Real World Computing
Confused by dual Duals
I read your article in the Jan 2008 issue of PC Pro, on "Speed vs Range".
I was disappointed to read, throughout the article, about data speeds rather than rates. Data-carrying signals on wireless links travel at the speed of light - inside computers, their speed is not much less than that.
In any case, speed is not measured in Mb/s or MB/s.
Leaving that aside, how can any wireless (sic) keep up with the data rate of 802.11g, or anything else?
As for broadband (sic), it cannot migrate or be migrated. There is also no such thing as broadband - the word 'broadband' is purely a descriptive one.
In talking about increased rates (as in 'the uplink speeds (sic) are twice as fast, at 800kb/sec') an increased rate (or speed) is not faster, but higher. Likewise, if a rate or speed is decreased. it is then lower, not slower.
You cannot migrate an 'an ADSL connection' (or anything else). Birds do not get migrated, they migrate.
Lastly, ping round-trip times cannot be eg. 10mS faster, but 10mS shorter. Time cannot elapse slower or faster.
It would be churlish to point out the errors in Vic's email, but the points he raises are interesting. I think what it clearly shows is the way technology is reshaping our language, and how some people are finding it difficult to keep up with the changes that are occurring.
I remember how the first generation of modems (operating at 300 baud - even a two-fingered typist can go faster than that) referred to "data rates" in their marketing material. But it didn't take long for the word "speed" to become commonplace when describing how quickly a modem or other networking device can squirt data from one place to another. The word "speed" made far more sense to the general public than data rate when used in this context, and is now the preferred term, used by the end users of this technology and by practitioners.
As for there being no such thing as "broadband", the word has entered general usage and most of the readers of this column will talk about their "broadband" rather than their "broadband internet connection". Our language is full of such ellipses or contractions, such as "television" for "television receiver". Maybe the OED doesn't yet currently show definitions for "broadband" and "speed", but anyone who watched the BBC's Balderdash & Piffle series knows that the OED is a bit of a dinosaur that can take decades to include a new word or usage. Go to Google and type in define:broadband and you'll see definitions from a couple of dozen sources, many of which also talk about speed. Even Ofcom, which really ought to be an authority when it comes to such matters, talks about "high-speed broadband" (www.pcpro.co.uk/links/162mb1).
For my part, I'm going to continue targeting this column at those readers who are comfortable with the direction in which our wonderful language is going rather than only with where it's been. And yes, I do know that from a strictly pedantic point of view you can't target a column...
