Toshiba announces the first 512GB SSD

does the letter Z ever ring a bell ? optimize, not optimise, unauthoriZed. You seem to forget why the letter Z ever exist.
It's nice to be British , but it's also silly to use the S for a Z, . You guys should go read the merriam-webster.com dictionary and learn how to write. A S should not be used for a Z... British or not , you should write an international english, not a slang english as you do right now. I speak 3 languages and Z is not a S.

cheers from Canada.

Rej I am sure you make your parents and teachers proud.

Once upon a time people left their homeland, England - where the English language is from - and went across the sea. Over time their language became a pale reflection of what it used to be.

The Americans and Canadans (as there is actually no place called "Canadia" for "Canadians" to come from)ended up speaking, and spelling, something that once used to be "English" but which are now just sub-dialects and localised slang.

The English, however, were left to be the only people who actually speak, and spell, English properly.

Noah Webster, of the dictionary fame (Properly titled "American Dictionary of the English Language" - emphasis on the word "American"), was an American. As such he wrote English (of a sort) in the American style, and thus improperly.

As far as whether the Inq writers should write in the improper "American style" - they and this web site, as you pointed out, are from England, where English (at least in the south) is proper to begin with, and they are writing to others who speak and read proper English. This you might have figured out from the many references to local shops like Argos and Tesco, the monetary references in £, etc, had you not been an imbecile.

By the way, shouldn't Rej be spelled with a G?? Reginald, Reggie ... or is that a name from a non-English speaking part of the world ...

Last time I checked, the INQ was a British e-tabloid. Oh, and if I was to scroll down to the bottom of the page to check again...oh, it's still British! Based in Haymarket, London, UK!!

If you wish to flame the author for using the Queens English then I simply call you rude, sir. Curb your comments unless they are well founded and accurate.

1 thing I will say in relation to this article is: With any luck 2009 will show a sharp decrease in SSD prices.

Last I remember, English Grammar (as she is spoke in England), actually says that ZED is the CORRECT spelling.

And that Bastion of Proper English, the Grand Old Dame of Newspapers, The Times, agrees. Okay, I know she's now a Strine paper, stablemate to The Sun, but she only switched to using 's' as the house style in the late seventies because the editors got fed up with everyone complaining about her use of "American" spelling.

Oh - and Jared - you've got it well arse about face. People left their homeland England, and went over the sea, and KEPT their native language. It is English as she is spoke IN ENGLAND that is a pale reflection of what it used to be.

"The Queen's English" dates from the 1800s and is an "English in the French style", whereas American English (and yes, I do get pissed off when my language is referred to as "British English" - there's no such thing!) is actually very similar to English as it was spoken and written by such luminaries as Shakespeare et al.

Cheers,
Wol

errrrrrrrrrrrm, 'peeps that live in glass houses shouldnt throw stones' methinks rej O_o an A shouldnt be used when an AN should be, as in quote :- "A S should not be used for a Z" and "I speak 3 languages and Z is not a S" its not A s, in correct grammar its AN S, you boreing pedantic moron, so STFU plzzzzzzzzzzzzz :O)

If I recall correctly "an" should not be placed before consonant. Of course it has been many years since I've been graded or scolded on grammar. I may be wrong.

It's quite correct than you put "a" in front of a consonant, but the rule is in front of a consonant sound. It's a phonetic rule. You write it as you say it. Just try saying "an S" and "a S". The letter S is pronounced "eSS" so the correct form, at least in Britain, is "an S".

People seem to think that a consonant is a letter - at heart it is a sound type (just as a vowel is a sound type). It just happens that (usually) particular letters have a vowel or consonant sound. So the association of a letter with being either a vowel or a consonant is a secondary thing. However, sometimes letter can perform as either (like the letter "Y").

As for rej, he (or she) is either being provocative or is just plain ignorant. There are local variations in spellings. Standardised versions are relatively recent, and much American spelling was revised by Noah Webster who removed much French inheritance, such as "u" from words like "colour" he spelt fibre as fiber and so on (although strangely the correct spelling of "fiber channel" is "fibre channel" as a deliberate policy of the mainly American standards body). You will also note that I follow another UK standard and that is to put the full stop (period if you are American) at the end of a sentence outside the closing bracket. Much English spelling was also revised over the years. For many words either "ise" and "ize" may be used (although the latter is dying out).

So what does this all mean apart from I've nothing better to do. Well it means that rej ought to grow up, be a little more culturally tolerant, learn some manners and be a lot less arrogant.

Seriously though, rej's stupid comments aside, this is exactly what we all need in our computers - a seriously fast, solid-state replacement for the spinning wheels of death we call hard disk drives.

What happened here? The article's about SSD's coming out next year that are faster than current products. So where did this S and Z nonsense come from?

It should be: ZZD !!

very elegantly and succinctly put SteveJ, nice one Uncle Porco.

rej is probably a french speaking 'cajun'(les Cadiens) and has a 'chip on his shoulder' cos his folks were deported by the british in the 1700s, what would the french know about english grammar anyhooooooooos :O)

zzz said: "A S should not be used for a Z... British or not , you should write an international english, not a slang english as you do right now. I speak 3 languages and Z is not a S. cheers from Canada."

Let's pick this apart shall we? First of all you say "A S" and we all know it should be "An S" and you continue your grammatical fumbling by using the word "for" when we can clearly see the need for the word "as". Finally, You never once capitalized the word "English". Just thought you might find that helpful as you seem to be so concerned with what's on other peoples plates.

I'm American by the way.

Death to the Velociraptor!!!

The velociraptor is hardly any faster than WD's own Caviar Black 1TB hard drive, and has only 300GB... who wants to spend $300 on that drive when we can get the 5% slower drive with 300+% capacity for less than half the price of the Velociraptor?

Now, throw the upcoming SSD's with the rapidly declining prices into the mix, and we can safely proclaim death to the overpriced Raptor series from WD. If the Velociraptor had a see-through window like my Raptor X, I would've bought it but no, WD had to try to deceive us with the "stock" photos of it having a see-thru window, even giving an actual prototype to HardOCP for review that had a see-thru window. I almost bought the drive when it first came out, but then my healthy dose of skepticism kicked in. My computer is built upon aesthetics, and shame on you, WD... even Newegg.com shows the drive with a "transparent cover".

It seems that the prediction of SSD's finally came true when, a number of years ago, some geeks were clamoring the dawn of this tech (while the rest of us still couldnt see it coming quite yet)... Well, perhaps SSD's will actually take over magnetic hard disks in as soon as 5 years, who knows...

The 'correct' English spelling should be with an 'S'. Lets not forget the farcical spelling of the American 'color' as opposed to the English 'colour'. That being said - in the 3rd paragraph 'levelling' has 2 l's last time i checked.

Just a little reminder of The INQUIRER guide series. There's a lot of useful spelling info for all of you little spellers!
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/651/1016651/the-inquirer-guide-to-english-english" English English

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/542/1038542/us-english-uk-english-is-snow-joke

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/156/1049156/the-inquirer-guide-to-marketing-english

ze more zolid ze disk, ze faster it zips...