17 Mar
17 Mar
1:32 a.m.
On Tue, 16 Mar 1999, Chuck McManis wrote:
Great, let's solve an annoying but minor issue with a majorly annoying and
hard to pronounce prefix system. Whoever came up with these should be
dragged out into the middle of the street and beat with a crowbar. They
obviously watch too many children's television shows. I don't know where
else one would come up with such stupid prefixes.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 02/15/99]
From Edupage:
COMING TO TERMS WITH BYTES
Computer terminology is becoming more precise: the International
Electrotechnical Commission, which creates standards for electronic
technologies, is adopting new prefixes to describe data values. The new
term "kibibyte" will more accurately describe the number of bytes in a
kilobyte -- rather than being 1,000, as could be inferred by the prefix
"kilo," a kilobyte actually has 1,024 (2 to the 10th power) bytes. The
metric prefixes currently employed -- kilo, mega, giga, etc. --
accumulate as a power of 10, rather than the binary system used in
computer code. Thus, the Commission will use kibi, mebi, gibi, tebi ,
pebi and exbi to express exponentially increasing binary multiples (2 to
the 10th power, 2 to the 20th power, etc.). "There was a need to
straighten this out," says Barry Taylor of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology.
(Science 12 Mar 99) 
7:26 a.m.
On Tue, 16 Mar 1999, Sellam Ismail wrote:
On Tue, 16 Mar 1999, Chuck McManis wrote:
Great, let's solve an annoying but minor issue with a majorly annoying and
hard to pronounce prefix system. Whoever came up with these should be
dragged out into the middle of the street and beat with a crowbar. They
obviously watch too many children's television shows. I don't know where
else one would come up with such stupid prefixes.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
You can borrow mine, but I get to watch...
From
Edupage:
COMING TO TERMS WITH BYTES
Computer terminology is becoming more precise: the International
Electrotechnical Commission, which creates standards for electronic
technologies, is adopting new prefixes to describe data values. The new
term "kibibyte" will more accurately describe the number of bytes in a
kilobyte -- rather than being 1,000, as could be inferred by the prefix
"kilo," a kilobyte actually has 1,024 (2 to the 10th power) bytes. The
metric prefixes currently employed -- kilo, mega, giga, etc. --
accumulate as a power of 10, rather than the binary system used in
computer code. Thus, the Commission will use kibi, mebi, gibi, tebi ,
pebi and exbi to express exponentially increasing binary multiples (2 to
the 10th power, 2 to the 20th power, etc.). "There was a need to
straighten this out," says Barry Taylor of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology.
(Science 12 Mar 99) 
10:56 a.m.
On Tue, 16 Mar 1999, Sellam Ismail wrote:
Great, let's solve an annoying but minor issue with
a majorly annoying and
hard to pronounce prefix system. Whoever came up with these should be
dragged out into the middle of the street and beat with a crowbar. They
obviously watch too many children's television shows. I don't know where
else one would come up with such stupid prefixes.
Actually, besides the stupid-sounding prefixes, I think it is a good idea.
There are a lot of consumers confused by the 1000 vs. 1024 issue, as are
manufacturers and marketers. I think it might be better to have adopted a
logarithmic system where a prefix is used to indicate the power of two.
However, I can't currently think of any names for these prefixes that
wouldn't sound profoundly stupid.
--Max Eskin (max82(a)surfree.com)
1:35 a.m.
From Edupage:
COMING TO TERMS WITH BYTES
Computer terminology is becoming more precise: the International
Electrotechnical Commission, which creates standards for electronic
technologies, is adopting new prefixes to describe data values. The new
term "kibibyte" will more accurately describe the number of bytes in a
kilobyte -- rather than being 1,000, as could be inferred by the prefix
"kilo," a kilobyte actually has 1,024 (2 to the 10th power) bytes. The
metric prefixes currently employed -- kilo, mega, giga, etc. --
accumulate as a power of 10, rather than the binary system used in
computer code. Thus, the Commission will use kibi, mebi, gibi, tebi ,
pebi and exbi to express exponentially increasing binary multiples (2 to
the 10th power, 2 to the 20th power, etc.). "There was a need to
straighten this out," says Barry Taylor of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology.
(Science 12 Mar 99)
9:16 a.m.
At 11:34 PM 3/16/99 -0800, Chuck McManis wrote:
COMING TO TERMS WITH BYTES
Computer terminology is becoming more precise: the International
Electrotechnical Commission, which creates standards for electronic
technologies, is adopting new prefixes to describe data values. The new
term "kibibyte" will more accurately describe the number of bytes in a
kilobyte -- rather than being 1,000, as could be inferred by the prefix
"kilo," a kilobyte actually has 1,024 (2 to the 10th power) bytes.
Hmm, I get it - the "lo" in "kilobyte == 1,000" meant it was a bit
low,
and the "bi" means it's binary.
- John
9:34 a.m.
At 23:34 16-03-1999 -0800, you wrote:
<snipectomy>
That has got to be the DUMBest idea I've seen come along in years!
Are we sure this isn't one of the (in)famous Urban Legends?
I'm going to see if I can get in touch with NIST today to try and verify
or disprove it. I agree with others -- it sounds like something straight
out of a kid's nonsense vocabulary. Specifically, it sounds like something
straight out of either 'Barney' or the 'Teletubbies.'
