disk versus disc

[Huw Davies]

On 25/07/2005, at 8:14 AM, Fred Cisin wrote:

> OB_CCTALK: Do modern (oxymoron?) Japanese, British, and Amurican cars
> have "Disc brakes" or "Disk brakes"?  (German cars have "disk")

Interestingly my very recently acquired new German car (major expense  
for a major birthday - see previous post regarding using disk well  
before floppies were invented) refers to the brakes as disc brakes  
and I've never seen such brakes referred to as disk brakes before. Of  
course the manual might have been rewritten in Australian English  
(more probably British).

I have always referred to disk drives as disk, not disc even though  
my Computer Science lecturer (yes, there was exactly one back in the  
"Good Old Days") always referred to them as disc drives. I'd just  
assumed this was because he'd learnt about computing at Cambridge and  
used the English spelling whereas the vast majority of the computers  
I've ever used are American. I can only think of two that aren't and  
they're both Japanese (Sharp and Epson).

Huw Davies           | e-mail: Huw.Davies at kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne            | "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia            | air, the sky would be painted green"