I see no reason whatsoever why the computer industry could not use *real* metric
prefixes anyhow. Why not provide customers with clean, say, 20 GB of space, where
this figure would mean exactly 20 000 000 000 bytes! Why do they still do things as
if a "binary" number of bytes would be absolutely necessary???
Marcus
On Thu, 03 May 2001 07:19:50
James R. Frysinger wrote:
>The points you raise are partly why IEEE has not rushed into this, John.
>IEEE is perhaps one of the "most SI" of all industrial/professional
>organizations. The binary prefixes are not SI.
>
>The issue is in the mill for standards development and will probably
>come to a ballot fairly soon. What's being settled now is what kind of
>status to accord it ("informative" or "normative") and what to say about
>its use. Or, still, whether to even publish it at all. I'll leave it
>there for now, but your concerns have been discussed at the conference
>table(s).
>
>Jim
>
>kilopascal wrote:
>>
>> 2001-05-02
>>
>> I'm sure that when the day comes that the industry starts using the binary
>> prefixes, Microsoft can write a program that can be downloaded and when
>> installed, would display all the hard disk and memory capacities in the
>> binary prefixes.
>>
>> So, what is IEEE waiting for? If what you say is true and the intended use
>> of the binary prefixes is for within the industry, what sense would it make
>> to use the prefixes, but then "convert" everything to the present confusion
>> for the consumers. I'm sure what would be used inside the industry would be
>> used outside too. No?
>>
>> John
>>
>> Keiner ist hoffnungsloser versklavt als derjenige, der irrt|mlich glaubt
>> frei zu sein.
>>
>> There are none more hopelessly enslaved then those who falsely believe they
>> are free!
>>
>> Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "James R. Frysinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Cc: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Sent: Wednesday, 2001-05-02 18:14
>> Subject: [USMA:12592] Re: WSJ letters
>>
>> > It's a mixed bag in the industry, Greg. Apparently MB sometimes means
>> > 1000 times 1024 bytes, sometimes it means 1024 times 1024 bytes. The
>> > statement by IBM was an attempt to clarify their use of the symbology.
>> >
>> > The link that Bill Potts provided gives binary prefixes approved by IEC,
>> > but not yet by IEEE. The intended use is for work within the industry
>> > and almost entirely for storage devices. The commercial impact is nil in
>> > the retail market since storage has become so cheap that with a 40 GB
>> > drive, few people care (or can determine) whether that's actually 42.95
>> > x 10^9 bytes or merely 40.00 x 10^9 bytes. The differences in the ways
>> > that individual operating systems report memory (or even different
>> > programs within the same OS) further cloud the issue.
>> >
>> > Jim
>> > member, IEEE/SCC14
>> > Chair, IEEE/SCC14.3
>> >
>> > Gregory Peterson wrote:
>> > >
>> > > I've seen in the small print of the IBM adds something like this:
>> > >
>> > > "For hard drives 1 GB means 1 billion bytes"
>> > >
>> > > Maybe they're finally coming around to using SI prefixes for SI
>> quantities?
>> > >
>> > > greg
>> > >
>> > > >>> "Bill Potts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2001-05-02 11:23:33 >>>
>> > > Jonathan Dowling wrote:
>> > > > Yes, but they should be. This problem (that a "kb" is
>> > > > actually 1024 bytes) annoys me greatly because having
>> > > > to explain to people that "k" always means 1000 unless
>> > > > you mean computer bytes confuses them, reinforcing the
>> > > > belief that the metric system is complicated.
>> > >
>> > > See http://metric1.org/binprfx.htm.
>> > >
>> > > Bill Potts, CMS
>> > > Roseville, CA
>> > > http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
>> >
>> > --
>> > Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!"
>> > James R. Frysinger, CAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/
>> > 10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> > Charleston, SC 29407 phone/FAX: 843.225.6789
>> >
>
>--
>Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!"
>James R. Frysinger, CAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/
>10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Charleston, SC 29407 phone/FAX: 843.225.6789
>
>
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