You don't want to get me started about either. ;-)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies
http://www.bluefeathertech.com
Amateur Radio:(WD6EOS) E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com
SysOp: The Dragon's Cave (Fido 1:343/272, 253-639-9905)
"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own
human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."
From Edupage:
COMING TO TERMS WITH BYTES 
9:42 a.m.
Bruce Lane wrote:
That has got to be the DUMBest idea I've seen
come along in years!
Are we sure this isn't one of the (in)famous Urban Legends?
I'm pretty sure, since I've seen it debated in other places with a certain
amount of seriousness and zeal. It's not being made up just to torment
people -- it's a genuine proposal.
I'm going to see if I can get in touch with NIST
today to try and verify
or disprove it. I agree with others -- it sounds like something straight
out of a kid's nonsense vocabulary. Specifically, it sounds like something
straight out of either 'Barney' or the 'Teletubbies.'
Let us know what you find out. I hope that "kilobyte" won't become one of
those words that instantly marks their users as classic-computer freaks.
I know jargon changes, but I don't want it to change in this case.
-- Derek
10:56 a.m.
On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, Derek Peschel wrote:
Let us know what you find out. I hope that
"kilobyte" won't become one of
those words that instantly marks their users as classic-computer freaks.
I know jargon changes, but I don't want it to change in this case.
Well, here's a simple solution: anything suffixed with "byte", ie.
kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terrabyte...is automatically a base-2 value.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 02/15/99]
11:01 a.m.
Considering the level of success that National Bureau of Standards had
with conversion of the U.S. over to metric, just how effective do you
think they would be at adoption of these BARNEY-BYTES?
11:51 a.m.
On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote:
Considering the level of success that National Bureau
of Standards had
with conversion of the U.S. over to metric, just how effective do you
think they would be at adoption of these BARNEY-BYTES?
Yes, indeed. Perhaps we'll see Rev. Jerry Fallwell declare the tibibyte
gay because it is represented by Tinkie-Winkie at IEEE conferences? In
fact, that's a good idea. Perhaps we'll be seeing dancing teletubbies on
our television screens showing off the new Pentium XII processor? But no.
Somehow, I envision Apple being 'innovative' once more and taking the
first step in the adoption of this standard. Imagine Steve Jobs coming on
stage hand-in-hand with Barney and declaring the new G4 workstation
'complete with 128 mebibytes of RAM'. As I said, it's not a bad idea,
except the names are just too ridiculous.
--Max Eskin (max82(a)surfree.com)
3:53 p.m.
Somehow, I envision Apple being 'innovative'
once more and taking the
first step in the adoption of this standard. Imagine Steve Jobs coming on
stage hand-in-hand with Barney and declaring the new G4 workstation
'complete with 128 mebibytes of RAM'. As I said, it's not a bad idea,
except the names are just too ridiculous.
Nope. Barney has already signed on with MICRO~1 !
MICROS~1 sells several Barney products, and billg is a fan.
So, Jobs may have to settle for the Teletubbies. Maybe one for each
color of iMac?
9:47 p.m.
On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote:
Nope! MICROS~1 already makes interactive Teletubbie dolls. Jobs will
have to settle for the Bill Gates and Paul Allen doll set.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 02/15/99]
Somehow, I
envision Apple being 'innovative' once more and taking the
first step in the adoption of this standard. Imagine Steve Jobs coming on
stage hand-in-hand with Barney and declaring the new G4 workstation
'complete with 128 mebibytes of RAM'. As I said, it's not a bad idea,
except the names are just too ridiculous.
Nope. Barney has already signed on with MICRO~1 !
MICROS~1 sells several Barney products, and billg is a fan.
So, Jobs may have to settle for the Teletubbies. Maybe one for each
color of iMac? 
12:52 p.m.
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8:15 p.m.
In message <m10NLQv-000IySC@p850ug1>, Tony Duell writes:
You mean like using 'binary' to mean a
flip-flop circuit (old books do
this - they talk about 'the clock pulse then clears the first binary and
sets the second binary'). Back then, 'flip-flop' meant what we now call a
monostable...
I'm generally loathe to question Tony's data on practical hardware
matters, but this didn't sound familiar at all. How old a reference
do you have that uses "flip-flop" to describe a monostable device?
The oldest references I have are Terman's Electronic and Radio Engineering
from 1955 and Bartee's Digital Computer
Fundamentals from 1960
both published by McGraw Hill. (And no, I'm not old
enough to
have studied them new.) Both use the term flip-flop to describe
the Eccles-Jordan type bistable multivibrator.
Suffice it to say, I am not going to change my usage of
the work
'kilobyte' becase of some committee... Just as I am not celebrating the
millennium a year early either.
Oh, I don't know. I kind of like the idea that those of us who know
better get to celebrate twice as much by using it as an excuse to celebrate
both years...
Brian L. Stuart
9:41 p.m.
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9431
days inactive
9431
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16 comments
11 participants
participants (11)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
at258＠osfn.org -
blstuart＠bellsouth.net -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com -
dastar＠ncal.verio.com -
dpeschel＠u.washington.edu -
jfoust＠threedee.com -
jim＠calico.litterbox.com -
kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com -
max82＠surfree.com