[USMA:36781] SI in computer file sizes

[Mike Millet]

Recently I was downloading a Linux distribution off Bittorrent and happened to notice that in the software I use for it there was an option to use SI units meaning KiB for Kilobyte and MiB for Megabyte instead of KB and MB. What I don't get is why it's not acceptable to use the KB or MB.  Wikipedia seems to indicate from this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte that either one is acceptable

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Just as a side note the file I'm downloading happens to be 4.7GiB :). It's going to take a while so I'll have plenty of time to stare at the number and ponder it.

Mike

--
"The boy is dangerous, they all sense it why can't you?"