On Sep 5, 2008, at 1:32 PM, Doug McNutt wrote:

> <rant>
>
> The computer folks use M for 10^6 when they're talking about bit  
> rate or bandwidth in Hz but somehow they expect us to understand  
> that M means 2^20 when they're talking about bytes on a disk. When  
> they're talking about bits per second it's 10^6 - or is it? What  
> was the transfer rate for that file in kBytes per second when each  
> byte, as transmitted, was a 10 bit item after adding a start and  
> stop bit?

Amateurs need to know the context in order to be 100 percent certain  
of the meaning of kilo (is it 1000 or 1024, ectetera).

Professionals seldom need to know the context, but in legal  
documents, both will be enumerated to that the legal eagles don't  
shaft somebody.

The first time a term (called a "word of art" in legalese) is used,  
it will be defined, as in, "... 1 k-bits (k = 1024) ...".

> </rant>


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