From the point of view of the computer (which is after all the one working in a base-2 environment), it doesn't matter. Computers don't require "shortened" versions of an exact large number to easily understand it. My computer is quite comfortable with the fact that it has 39,192,862,720 bytes free on my hard drive. The days when bit-shifting was significantly faster than division for once-off calculations like this are long gone, and at least now I'll be sure I have 39Gb available (give-or-take 0.192,862,720Gb). I won't have to reach for a calculator to decide that I only have 36.5Gib left.
Quick, how many bytes in one TiB? No calculators, now...
Slashdot Mirror
From the point of view of the computer (which is after all the one working in a base-2 environment), it doesn't matter. Computers don't require "shortened" versions of an exact large number to easily understand it. My computer is quite comfortable with the fact that it has 39,192,862,720 bytes free on my hard drive. The days when bit-shifting was significantly faster than division for once-off calculations like this are long gone, and at least now I'll be sure I have 39Gb available (give-or-take 0.192,862,720Gb). I won't have to reach for a calculator to decide that I only have 36.5Gib left.
Quick, how many bytes in one TiB? No calculators, now...