> Everyone I know has been using KB/MB/GB for 1024 forever.
Ahhh, now I see the problem. You don't know many people :) :) :) :) :)
> The *only* exception is networking, and the occasional FLASH/ROM size.
bullshit.
check out any recent hard drive :
drive size = 40235MB*
* 1MB = 1000000 Bytes
there is _no_ standard for what 1MB means. There is a LOT of
confusion, and most places will accept both
for example, the gnu ls command has :
-h, --human-readable print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M
2G)
--si likewise, but use powers of 1000 not 1024
This move might look weird, but in 6 months nobody will even remember
the change happening. Less ambiguity is a Good Thing :)
Dana Lacoste
Ottawa, Canada
(Have a look at http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/outside.html.)
Strictly speaking, "Byte" is actually a prefix, too. A prefix of the
number "1" - however, a prefix with a context. "bit", "rad" and others
are not real units, they are more like "context descriptions" off the
number "1".
I think, the prefixes "...T,G,M,k,m,?..." should be taken, as they were
for a long time: context specific.
IMAO, if there is any sane way of defining this, it is by giving a base
as index (like the log function). In case of bit, Byte etc. -as they
already define a context- the base is always 2. In case of SI Base
Units, the base is 10.
But that's only my 0.5 Nibble cents/bit (oh, I mean Euro cents/bit).
George
P.S.: What's about using mole?
On Thu, 2001-12-20 at 20:27, Dana Lacoste wrote:
[...]
> there is _no_ standard for what 1MB means. There is a LOT of
> confusion, and most places will accept both
[...]
--
Juergen Sawinski
Max-Planck-Institute for Medical Research
Dept. of Biomedical Optics
Jahnstr. 29
D-69120 Heidelberg
Germany
Phone: +49-6221-486-309
Fax: +49-6221-486-325
priv.
Phone: +49-6221-418 848
Mobile: +49-171-532 5302