off topic jargon

[Greg M]

A bit off topic but of concern to me (read "pet pieve").
Does anyone else notice or care how we misuse technical words to the
point that they don't mean what they are supposed to? For instance
"bandwidth" is supposed to mean a range of frequencies of a
transmission, or in digital usage the quantity of "bits per second". It
is a measure of a quantity of data transmitted over a period of time.
But, the word "bandwidth" seems to be more commonly (and erroneously)
used to describe an amount of data (or storage space of data) without
any reference to time, and nobody seems to care!

Definition of "bandwidth"
http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci211634,00.html

Another one that bugs me is "chip". I see that nowadays the word is
used to describe an entire memory module, not just a single chip. It is
used synonymously with SIMM. In other words, any circuit board with RAM
chips on it may be called a SIMM, a DIMM or a chip.

There are lots more missuses of terms but these two come to mind. I
just wondered if anyone else cares or should we just allow the meanings
to change to suit the lowest common denominator?
Greg

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