Live data from Hacker News

1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

waspdev.com

421–430 of 430 posts

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then of course you are free to count 1024 bytes and call that a kB. Pretending everyone else will agree on that is a different thing.

Everyone else has already agreed.

Not everyone else. Just you and your friends.

Otherwise this discussion had ended since long.

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#422
I can perhaps accept that 1kb != 1024 bytes. Maybe.

But then these fing idiots went on to define ”mibi bytes” and ”gibi bytes”, when there already existed perfectly valid and used nomenclature: meg and gig! I read their reasoning, still hate it. I bet they did it just in spite, just to show who’s the boss.

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#423
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the bit (sic) that drives me nuts. RAM had binary sizing for perfectly practical reasons. Nothing else did (until SSDs inherited RAM's architecture). We apply it to all the wrong things mostly because the first home computers had nothing but RAM, so binary sizing was the only explanation that was ever needed. And 50 years later we're sticking to that story.

Nope. The first home computers like the C64 had RAM and sectors on disc, which in case of the C64 means 256 bytes. And there it is again, the smaller base of 1024. Just later, some marketing assholes thought they could better sell their hard drives when they lie about the size and weasel out of legal issues with redefining the units.

later, like 1956? The world's first commercial HDD was 5,000,000 characters.

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They sum to 12

actually they multiply, 12th root of 2, to the 12th

12th root of 2, to the 12th = 2 :D The collection of 7 intervals I provided, 2 2 1 2 2 2 1, which are a differential representation of "(do) re mi fa so la ti do", sum to 12. Those intervals are linear within the log2 scale you identified as having a 12th root of 2 basis, or in other words, are the major diatonic (7 note) scale which are a subset of the 12-tone equal tempered scale. The laws of logarithms can help explain why these intervals are additive, whereas the semitone basis (12th root of 2) is multiplicative.

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

by coming to the conclusion they did, they are

So not denying. You just disagree is all. So please don't mischaracterize articles in the future simply because you disagree with their conclusions. That's misrepresentation, and essentially straight-up lying.

I deny your understanding of my use of the word deny :D

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To avoid confusion, I always use "kilobyte" to refer to exactly 512 bytes.

Why don't you use sectors for that?

Because sectors refer to disk storage. It sounds weird to say "I need to malloc 300 sectors."

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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.

> Kilo is derived from the Greek word χίλιοι (chilioi), meaning "thousand".

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilo-

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fahrenheit has finer granularity without fractions. IOW each Celsius degree is bigger than each Fahrenheit degree. Even though the F numbers are so much higher and it seems unbearably hot :) So for a thermostat that only can be set in 1 degree increments (without a decimal point), you have finer control when using F than using C. Anybody can memorize the conversion more easily by throwing out the math, using table lo…

Ahhh, I mean that's all very well .. but I'm over 60 and I've literally never used or needed to use Fahrenheit - and I had a long career in geophysical and physical data aquisition, ran several kinds of furnaces and annealing ovens 24/7 for a decade, do a lot of cooking, etc. So, I appreciate your rendition of things I have tables for already but any actual need is sadly non existant.

The point is Fahrenheit works fine, and is arguably better than Celcius for measuring the temperatures that humans are typically exposed to, so there is no need to replace it with Celsius.

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#429
post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Translation: It's not inconsistent if we consider the deviation from the rule as a second rule. Any future deviation will get their own rule. Perfectly consistent

I don't think that's fair, I'm just saying considering kilo to mean 1000x in all bases is too narrow as a definition. Is 'car' a 'petrol-powered four-wheel transportation device with human-operated left-hand control'?

[deleted]

Re: 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes?

#430
post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Translation: It's not inconsistent if we consider the deviation from the rule as a second rule. Any future deviation will get their own rule. Perfectly consistent

I don't think that's fair, I'm just saying considering kilo to mean 1000x in all bases is too narrow as a definition. Is 'car' a 'petrol-powered four-wheel transportation device with human-operated left-hand control'?

[deleted]
Post reply on HN