<Not snipping to keep full context>
On Fri, 08 Jul 2005 19:40:11 +0100
michael <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-07-08 at 12:59 -0500, Cybe R. Wizard wrote:
> > On Fri, 8 Jul 2005 08:43:32 -0400
> > Stephen R Laniel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > > Earlier in our lives, it was a big deal when hard-disk
> > > prices fell below $1 per megabyte. I recently bought a
> > > 200-gig drive for $100. Assume the $1-per-meg limit
> > > was hit 15 years ago (I think it was less than that, but it
> > > was at most 15). So in 15 years the per-gig price of hard
> > > disks dropped 2000-fold.
> >
> > Possibly I'm innumerate but this makes no sense to me. If
> > something has a defined price and that price drops 1 (one)-fold
> > doesn't that mean it is now free? I believe a one-fold price
> > /increase/ doubles the price, right? How do you determine that
> > 2000-fold figure?
> >
> > <hoping I'm just stupid from the heat today>
>
>
> n-fold is equivalent to n-times. so you give me 10 widgets and then
> a) i pay you back 1-fold (10 widgets)
> b) i pay you back 2-fold (20 widgets)
> c) a 2 fold increase would be 20 widgets
>
> i'm not sure the phrase applies to decreases unless it's a half-fold
> increase (5 widgets) but that sounds wrong so I guess common use
> means
>
> a 1-fold decrease is (1/1) * 10 = 10 widgets (ie the same!) whereas a
> 10-fold decrease is (1/10) * 10 = 1 widget
>
>
> that make any sense?!
>
Yes, that makes perfect sense and reiterates what I have said; that if a
thing has dropped in price 2000-fold /someone/ should now be paying me
to use their hardware. Isn't it similar to the problem in saying that
something costs, say, three times less than <time ago>? Isn't
/one/ time less than what was paid equal to zero? Wouldn't we be more
correct in saying one third the price?
Cybe R. Wizard -wants to understand, not just pedantic
--
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A: Apart from the fact that viruses are supported by their authors,
use optimized, small code and usually perform well, none.
Winduhs
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