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Re: [Phys-l] Standards (Was: decibels)



http://xkcd.com/394/


On Aug 29, 2011, at 12:21 PM, John Clement wrote:

One of my favorite confusions is the kB standard of lack of it. The
computer community has been accustomed to using k=1024 in defiance of ISO.
This has the interesting result of deflating advertised sizes. But they do
use proper ISO usage with respect to HZ. There is an IEEE standard that
comes up with a modified prefix ki or kibi (sounds like pet food!) and
similar stanard for Mi, Gi which correspond to the current uses of M and G
in CS and advertising.

This usage is sometimes being used, but confusion still reigns as operating
systems and their programs often use either k for 1024 or k for 1000. In
addition the IEEE standard apparently uses B for byte, but the SI
abbreviation should only be capitalized when the unit is a proper name.

So if you have some files that you want to put onto a particular medium, the
size specifications may not allow you to judge properly depending on how the
sizes were quoted.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX



But, then - that's the glory of 'Standards'. We have soooo many of
'em to choose among ;-).

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