MacOS size weirdness

[yellowdog-general@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com]

First, thanks for the help with the error in my install--I'm about to go 
repartition and see if things get better.  Second, sorry for flooding the list 
with so many messages (and on a Saturday, no less).

This one isn't exactly about YDL, but it has to do with sizing partitions:  
MacOS 9.1 is lying to me about the sizes of folders on my mac system 
partition.  I first noticed this when I was backing everything up, but I didn't 
think much of it until the same thing happened, more aggregiously, on a 
brand new install of the system software.  If get info on the System 
Folder or Applications folder on my MacOS system partition (which is 
1Gb), or tell the finder to calculate folder sizes, it tells me my System 
Folder is 251 Mb and Applications 81 Mb.  Those are the only things on 
that partition, except "Documents" and "Late-breaking news", both of 
which are small.  But if I get info on the volume, it tells me 636 Mb are 
used on the volume.  251 + 81 + a little bit =/= 636.  And when I try to 
download a big iso image, my FTP client tells me there's no room left on 
the partition.  "Odd", I think, and copy the two folders in question to a 
different volume.  Now they're 429 Mb and 159 Mb.
These are both HFS Standard partitions, on the same internal drive.  
What gives?  We all know OS 9.1 is inferior to linux, but I'd expect it to be 
able to give me the right sizes on a brand new installation.

Puzzled,

Andrew "this is my last post for the day, I promise" Stout