We are under attack

Re:We are under attack by MichaelGG on Thursday March 19, 2015 @05:53PM (#9234850)

I was unaware they had a monopoly on language usage. A byte is not an SI unit. Base2 is vastly more defensible and natural than base10. The real issue is that everyone in networking likes round base10 numbers divided over some arbitrary cesium fluctuations. This leads to 1GB / 1Gbps not being 8 seconds, which is confusing. But in JEDEC's and others defense: "why should I have to change, he's the one that sucks."

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Re:We are under attack by bsder on Thursday March 19, 2015 @07:17PM (#9235230)

The real problem is that mega/giga/tera/peta have well established uses meaning "factor or 10" for EVERYBODY except people talking about memory.

Disk space even obeys this now even though it was only done by marketing so they could reduce the amount bits delivered while charging the same.

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Re:We are under attack by creshal on Friday March 20, 2015 @08:29AM (#9237230)

Trick question: How many bytes are in a 1.44MB floppy? In a 700MB CD? A 4GB USB stick? And a 480GB SSD? How many bytes/s bandwidth for 10Gb Ethernet?

I can't understand how people can be so delusional to think that randomly redefining prefixes is a good idea. It was never, ever used consistently, and JEDEC just should get rid of this idiocy.

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Re:We are under attack by bsder on Friday March 20, 2015 @08:51PM (#9241479)

Trick question in return: I'm selling a 256GB SSD. How many bytes am I legally required to deliver?

This is why there is a need for the two different prefixes. If I am selling a 256GiB SSD and you are selling a 256GB SSD, those are now differentiable on their face.

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Re:We are under attack by JohnHaugeland on Thursday March 19, 2015 @08:02PM (#9235466)

Because the "he" in question is the relevant standards authority.

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Re:We are under attack by MichaelGG on Thursday March 19, 2015 @08:49PM (#9235645)

The IEEE and/or SI are in charge of language? The same IEEE that sends car insurance offers to its members, just so we're clear. JEDEC is also a standards group, and they disagree. What now, a Wikipedia editing war to determine the victor?

Standards bodies aren't anything magical, and I don't get the slavish following they seem to get. So an RFC says something, or another group mandates something. BFD. Unless you're expecting interop to work, use standards as you see fit. They aren't an ends unto themselves.

In this case "GB", when referring to RAM is unambiguous. Only disingenuous cloud providers or petty editors would use a base 10 interpretation.

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Re:We are under attack by tormeh on Friday March 20, 2015 @05:32AM (#9236790)

Sorry for going all ed on you, but SI is THE standard for measurements and measurement prefixes. And that's the end of the story.

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