4 ms·

Google Math Bug? 1 MB in KB

8 points by aleem 12y ago

dragonwriter 12y ago
Not a bug: Google distinguishes between megabytes and mebibytes, and between kilobytes and kibibytes. See the difference between that and "1 MiB in KiB" [1] [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=1+MiB+in+KiB&cad=&oq=&gs_l= https://www.google.com/search?q=1+MiB+in+KiB&cad=&oq=&gs_l=
- aleem 12y ago
  Wow, I had no idea Kilobytes was redefined to 1024 bytes until I saw your response. > The kibibyte was designed to replace the kilobyte in some computer science contexts, where kilobyte used to mean 1024 bytes [1] I was aware of "kB vs kb" but Google doesn't differentiate between kb, kB and now as I have learnt, KiB. Still, it's news to me, I missed the news of kilobyte being redefined to 1000. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibibyte
  - 64mb 12y ago
    Google does, well sort of. It assumes all lowercase it in bytes kb = Kilobyte Kb = Kilobit KB = Kilobyte Also some other nice tricks: 100MB/s in GB/2 hours 5MB/s in Mb/s
opless 12y ago
Unfortunately around '99 "the powers that be" (NIST and IEC, if memory serves) decided to stop the confusion between SI units and (the usual) power-of-two usage. Now it's Xebibytes for power-of-two and regular SI units for the rest. It irks me no end, I'm a power-of-two person. But that's the way it is. (Also floppy disks had it wrong too 1024 * 1000 ... sigh) You might as well argue the usage of Crackers vs Hackers.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  Marketers had already for many years been leveraging the ambiguity to sell things in powers-of-1000 scale (SI uses of prefixes) knowing that much of the market would read them in the powers-of-1024 uses of the prefixes. While standardizing the marketing use as wrong might have been better in some senses, consistency with SI and providing a standard and unambiguous (if new and less familiar) set of prefixes for the useful powers-of-1024 scale was better the status quo at the time.
sahoo 12y ago
Yep Its kilo and kibi notation, nothing like a bug.

8 points by aleem 12y ago

Not a bug: Google distinguishes between megabytes and mebibytes, and between kilobytes and kibibytes. See the difference between that and "1 MiB in KiB" [1] [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=1+MiB+in+KiB&cad=&oq=&gs_l= https://www.google.com/search?q=1+MiB+in+KiB&cad=&oq=&gs_l=

aleem 12y ago
Wow, I had no idea Kilobytes was redefined to 1024 bytes until I saw your response. > The kibibyte was designed to replace the kilobyte in some computer science contexts, where kilobyte used to mean 1024 bytes [1] I was aware of "kB vs kb" but Google doesn't differentiate between kb, kB and now as I have learnt, KiB. Still, it's news to me, I missed the news of kilobyte being redefined to 1000. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibibyte
- 64mb 12y ago
  Google does, well sort of. It assumes all lowercase it in bytes kb = Kilobyte Kb = Kilobit KB = Kilobyte Also some other nice tricks: 100MB/s in GB/2 hours 5MB/s in Mb/s

opless 12y ago

Unfortunately around '99 "the powers that be" (NIST and IEC, if memory serves) decided to stop the confusion between SI units and (the usual) power-of-two usage. Now it's Xebibytes for power-of-two and regular SI units for the rest. It irks me no end, I'm a power-of-two person. But that's the way it is. (Also floppy disks had it wrong too 1024 * 1000 ... sigh) You might as well argue the usage of Crackers vs Hackers.

dragonwriter 12y ago
Marketers had already for many years been leveraging the ambiguity to sell things in powers-of-1000 scale (SI uses of prefixes) knowing that much of the market would read them in the powers-of-1024 uses of the prefixes. While standardizing the marketing use as wrong might have been better in some senses, consistency with SI and providing a standard and unambiguous (if new and less familiar) set of prefixes for the useful powers-of-1024 scale was better the status quo at the time.

sahoo 12y ago

Yep Its kilo and kibi notation, nothing like a bug.