On Mon, 22 Jan 2007, Tony Foiani wrote: > >>>>> "Jan" == Jan Engelhardt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Jan> For "F"s sake, when you gotta use abbreviations, then just use > Jan> k=1000 and K=1024 already, b for bits and B for bytes. Problem > Jan> gone. > > The one-letter abbreviations are identical to SI prefixes, except > for "K", which is used interchangeably with "k" (in SI, "K" stands > for the kelvin, and only "k" stands for 1,000). > > [...] > > BIPM (which maintains SI) expressly prohibits the binary prefix > usage, and recommends the use of the IEC prefixes as an alternative > (computing units are not included in SI). > > Some have suggested that "k" be used for 1,000, and "K" for 1,024, > but this cannot be extended to the higher order prefixes and has > never been widely recognised. > -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix > > So if you continue insisting that "MB" is really 2^20 bytes, you're > flouting the SI in at least two ways.
The use of SI is not even accepted on bytes. See <URL:http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_8_en.pdf>. Therefore "MB" is undefined in the SI world, and 2^20 B in the IT world. > I'd expect that from an USAian, > not a German. ;-> (To be clear, I *am* a USAian, and I really > desperately wish this country were metric...) I'd even prefer decimal hours, minutes and seconds. > Some other gems from that article that haven't been covered in this > thread: > > * CD-Rs are generally specified in MiB, but DVD-Rs in GB > * CPU clocks are given in decimal Hz is a supplementary SI unit. -- "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/