[MPlayer-users] Re: units: KB, KiB, KBit/s, MB, MiB, MBit/s, ...

[Jonathan Rogers]

Ryan Voots wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-08-27 at 08:22, Jonathan Rogers wrote:
>>zimon at iki.fi wrote:
>>
>>>Pop quiz: One minute of raw video at 800 Kbit/s will take X amount of memory
>>>when stored in raw format? X is...
>>>a) 6.00 MB
>>>b) 6.00 MiB
>>>c) 5.72 MB
>>>d) 5.72 MiB
>>
>>I think the answer is either "a" or "d". What do I win if I'm right? :)
>>
> 
> stupid marking people who changed it from 1024 to 1000, i always hated
> that, because everyone gets so confused when i use the correct (when
> dealing with fs's) 1024
> sorry just me ranting about nothing...

The prize is "stupid marking people?" ;) I certainly agree that the 
confusion between the conflicting definitions of the prefixes has been 
exploited for marketing purposes, which is reprehensible. However, it 
wasn't marketing people that changed 1024 to 1000. The metric/SI 
prefixes (kilo, mega, etc.) have been powers of ten for hundreds of years.

At some point in the last fifty years, somebody carelessly started using 
the same prefixes for powers of two. I'm sure the confusion we have 
today wasn't forseen or intended, but the new prefixes are an attempt to 
correct that blunder. If everyone starts using the new prefixes for 
their intended purpose, the SI prefixes can revert to their original 
meanings. I use the IEC prefixes because they promote more uniform usage 
and precision of terms, not because I'm proselytizing for the IEC or 
anyone else.

Jonathan Rogers