OCZ Vertex 2 with 25nm NAND flash reported slower

[jwilliams4200]

I will assume that you are not a native English speaker, rather than entertain the depressing thought that the American educational system has failed you so egregiously.

The issue is not that I fail to understand that the meaning of words is dependent upon context. The problem is that your usage is flawed. There is no logical reason to write "perfectly fine" when you mean to convey that something is adequate despite its flaws. I usually ignore language mistakes in Internet forums, but in this case you wrote nearly the opposite of what you apparently meant.

Furthermore, your use of the word "Newspeak" in reference to my objection implies that you believe your phrasing meets the standards of formal English usage, and that my objection is rooted in a postmodern revision of the language reminiscent of Orwell's "1984". On the contrary, the usage of "perfectly" as an intensifier is not acceptable in formal English. And even informally, as an intensifier, "perfectly" intensifies the word it is modifying, so "perfectly fine" may be understood to mean "finer than fine" or "nearly perfect".

If you did mean to convey that the 34nm flash Vertex 2 is nearly perfect, then there was no reason for this digression into English usage, since we could have discussed our fundamental disagreement on that issue -- your contention is incorrect since the Vertex 2 is seriously flawed and certainly no better than adequate. Instead, you prompted this semantic digression by your usage of the misleading phrase and by your further contention that the meaning was clear.

 

[Voo]

On the contrary, the usage of "perfectly" as an intensifier is not acceptable in formal English. And even informally, as an intensifier, "perfectly" intensifies the word it is modifying, so "perfectly fine" may be understood to mean "finer than fine" or "nearly perfect".

Sweet. Would you please tell the guys at Merriam-Webster that they've got no idea about English?

Let me quote them (so much for not acceptable in formal English..):

Definition of perfectly:
1: in a perfect manner
2: to a complete or adequate extent : quite <was perfectly happy until now>

So while perfectly can mean 1) - which nobody ever denied, there's also the second possibility. That's the whole thing: A word and especially an adverb doesn't necessary have only one meaning (And yes that's one of the things that Newspeak addresses - removing all synonyms and shades of meaning).
The drive is quite fine, the drive is fine to an adequate extent - both different connotations than "perfect". Nobody would equal "The drive is perfect." with "The drive is perfectly fine." the latter statement is weaker than the first one.

Url: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perfectly?show=0&t=1298169015

I mean we can also discuss the same situation in other languages if you prefer - how about German ("the drive is perfectly fine" would be something along the lines of "Die Festplatte ist v&#246;llig in Ordnung", not "Die Festplatte ist perfekt."). My Japanese is a good bit worse, but the language is that ambiguous that I'm sure I'll find enough examples.
One advantage of speaking more than one language, by learning one you learn something about the others as well. You don't happen to speak another language fluently, right?

 

[jmet]

This entire episode has been rather tiring.

 

[kevinsbane]

They will pull off the larger 64Gbit flash chips on your drive and replace them with smaller 32Gbit flash chips to populate all channels.

Wait, so let me get this straight...

They're replacing the Vertex 2's with lower density chips. But they're not taking their existing, high density/low-speed/reduced capacity Vertex 2's off the market?

What are they going to do with all these slow 25nm Vertex 2's? Give them to people who don't complain? That sounds... really wrong. Well, I suppose they could give a discount and sell them that way.

I will assume that you are not a native English speaker, rather than entertain the depressing thought that the American educational system has failed you so egregiously.

Alas, not all of us are American and have had the opportunity to be failed by its schooling. I suppose I have been failed by my own school system as well. As I am a native English speaker, I shall have to content myself with the knowledge that our supposedly flawed use of English disturbs you. When I think that most of the English speaking world uses and understands the term "perfectly" in a similar manner as we do, it increases my contentedness. I certainly thought that my English classes were perfectly fine. I've had no opportunity to realise that my use of everyday English was so perfectly inadequate. The idea that my use of English is so incomprehensible could not possibly be wrong, right?

 

[jwilliams4200]

While I am dismayed to learn that you consider it a point of pride that you can write ambiguously in multiple languages, I am at least encouraged to learn that you realize that you are stringing together words with ambiguous meanings. However, you are incorrect that using "perfectly" as an intensifier is acceptable in formal English. Since your knowledge of formal English usage is apparently deficient, I suggest an investment in the Oxford English Dictionary, which usually includes labels for colloquial usage.

Or you can save your money and apply common sense. If "fine" can range in meaning from "adequate" to "superior", and if "perfectly", used as a modifier, can range in meaning from "adequate" to "flawless", then the phrase "perfectly fine" is obviously ambiguous. As you learn more about English usage, you will find that colloquial phrases are often unacceptable in formal English because they are unclear. If you learn about good English writing style, you will find that clear and concise writing necessitates omitting intensifiers.

After this lengthy exchange, I am still unsure whether you meant to write that the 34nm flash Vertex 2 is adequate, superior, or almost perfect.

 

[jwilliams4200]

Alas, not all of us are American and have had the opportunity to be failed by its schooling. I suppose I have been failed by my own school system as well. As I am a native English speaker,

I see that you can also write ambiguously. Did you mean that you are Canadian, British, Australian, or from another country with English as the common language?

 

[StinkyPinky]

Barely takes me ten seconds from pressing the on button to getting to a usable desktop on my "low spec" Intel drive.

 

[drizek]

If "fine" can range in meaning from "adequate" to "superior", and if "perfectly", used as a modifier, can range in meaning from "adequate" to "flawless", then the phrase "perfectly fine" is obviously ambiguous. As you learn more about English usage, you will find that colloquial phrases are often unacceptable in formal English because they are unclear. If you learn about good English writing style, you will find that clear and concise writing necessitates omitting intensifiers.

After this lengthy exchange, I am still unsure whether you meant to write that the 34nm flash Vertex 2 is adequate, superior, or almost perfect.

I think it is perfectly obvious, from context, that "fine" meant adequate rather than superior. Nobody talks about SSDs as if they were caviar (unless they're made by Western Digital). Perfectly fine means that it is completely adequate, no more and no less.

Since nobody ever uses the phrase "perfectly fine" to refer to something that is "perfectly superior", his use of an intensifier in this case actually made his comment less ambiguous. If he had said that it was a "fine drive" then it could have meant either adequate or superior.

 

[Termie]

New review of 25nm issues: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ocz-vertex-2-25nm-ssd,2867.html