Comments on: Prefixes for Binary Multiples http://greynode.org/2009/06/26/prefixes-for-binary-multiples/ ingénierie de tous les aspects de vie Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:36:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Jeff Aigner http://greynode.org/2009/06/26/prefixes-for-binary-multiples/comment-page-1/#comment-15 Jeff Aigner Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:44:36 +0000 http://greynode.org/?p=83#comment-15 You are right, <a href="http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/skeptic/arguments.html" rel="nofollow">other people seem to have decided it already</a>. You are right, other people seem to have decided it already.

]]> By: josh http://greynode.org/2009/06/26/prefixes-for-binary-multiples/comment-page-1/#comment-14 josh Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:15:02 +0000 http://greynode.org/?p=83#comment-14 "calling it stupid argument is not really an argument." I don't think you get to decide that. “calling it stupid argument is not really an argument.”

I don’t think you get to decide that.

]]> By: Jeff Aigner http://greynode.org/2009/06/26/prefixes-for-binary-multiples/comment-page-1/#comment-13 Jeff Aigner Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:59:24 +0000 http://greynode.org/?p=83#comment-13 Again, the calling it stupid argument is not really an argument. I would like to note that Apple will be updating their OS to treat the old prefixes (GB, MB, etc) to be multiples of 10. They will no longer do the calculation as if it was GiB and mislabel it. So yes, I suppose I can agree for using base 10 for user-facing stuff. But that also means another terminology needs to be adopted for the multiples of 2, and this standard does exactly that. Again, the calling it stupid argument is not really an argument.

I would like to note that Apple will be updating their OS to treat the old prefixes (GB, MB, etc) to be multiples of 10. They will no longer do the calculation as if it was GiB and mislabel it. So yes, I suppose I can agree for using base 10 for user-facing stuff. But that also means another terminology needs to be adopted for the multiples of 2, and this standard does exactly that.

]]> By: josh http://greynode.org/2009/06/26/prefixes-for-binary-multiples/comment-page-1/#comment-12 josh Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:23:33 +0000 http://greynode.org/?p=83#comment-12 I don't see how anyone can deny that the standard names (but not so much the abbreviations) *are* stupid. If a standard defined a specific technical thing to be called an omnipotent pink flowery unicorn, I'd probably ignore that standard, too. They probably would have had less resistance if they'd gone for "binary megabytes (MiB)". But IMO, it'd be better to just switch to base 10 for most user-facing stuff. Your OS starts labeling files properly in GiB? Great, but you still have to do a bunch of math to compare to disk sizes. Why not just measure files in real GB? Besides, I'm sure most people would unconsciously skip right over that little i, because it doesn't mean anything to them. Then you gain nothing by switching. RAM still has technical reason to use binary units (and should be labeled as such), but I don't think that's a problem, since the layman never compares RAM size to disk size. Other technical areas don't matter much either, for the same reason. I don’t see how anyone can deny that the standard names (but not so much the abbreviations) *are* stupid. If a standard defined a specific technical thing to be called an omnipotent pink flowery unicorn, I’d probably ignore that standard, too. They probably would have had less resistance if they’d gone for “binary megabytes (MiB)”.

But IMO, it’d be better to just switch to base 10 for most user-facing stuff. Your OS starts labeling files properly in GiB? Great, but you still have to do a bunch of math to compare to disk sizes. Why not just measure files in real GB? Besides, I’m sure most people would unconsciously skip right over that little i, because it doesn’t mean anything to them. Then you gain nothing by switching.

RAM still has technical reason to use binary units (and should be labeled as such), but I don’t think that’s a problem, since the layman never compares RAM size to disk size. Other technical areas don’t matter much either, for the same reason.

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