Hmm... that's interesting. I knew that billion was used to refer to 10^12, but I thought it was a thing of the past. Thanks for the link. I equate a billion to 10^9, and prefer it to the Indian system which groups the last three digits together and all preceding digits in groups of 2. For instance, 12,34,456. And of course, the face that hardly anybody outside the Indian subcontinent knows what a lakh or a crore is. Cheers, Vikram.
http://www.geocities.com/vpunathambekar "It's like hitting water with your fist. There's all sorts of motion and noise at impact, and no impression left whatsoever shortly thereafter." - gantww.