OK...
Many inconsistencies / illogicalities were introduced in The Original Series, back in the days when they couldn't give a long garlic fart for things like continuity or scientific plausibility. By the time The Next Generation came around, they realised what a bunch of pedantic freaks us sciffies are, and tried their best to straighten out as many inconsistencies and scientific nonsenses as possible without trashing the existing continuity.
For example, interstellar distances, speeds and such were often way off in TOS, and words like "sector" & "quadrant" were bandied about pretty much at random. In TNG, they fixed the definitions (ie quadrant= 1/4 of the galaxy, sector = smaller area of space which may hold many star systems.)
For data storage they made up the term "kiloquad", because they knew that if they used real terminology (ie Gigabytes) then by 1996 the Enterprise-D's computer would look as advanced as a Commodore 64.
As for warp speeds, in TOS warp speeds were pretty much made up as they went along. The maximum for the TOS enterprise was about 8 or 9 I think, but in some episodes it acheived more, sometimes upwards of warp 14, by means of unexpected alien intervention and so on. Some hardy fans made up various non-linear scales to fit around the shows, but they were convoluted and not particularly robust.
Then TNG came in, and they abandoned the old "system" and introduced the scale detailed below by Mephisto, where warp 10 would involve occupying every point in the universe simultaneously. This has been faithfully adhered to ever since. (TNG, DS9, VOY, although I can't comment on the new series)
It's also worth remembering that there are other, quicker ways to get about in Trek (Trans-warp conduits, wormholes, Q's finger)
*dogscoff steps back into his Trek closet and closes the door.
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[This message has been edited by dogscoff (edited 01 October 2001).]