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Megabytes (MB) or Mebibytes (MiB)?
An anonymous reader says: "KernelTrap has an interesting story about megabytes versus mebibytes. Though the article refers to Linux, the topic is applicable to all computers. Will there be a time when all computer users will talk about adding mibibytes of RAM, rather than a megabytes?
From the article: '[the kernel patch] changes references from the familiar MB (megabyte) and GB (gigabyte) to the NIST standard MiB (mebibyte) and GiB (gibibyte). According to these standards, technically a megabyte (MB) is a power of ten, while a mebibyte (MiB) is a power of two, appropriate for binary machines. A megabyte is then 1,000,000 bytes. A mebibyte is the actual 1,048,576 bytes that most intend.'"
"Maybe Byte"?
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
We have a potential conflict here. Megabytes and gigabytes are often referred to as "megs" and "gigs", right? Problem is, gibs is taken.
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
Let's see here;
I already have a hard time convincing other people of the distinction between hacker and cracker.
to them: hacker is a criminal, cracker is a southern, white, klansman-criminal.
I give up, and try and express that every computer hacker is not a criminal, they are all computer science researchers, doing sometimes unpopular work.
Now you want to change the terms for measuring storage? The normal aim for changing terms is to clarify the matter, but this is just obfuscation for 99% of the people in the world, who already suffer at understanding the difference between 1024 and 1000. Please, do not do this.
Flash: a sudden rash of brutal murders by IT managers has shocked the country. Already strained relations between managers and tech workers exploded into violence in late December with news the "megabytes" are actually "mibibytes."
Just a little holiday fantasy, folks. Intended to be fictional and humorous. Neither character in any way represents real people, living or dead, and I am not in high school, so I believe it is still legal for me to write violent fantasies.
Cheers
-b
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
I stopped using "megabytes", for the much simpler honk system.. 13 bits to a honk, 43 honks in an ultrahonk, etc...
we should pronounce them "mibs"
MIBs are already taken, too.. by SNMP. Unless you pronounce them "emm eye bees".
Intelligent Life on Earth
emm eye bees?
Quick, call Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones!
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Amen, brother. Besides, the standard is power-of-two multiples. So, if people want to deviate from te standard, let them use a different word. I propose Mediabytes (1,000,000 bytes) and Greediabytes (a billion).
Likewise I would like a penny for every faulty URL, per copy. That would probably teach everyone that www.somewhe.re in itself is meaningless, or at least not an URL.
And will hard drive manufacturors decide to stop lying ...?
Wrong question: when will corporations stop lying? Answer: when it stops being (seemingly) lucrative.
Stefan.
The truth shall make you fret. (Ankh-Morpork tImes motto)
Instead of fixing the symptoms, we should address the underlying problem: our silly use of decimal numbers.
If we used base 8 like God intended (after all, He gave us 8 finger and 2 thumbs, not ten fingers!) this wouldn't be an issue.
As an extra benefit, the sudden conversion of account balances from decimal to octal numbers will be much need shot in the arm economically. Everyone will be richer! (or owe more money, but we can't all be winners unless we're competing in the Special Olympics.)
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
It's a power of zero.
Mega-ma-bytes
Giga-ma-bytes
Saxa-ma-phone
etc.
Is to coin a term based on the word 'bit':
1st: 'Bitches', this refers to 8 bits.
2nd: 'MegaBitches', Obviously, in oldschool terms this would be a Megabyte.
3rd: 'GigaBitches', following the entire byte-to-bitches theme, this would previously have been a Gigabyte.
Some suggested slang based on 'bits-n-bitches':
'Slap'N'ThemBitches', this is what you do when you add any amount of space (memory or harddrive) to your computer.
'StankBitches', bad RAM or a crappy harddrive.
'BadAssMofoBitches', this is any amount of space greater than what you have.
'UglyBitches', this is typically an embarrassingly small amount of space, so much so that you don't tell anyone that's how much you have.
Thanks to our so hip words, now your everyday average IT guy can have a conversation like this with his boss:
"Yo man, yesterday I found some UglyBitches over at the office, and yo, some of them were some StankBitches, yo! So I got rid of them StankBitches and got me some BadAssMofoBitches, and yo, I slap'n'themBitches early this morning. That shit was shweet!"
-- Dan
Quote: "Why not just call them "bibbity-bobbity-boo" bytes?"
Unfortunately Dragonball Z (Funimation) has already licensed the term "bibbity-bobbity-boo" from Disney for the naming of several bad guys.
.
Ummm, Jon, aren't you supposed to be dead...? - Otter(3800)
No, I've never seen anyone selling 40 gigabit hard drives.
TO BUY A NEW CAR WOULD MAKE YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE.
There's no difference in efficiency between mallocing 1048576 bytes and mallocing 1000000 bytse. Powers of 2 are useful for efficiency now only because they match multiples of the register size of the CPU (but 1000000 does that too).
Also, computers need not be based on powers of 2 anyway, so chaining everything to 2 is losing a level of abstraction (eg. quantum computers, ternary computers, EBCDIC computers (9 bits per byte), etc.)
What abbreviation do you use for "million bytes"?
The words sound like you're saying megabyte and gigabyte with an impediment. E.G. "Jar-Jay hassa a puter with 512 mebibytes ofa RAM ansa 60 gibibytes of hard drive." Say it to yourself and see...
STOP ROCK VIDEO
Breakfast served all day!
... about as well as Esperanto has.
No, I've never seen anyone selling 40 gigabit hard drives.
.... "NEW! 40Gb DRIVES! For the SAME PRICE as your crappy old 5GB drive!"
Oh, how quickly we forget....
Bytes = bits/8 (not accounting for ecc etc)
Equals 5 GigaBytes (in the proper sense of Giga)
5 gig drives were all the rage back in '95
Good thing the marketing droids didn't pick up on the confusion with B and b
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
Will people change their usage? Mebi, mebi not.
It's ok though, because W. will hold them off using the power of bacon and shrimp chips.
When I was able to do my own spam-armoring, you got a chance to email me. Now you can only hope I see your reply.