains one CAB file (which always exceeds the
manufacturer's stated capacity). Because of different formatting conventions,
a manufacturer can really only provide an unformatted capacity (which is
always greater than the effective, or practical, capacity -- except in the
case of CAB files).
Incidentally, when I format a 90 mm diskette, Windows tells me I have 1 457
664 bytes available capacity, which is greater than the manufacturer's claim
of 1.44 MB (assuming the manufacturers of diskettes follow historical industry
practice and use true base-10 megabytes). It also tells me I have 1.38 MB
available, which means, in that case, they actually mean mebibytes. Again,
that's an understatement, rather than an overstatement, in that 1 457 664
bytes is, in fact, 1.39 mebibytes.
Bill Potts, CMS
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
