On Tue 03 Dec 2002 at 22:20:18 +0100, der Mouse wrote:
> >> Only disk manufacturers measure disk capacities in metric gigabytes.
> > ``metric gigabytes''?  Is that a commonly used term for this? :-)
> 
> I'm trying to make it so. :)  I've sometimes used "decimal" and
> "binary" as adjectives instead, but I prefer "metric gigabytes" because
> then I can oppose it to "real gigabytes".

I object to that terminology on the grounds that it suggests that the
metric system is somehow not real. You are also confusing the decimal
prefixes with the metric unit system: the metric and the decimal are
orthogonal concepts. It is perfectly possible to use the metric system
with non-decimal multipliers (although it would be unconventional). The
big concept behind the metric system is not the decimal prefixes
(although they are very convenient), but the fundamental
interconnectedness of the units: volume for instance is actually
measured in the same unit as length, cubed, and for another instance the
unit of mass is connected to the unit of length via a very fundamental
natural constant (in its original definition, and only very fundamental
on earth (1 kg being the mass of 1 liter (dm^3) of water at its highest
density)) (and ultimately 1 Watt is 1 kg.m^2.s^-3).

> /~\ The ASCII				der Mouse
-Olaf.
-- 
___ Olaf 'Rhialto' Seibert - rhialto@       -- Woe betide the one who feels
\X/ polderland.nl  -- remorse without sin - Tom Poes, "Het boze oog", 4444.