Why prefer != over <> for Python 3.0?

[Duncan Booth]

Lie <Lie.1296 at gmail.com> wrote:

> You're forcing your argument too much, both != and <> are NOT standard
> mathematics operators -- the standard not-equal operator is >< -- and
> I can assure you that both != and <> won't be comprehensible to non-
> programmers.

My maths may be a bit rusty, but I always thought that the standard not-
equal operator was like an = sign but with a diagonal slash through it as 
displayed when you do:

   print u'\u2260'