09-19-2003, 02:00 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 5,133
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Solving The Riddle Of Spatial Anomalies
When is a 256MB SD card not a 256MB SD card?
When manufacturers use an "alternative" form of math. For as long as I can remember, storage such as hard drives and flash cards have been marketed counting 1,000,000 bytes as one megabyte, when computers actually consider it to be 2^20 bytes, or 1,048,576 bytes. In other words, your 256 marketing MB SD card is actually about 244 real MB (less any space needed by the file system).
On PPCT we get a lot of users asking about this, confused when their device reports a capacity different than they thought they purchased. Is there anything that can be done about this? Well, somebody is trying. A class-action lawsuit has been filed by a number of computer users, seeking to force manufacturers to provide restitution, surrender any profits made by these practices, and to be more honest in packaging.
Are any computer users going to get significant money from this? It seems like the only ones to monetarily benefit from class-action lawsuits are lawyers. But it would certainly be nice if capacities had to be listed properly so buyers would know what they're getting.
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09-19-2003, 02:26 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 578
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Re: Solving The Riddle Of Spatial Anomalies
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Originally Posted by Kati Compton
Are any computer users going to get significant money from this? It seems like the only ones to monetarily benefit from class-action lawsuits are lawyers. But it would certainly be nice if capacities had to be listed properly so buyers would know what they're getting.
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I doubt we'll get more than a discount coupon on our next hard drive. Normally I resent class-action lawyers making tons on their lawsuits that don't really benefit consumers in any measurable way. But this has irritated me long enough that I'd be glad to see the lawyers make their millions.
Now we need to address gas prices that end in nine tenths...
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09-19-2003, 03:00 AM
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Oracle
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 984
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For goodness sakes. People moan about waste-of-time lawsuits all of the time. This sounds like a perfect example. It's not like there is some must-be-adhered-to international standard for measuring data. I could easily see an argument in court that the prefix "mega" means "thousand", not 1024 squared.
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09-19-2003, 03:13 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,264
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But, don't most drives etc have a disclaimer as to what a megabyte means?
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09-19-2003, 03:16 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 139
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by doogald
For goodness sakes. People moan about waste-of-time lawsuits all of the time. This sounds like a perfect example. It's not like there is some must-be-adhered-to international standard for measuring data. I could easily see an argument in court that the prefix "mega" means "thousand", not 1024 squared.
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True it's not an international standard but I think this case is more about truth in advertising than international standard.
They are selling a computer product, in computer terms "megabyte" means 1,024,576 bytes yet they are labeling their product based on a definition that only storage companies use.
It's certainly not an end of the world type issue, but it's certainly not an honest way to label your product either.
The same was true for display manufacturers who would rate a monitor's "size" by the diagonal measurement of the glass. Even if the picture tube and/or casing made an inch all around unviewable, they still sold the monitor based on the size of the glass. They got sued (rightfully so) and now have to advertise the "viewable size" along side their bogus size. i.e. 17" Monitor - 16.1" viewable.
Unfortunately sometimes it takes some lawyers making a ton of money for the consumer to benefit in the long run. Just as the case with the monitor issue, I think this is another one of those times.
__________________
Wes SalmonSoftware Test EngineerMicrosoft Mobile and Embedded Devices
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09-19-2003, 03:39 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,911
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Goldkey
But, don't most drives etc have a disclaimer as to what a megabyte means?
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That's what I thought. They always say that when you format it you lose data or somting like that.
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09-19-2003, 04:21 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 5,133
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by dean_shan
They always say that when you format it you lose data or somting like that.
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This is a separate issue. Your file system takes up a little room. The point is that the bytes weren't even there to begin with.
It's been a while since I've seen a hard drive box, so maybe there are disclaimers now. But really, they should call a meg a meg, rather than using a metric inconsistent with anything that might use the drive.
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09-19-2003, 06:58 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 400
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About time someone did something about this shady marketing ploy!
I'm not a big proponent of lawsuits, but this is just plain false advertising. It's like selling someone a pound/kilogram of something and then basing the weight on Jupiters gravity, when they know very well no one uses that "Standard" but them. :evil: :twisted:
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09-19-2003, 07:41 AM
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2000 Posts And This is All I Get?
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 2,017
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Next thing you know, someone will file a class-action against the gasoline pump station, because when purchasing a gallon, they only get 0.998 gallon ... when purchasing a 8 oz coca cola, they only get 7.98 oz ....
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09-19-2003, 08:58 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 94
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I do not believe that this is a frivalous lawsuit. If a vendor claims three significant figures (i.e. 256) but only delivers on one (i.e. 244) of a quantity that is understood by the user then that is false representation. Certainly the quantities are small (i.e. less than 5%) but the spirit of truth in advertising has been violated.
The important point is that the vendor is using (i.e. abusing) a term that is commonly understood by the consumer to have a different meaning. That is shady and should be stopped in my opinion.
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