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Even if we can't can we think of better names? "kibibyte" sounds like a dog treat not a unit of measurement.

IshKebab 2y ago
I agree. I don't care how technically correct they are if I sound like an idiot when I'm saying it. The best I've seen is just to have the base as a subscript, like `kB_2` (2 is subscript) or `kB_10`. Though in practice I have yet to come across a situation where the difference a) matters and b) isn't clear from the context.
- viraptor 2y ago
  You're just used to the common prefixes. Kibi is not any weirder than yotta, pico, or deci. They all sound silly if you think about it - so we just don't.
  - IshKebab 2y ago
    No it definitely is silly. Mebi is even worse.
    - newzisforsukas 2y ago
      No, its definitely not silly. Why make comments like this? I'll take the repercussions, but passing judgement on language by how things sound is doodoo behavior.
      - robxorb 2y ago
        Not really. It's important for introduced language to sound appealing and appropriate for its use, or it will fail to catch on. If Apple has called the iPhone the gibiFon it'd have been far less likely to turn into the success it was.
        sabbaticaldev 2y ago
        this implies that Android is as good of a name as iphone and that’s not true. It could be called gibifon and it would be the same
        viraptor 2y ago
        Do you not remember all the people making fun of eye-phone? And all the sanitary pad memes for iPad? There were so many people who thought those were silly - they got over it with time.
jdougan 2y ago
I always wanted to use Knuth's proposal of prefixing the base 2 variety with "long", analogous to tons. eg. Long Kilobytes, LKB or KKB
Terr_ 2y ago
Another route might be inspiration from exponential math notation. Traditional kilo/mega/giga/tera-bytes are just 2 to the power of 10, 20, 30, 40, etc. So perhaps a terabyte could be a "bin fourty", or a "two-to-fourty", etc. (Although as it linguistically relaxes into Tootafortie, it'll sound goofy too.)
- SSLy 2y ago
  doesn't work for non english languages
  - Terr_ 2y ago
    What a vague and bizarre complaint. You're saying that units-of-10 in English (and using Arabic numerals) will "not work" for other languages, when the international status-quo we're complaining about is already powers-of-1000 in Greek which are then mutated with Latin? Why do you think there's a (new) problem?

I agree. I don't care how technically correct they are if I sound like an idiot when I'm saying it. The best I've seen is just to have the base as a subscript, like `kB_2` (2 is subscript) or `kB_10`. Though in practice I have yet to come across a situation where the difference a) matters and b) isn't clear from the context.

viraptor 2y ago
You're just used to the common prefixes. Kibi is not any weirder than yotta, pico, or deci. They all sound silly if you think about it - so we just don't.
- IshKebab 2y ago
  No it definitely is silly. Mebi is even worse.
  - newzisforsukas 2y ago
    No, its definitely not silly. Why make comments like this? I'll take the repercussions, but passing judgement on language by how things sound is doodoo behavior.
    - robxorb 2y ago
      Not really. It's important for introduced language to sound appealing and appropriate for its use, or it will fail to catch on. If Apple has called the iPhone the gibiFon it'd have been far less likely to turn into the success it was.
      - sabbaticaldev 2y ago
        this implies that Android is as good of a name as iphone and that’s not true. It could be called gibifon and it would be the same
      - viraptor 2y ago
        Do you not remember all the people making fun of eye-phone? And all the sanitary pad memes for iPad? There were so many people who thought those were silly - they got over it with time.

jdougan 2y ago

I always wanted to use Knuth's proposal of prefixing the base 2 variety with "long", analogous to tons. eg. Long Kilobytes, LKB or KKB

Terr_ 2y ago

Another route might be inspiration from exponential math notation. Traditional kilo/mega/giga/tera-bytes are just 2 to the power of 10, 20, 30, 40, etc. So perhaps a terabyte could be a "bin fourty", or a "two-to-fourty", etc. (Although as it linguistically relaxes into Tootafortie, it'll sound goofy too.)

SSLy 2y ago
doesn't work for non english languages
- Terr_ 2y ago
  What a vague and bizarre complaint. You're saying that units-of-10 in English (and using Arabic numerals) will "not work" for other languages, when the international status-quo we're complaining about is already powers-of-1000 in Greek which are then mutated with Latin? Why do you think there's a (new) problem?