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1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

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Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#221

Post by wat10000 »

cornonthecobra wrote: post #216

The meaning of kilo, mega, giga, tera, etc. are unambiguous: SI prefixes defined as powers of 10, not 2. 1 TB is 10*12 bytes, not 2*40 bytes. The misuse of those prefixes as powers of 1024, while useful as shorthand for computer memory where binary addressing means, is still exactly that: a misuse of SI prefixes. There's now a separate set of base-2 prefixes to solve this, and people need to update their language acc…

Just because an official body gives a single definition doesn't mean it's unambiguous. Real communication isn't bound by official bodies. When I say my computer has 16GB of RAM, that does not mean exactly 16 billion bytes.

I need to update my language accordingly? No thanks. I'll keep saying what I say and nothing will happen.

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#222

Post by mr_toad »

throw0101c wrote: post #190
tombert wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All words are made up. They weren’t handed down from a deity, they were made up by humans to communicate ideas to other humans. “Kilo” can mean what we want in different contexts and it’s really no more or less correct as long as both parties understand and are consistent in their usage to each other.

>> It doesn't matter. "kilo" means 1000. People are free to use it wrong if they wish. > All words are made up. Yes, and the made up words of kilo and kibi were given specific definitions by the people who made them up: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix > […] as long as both parties understand and are consistent in their usage to each other. And if they don't?…

> Yes, and the made up words of kilo and kibi were given specific definitions by the people who made them up

Kilo was generally understood to mean one thousand long before it was adopted by a standards committee. I know the French love to try and prescribe the use of language, but in most of the world words just mean what people generally understand them to mean; and that meaning can change.

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#223

Post by kazinator »

ablob wrote: post #122
tombert wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All words are made up. They weren’t handed down from a deity, they were made up by humans to communicate ideas to other humans. “Kilo” can mean what we want in different contexts and it’s really no more or less correct as long as both parties understand and are consistent in their usage to each other.

I find it concerning that kilo can mean both 10^3 and 2^10 depending on context. And that the context is not if you're speaking about computery stuff, but which program you use has almost certainly lead to avoidable bugs.

The "which program you use" confusion was instigated by the idiots insisting that we should have metric kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes (cheered on by crooked storage manufacturers).

Before all that nonsense, it was crystal clear: a megabyte in storage was unambiguously 1024 x 1024 bytes --- with the exception of crooked mass storage manufacturers.

There was some confusion, to be sure, but the partial success of attempt to redefine the prefixes to their power-of-ten meanings has caused more confusion.

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#224

Post by kazinator »

bloppe wrote: post #83
pif wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've never heard It doesn't matter. "kilo" means 1000. People are free to use it wrong if they wish.

If Bob says "kilobyte" to Alice, and Bob means 5432 bytes, and Alice perceives him to mean 5432 bytes, then in that context, "kilobyte" means 5432 bytes.

No, in that context, kilobyte means 1024 bytes, like in every other context. :)

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#225

Post by kazinator »

kibi can be apocryphally reinterpreted as being from kibishii, Japanese for stricct. E.g. kibishii sensei: strict teacher.

People who say things like kibibyte usually have no sense of humor, and no tolerance for inconsistencies.

ketchi means stingy in Japanese (careful with that word because it is informal and negative). I propose we rename kibibyte to ketchibaito. ketchibaito could also take on a double meaning as denoting badly paid part-time work.

(One word having two meanings: don't that just make the kibibyte people's puny heads explode ...)

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#227

Post by jiveturkey »

Looking around their website, they appear to be an enthusiastic novice. I looked around because isn't a hardware architecture course part of any first year syllabus? The author clearly hasn't a clue about hardware, how memory is implemented.

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#228

Post by nixpulvis »

crazygringo wrote: post #144
waffletower wrote: post #103

The author decidedly has expert syndrome -- they deny both the history and rational behind memory units nomenclature. Memory measurements evolved utilizing binary organizational patterns used in computing architectures. While a proud French pedant might agree with the decimal normalization of memory units discussed, it aligns more closely to the metric system, and it may have benefits for laypeople, it fails to accou…

What are you talking about? The article literally fully explains the rationale, as well as the history. It's not "denying" anything. Seems entirely reasonable and balanced to me.

Yea I don't understand the issue here. SI is pretty clear, and this post explains the other standard a little bit.

It's really not all that crazy of a situation. What bothers me is when some applications call KiB KB, because they are old or lazy.

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#229

Post by kazinator »

f33d5173 wrote: post #210

A mile is exactly 1000 paces, or 4000 feet. You may disagree, but consider: the word mile come from latin for "one thousand". Therefore a mile must be 1000 of something, namely paces. I hope you find this argument convincing.

There is a "metric mile" which is 1500 m. This is something in the context of track and field athletics.

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#230

Post by nixpulvis »

kmm wrote: post #10

And a megabyte is depending on the context precisely 1000x1000=1,000,000 or 1024x1024=1,048,576 bytes*, except when you're talking about the classic 3.5 inch floppy disks, where "1.44 MB" stands for 1440x1024 bytes, or about 1.47 true MB or 1.41 MiB. * Yeah, I read the article. Regardless of the IEC's noble attempt, in all my years of working with people and computers I've never heard anyone actually pronounce MiB (o…

They should be more precise if they are talking about KiB in a context where the difference matters... luckily those contexts are usually written down.
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