Re: GB vs. MB

smwong@cs.cuhk.hk
Thu, 28 Nov 1996 21:45:56 +0800 (HKT)

> "Leonard N. Zubkoff writes"
> |>
> |> Let's face it -- the original fault with KB/MB is in using the same prefixes
> |> that already had definitions for a different purpose. The scientific community
> |> has used K for kilo = 1000 and M for mega = 1000000 for quite a long time.
>
> Leonard,
>
> you are slightly incorrect this time... To do my daily nitpicking, it was
> the prefix "k", not "K" that was (and still is) used for 10^3. Capital K
> was introduced by computing for 2^10. Unfortunately there is no way to
> further capitalize a capital M ...
> Same way we have to distinguish "B" and "b" for transfer rates...
> Just my $0.00 worth.
> --
> Steffen Grunewald | email steffen@gfz-potsdam.de | fax (+49)-331-8877 520

However, "K" stands for Kelvin in the science community! And the use of
"K" to represent temperature should be a long way before we use
computer, so, IMO, KB is even more awful than kb, let alone the 1024 vs
1000 war.

Personally, I prefer the standard usage of p, n, u, m, c, d, k, M, G in
the decimal (physics') sense, coz' it's established longer.

Just for joking, how about to subscript, like k , M , G , etc. for binary
2 2 2
kilo, mega and giga, coz' we use that system to represent the base in
log, like log , log , etc.
2 e

My 2 cents.

-- 
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Stephen Siu Ming Wong     Internet: stephenwong@cuhk.edu.hk   [ O O ]
Dept of Computer Science              smwong@cs.cuhk.edu.hk    \_-_/
Chinese University of                                          _| |_
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