kb is 1000 or 1024?

[AngusMacGyver]

Yeah, like ounces in a pound, pints in a gallon?

Not to me. Brazil adopts metric system.

kilometers, meters, milimeters, gram, kilogram, liters, etc...

In fact, once you are used to a system, it's easy. But why do they complicate when they could simplify?

To me, k means kilo that means 1000.

If they wanted round, why didn't they create a new multiple?
I am a programmer too and I think computers should adapt themselves (by software) to men (and women) not the contrary.

[DereX888]

Yeah, like ounces in a pound, pints in a gallon?

Not to me. Brazil adopts metric system.

kilometers, meters, milimeters, gram, kilogram, liters, etc...

In fact, once you are used to a system, it's easy. But why do they complicate when they could simplify?

To me, k means kilo that means 1000.

If they wanted round, why didn't they create a new multiple?
I am a programmer too and I think computers should adapt themselves (by software) to men (and women) not the contrary.

Unfortunately borg species (to which most of computer geeks belong to) think otherwise

[ebenton]

OK. I'll play!

If anyone will tell you that 1mb is a one megabyte or one megabits, that means he is plain stupid - because it means one milibyte or one millibit (bytes or bits - make your pick, since small b or capital B is usually a mess in a computer world), but nevertheless of bits/bytes - small "m" means only and exactly a one thousand part of either one

That's just silly when you're talking about bytes and bits. Can any computer actually do anything with less than a bit let alone 1/1000 of a bit? That's like saying mHz is millihertz. Mathematically correct, but can anyone actually hear anything lower than one Hertz, or even about 20Hz, for that matter?
Yeah, I know that the Navy uses/has used VLF for communicating with submarines, but normal people can't drag around super-long-wavelength antennas behind their cars or boats or airplanes. But I don't think that even submarines using VLF can use less than one Hertz. The quarter wavelength for one Hertz is 75 million meters or 246 million feet. You'd need a pretty long antenna for that, let alone a signal carrier with a wavelength a thousand times longer.
So using "milli" for Hertz is silly, as is using "milli" for bits or bytes.

[babiulep]

> Not to me. Brazil adopts metric system.
> kilometers, meters, milimeters, gram, kilogram, liters, etc...

That's why in Brazil one hour is 100 minutes.... etc.etc.etc.

[AngusMacGyver]

Yes, but 64 minutes would be better, woudn't it?
One day would have 32 hours and a month 32 days. One year would have 256 days (maybe 512)...

[edDV]

And binary $ or Euros would be 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 ...

[DereX888]

OK. I'll play!

If anyone will tell you that 1mb is a one megabyte or one megabits, that means he is plain stupid - because it means one milibyte or one millibit (bytes or bits - make your pick, since small b or capital B is usually a mess in a computer world), but nevertheless of bits/bytes - small "m" means only and exactly a one thousand part of either one

That's just silly when you're talking about bytes and bits. Can any computer actually do anything with less than a bit let alone 1/1000 of a bit? That's like saying mHz is millihertz. Mathematically correct, but can anyone actually hear anything lower than one Hertz, or even about 20Hz, for that matter?
Yeah, I know that the Navy uses/has used VLF for communicating with submarines, but normal people can't drag around super-long-wavelength antennas behind their cars or boats or airplanes. But I don't think that even submarines using VLF can use less than one Hertz. The quarter wavelength for one Hertz is 75 million meters or 246 million feet. You'd need a pretty long antenna for that, let alone a signal carrier with a wavelength a thousand times longer.
So using "milli" for Hertz is silly, as is using "milli" for bits or bytes.

hehehe
well, i'll go along:

millibit would hve to be an uncomputed 1 or 0 which is part of a bit
ACtually its possible - if we use some CPU with processing speed of say less than 1Hz, how long would it take to compute a 1 byte in one cycle? It would be possible that it computed a millibyte per second if it was slow enough

millihertz - I dont know, maybe a frequency thats stretched in time-space (kinda other dimension :P)? Your guess is as good as mine

But I would not dismiss neither as utter stupidity; probably 100 years ago or so people could not imagine a millisecond either, and nowaday (in regard to computers) a millisecond is an eternity actually

[Wile_E]

That Wikipedia articles are wrong. I suggest someone edit it, or perhaps maybe I will.


1024 = 1KB
1 kilobit = 1000 bits

[Steve Stepoway]

millihertz - I dont know, maybe a frequency thats stretched in time-space (kinda other dimension :P)? Your guess is as good as mine

No, millihertz is no problem, as it's not a thing, but a count. 1Hz = 1 cycle per second, so 1 milliHertz would be 1/1000 cycles per second, or 1 cycle per 1000 seconds.

[vitualis]

@ ttn:

You are right, but you are also wrong. Indeed, you are more wrong than right because you are missing out entirely the historical context.

Yes, logically, a kilobyte should be 1000 bytes as per the SI system. However, a "kilobyte" (and the casing of the "k" is entirely irrelevant) has always referred to 2^10 bytes (i.e., 1024 bytes). A "megabyte" is 2^20 bytes and a gigabyte is 2^30 bytes (and so on). It is a misnomer yes, but an accepted and defined one. The defining/renaming by SI of the computing units (kibi, mebi, gibi) is again, logical, but also completely lacks legitimacy as they are not accepted by the computing world.

The usage of "1000 bytes" as a "kilobyte" was frankly a cynical marketing move by media sellers to "inflate" the nominal capacity. That, is the only reason why the confusion exists.

Regards,
Michael Tam