Hi, Sounds like more mindless PC stuff to me. That Computer scientist
count in binary , is no mindless accident. The terms binary digits or
bits and bytes a group of 8 bits was coined back in the 1940's as well
as octal. A term first used for 8 pin vacuum tubes (or valves). While
hex came into use in the late 1950's/ early1960's. All quite straight
forward and understandable as digital hardware, from tube to LSI counts
in 1s and 0s. And ithe terminology was derived by practical and
practicing Electronic Engineers by the application of good sound common
and not by some faceless mindless obfuscation PC "committee". Also the
adoption of kilobytes for 1024 and M or 1024x1024, follows from the
intrinsic nature of the binary scales. Thus I suggest it is not
illiteracy but knowledge that produced and will perpetuate this
terminology. I also venture it is those who would interfere who lack
knowledge. Once upon a time "standards" [when they were written in
California and Cambridge, by on the job engineers/scientists where about
clarification. Now they are about obfuscation and the stupidities of the
PC morons. The sooner this SI is given the "deep six" the better. Common
sense says it will be ignore, while real engineers get on with real
engineering.
paul at clubi.ie wrote:
> On Thu, 1 May 2008, James McBoyle wrote:
>>> While the original language meanings may differ, computing has been
>> built around the names having base two as their base. Customers are
>> right to get angry with people about this (I know this has been
>> something I've been arguing about since I got my first winchester
>> drive) and should demand things be marked correctly.
>> The disk drive vendors have done this since year dot. You can't really
> blame them for the stupidity of computer scientists and (even worse)
> *engineers* co-opting existing terminology in incompatible ways.
>> The only sane change that can be demanded is to adopt new and
> unambigious prefixes for the (2^10)^n ones. (And for the bike-shed
> objectors to the chosen prefixes: too late, tough).
>> regards,
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