[geeks] Seagate buckles to math ignorant consumers

[John Francini]

I'm sorry, I fully side with those "math-ignorant" customers.

1K=1,000 unless it has to do with computer memory. Then, 1K=1024.   
Period.

Computer memory--either on disk or in RAM--isn't addressed in powers  
of 10; it's addressed in powers of 2.

If I buy a, say, 250GB disk, I expect it to have (2**30)*250 bytes of  
capacity.  Not (10**9)*250 bytes. And the disk drive industry has  
been undersizing disks for, oh, 20+ years.  And this problem has  
stuck in my craw for the same 20+ years.

If you put one of those "250 GB" (decimal) disks into your computer,  
what's it going to report: 250 GB of space?  NO! It'll report  
whatever the decimal capacity is, expressed in powers-of-2 Gigabytes.

And because it does that, most people would believe they're not  
getting what they've paid for, especially since the computer's  
telling you. It's because they're not.

At least DEC didn't do that.  When you bought an RZ26 (1GB), RZ28  
(2GB) or RZ29 (4GB) disk drive, you actually got (2**30)*n bytes of  
capacity.

Wouldn't you guys howl and scream if the RAM or Flash RAM makers  
started trying to sell 1-GB decimal RAM?

It's about time that the marketers in the drive industry get the  
reaming out for this that they so strongly deserve.

John


On 2 Nov 2007, at 9:30, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Seagate is going to offer cash rebates to buyers of retail Seagate  
> HDs, accoridng to an article in COmputerWorld [0]. The crux seems  
> to be that since many folks think 1K = 1,024 and not 1,000, despite  
> the fact that they do silly things like quote their salary as $63K/ 
> year, their car lease allows them 15K miles/year, and in europe  
> distances are measured in Kilometers, and weight in Kilograms (and  
> in all cases mean 1K = 1,000, not 1,024), it seems Seagate is being  
> held to a higher standard.
>
> To claim your cash reward for mathematical ignorance, you simply  
> need to *prove* you bought a retail drive (receipt and serial  
> number) from an authorized retailer, and submit individual claims  
> *per drive*.
>
> I'm gonna file this under "Why Bother"...
>
> BTW, Seagate is not agreeing with any claims, it is just cheaper to  
> settle... Maybe they could make a donation to the school system to  
> improve math education.
>
> Lionel
>
> [0] http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do? 
> command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9045141
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