More great info. Thanks David. Between you and rick, this article is going to be a winner. Thanks.
John JOHN AND LINDA JUSTICE WITH GUIDE DOGS JAKE AND ZACHARY PERSONAL E-MAIL: [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of David Ferrin Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2011 7:57 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Blind-Computing] WHAT ARE BYTES ANYWAY? Let us not forget the fact that there are 8 bits in a byte and 1024 bytes in a kilobyte. The fact is boys and girls although a hard drive for example may indeed have a trillion bytes of storage it is in fact only a 931 gigabyte drive. This is because hard drive manufacturers operate on the base 10 system where as computers function on the base 2 system in that the only 2 states of electricity are on or off. Hence forth a zero indicates that the power is off where as a one means that the power is on. When it boils down to the lowest common denominator this is all a computer is capable of doing. There was a time when I could write my name just for fun in binary language but then I discovered girls and thought there was better things to do with my time. David Ferrin Most people don't know what they're doing and a lot of them are really good at it. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rick Justice" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2011 7:03 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-Computing] WHAT ARE BYTES ANYWAY? > Hi John, > This is a nice dissertation on the subject, but it would be helpful to > the not so literate computer user to keep a clear distinction between > hard drive storage, and, physical memory (ram). > So many computer terms are used inter-changeably, that it can become > confusing. > HTH, > Rick Justice > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "John Justice" <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2011 6:25 PM > Subject: [Blind-Computing] WHAT ARE BYTES ANYWAY? > > > This message is for Yvonne and anyone else who might have been > wondering about these terms which are batted back and forth so readily > by computer users. > > A byte is a single exchange of digital data. It is the minimal > measurement of any digital exchange. > > 1 kilobyte = one thousand bytes. > > 1 megabyte =one thousand kilobytes or one million bytes. > > In Yvonne's question, she asked how many kilobytes are in 7 megabytes. > > 7 megabytes = 7 thousand kilobytes or 7 million bytes of data > transmitted in a second. > > That is one incredibly fast transfer speed. You should be aware > however, that the figure mentioned is a selling point. You will get > that kind of speed some of the time when all conditions are optimal. > Many things can impact that speed however. That would include, > internet conditions at the time of the transmission, the condition of > the fiber optic cable, weather and so on. > > But what impacts download speed the most are two factors. > > 1. Your own individual computer, > > 2. The current usage on that particular internet service provider's > network. > > Let me reassure you Yvonne that even at the worst of times, fiber > optic transmission is many times faster than any conventional cable > network and often hundreds of times faster than any dial up > connection. The reason for that is simple although the technology is > light years away from what we started with. Fiber optic is literally > information sent through glass fiber by equipment which uses light > rather than electricity to carry modulated signals. One fiber optic > cable can handle thousands of simultaneous transmissions. By the time > the signal reaches your computer of course, it has been converted to > standard electronic formats. But the speed between various conversion > points is nothing less than phenomenal! It is relatively new > technology however and as such, tends to be considerably more > expensive when compared to standard cable networks. There are > commercials out there which try to claim that new technology has made > older style cable systems as fast as fiber optics. They have > certainly improved their download speeds but even at their best and > most expensive speeds, they are still operating at about half the > download speed of a fiber optic system. But why should anyone care > about that speed? As technology has developed, software has increased > in complexity and has grown in size as a result. In the year 2000, > the average size of a computer program was about six hundred > kilobytes. Today, the average size of a piece of ordinary software is > two megabytes. When a computer user is dealing with software or > downloads which are that big or larger, he or she needs to get that > information into the computer as quickly as possible. Even with > today's amazing improvements in service, the potential for > interruption or corruption of a large file during transfer is still a > possibility. Here's an example of what I mean. If a computer user > downloads a song which contains multiple media such as music, video, > static data and functional parameters, one song can be as much as > three megabytes in size. If anything interferes with that download > before it is completed, the entire program might be rendered useless. > The idea therefore is to transmit data as quickly as possible. The > longer the connection between two computers exists, the potential for > interruption increases exponentially. > > The introduction of download services like Apple, Audio.com and net > flicks, means that more and more people are obtaining their > entertainment over the internet rather than purchasing hard copies. > Think about that for a moment. > How much of the software on your computer has been downloaded, rather > than installed from a hard disk? Most computers sold today have hard > drives that are at least two hundred and fifty gigabytes in size. > That kind of memory was unheard of even ten years ago. A gigabyte is > one thousand megabytes. > One computer expert surmised that there is more memory in personal > computers today than there was in all of the government's computers > back in the year, 2000. I believe that one of our list members has a > portable hard drive that is several terabytes in size. A terabyte is > one thousand gigabytes. > > > > As time passes, we, as blind computer users, are relying on the > dependability of our computers to provide access to the world around us. > In > my opinion, the only way to assure us of reliable download capability > is by obtaining the fastest possible internet service. That is fiber > optic for the moment. > > > > JOHN AND LINDA JUSTICE > > WITH GUIDE DOGS JAKE AND ZACHARY > > PERSONAL E-MAIL: <mailto:[email protected]> > [email protected] > > For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: > http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ > > > For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: > http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/
