> Ted hates the new MiB/KiB system of base-2 units, and for whatever reasons like the previous more ambiguous system of confusingly mixed base-10/base-2 units of MB/Mb/mb/KB/Kb/kb
Here's my best argument for the binary prefixes: Say you have a cryptographic cipher algorithm that processes 1 byte per clock cycle. Your CPU is 4 GHz. At what rate can your algorithm process data? It's 4 GB/s, not 4 GiB/s.
This stuff happens in telecom all the time. You have DSL and coaxial network connections quantified in bits per second per hertz. If you have megahertz of bandwidth at your disposal, then you have megabits per second of data transfer - not mebibits per second.
Another one: You buy a 16 GB (real GB) flash drive. You have 16 GiB of RAM. Oops, you can't dump your RAM to flash to hibernate, because 16 GiB > 16 GB so it won't fit.
Clarity is important. The lack of clarity is how hundreds of years ago, every town had their own definition of a pound and a yard, and trade was filled with deception. Or even look at today with the multiple definitions of a ton, and also a US gallon versus a UK gallon. I stand by the fact that overloading kilo- to mean 1024 is the original sin.
> Another one: You buy a 16 GB (real GB) flash drive. You have 16 GiB of RAM. Oops, you can't dump your RAM to flash to hibernate, because 16 GiB > 16 GB so it won't fit.
Right but the problem here is that RAM is produced in different units than storage. It seems strictly worse if your 16GB of RAM doesn't fit in your 16GB of storage because you didn't study the historical marketing practices of these two industries, than if your 16 GiB of RAM doesn't fit in your 16 GB of storage because at least in the second case you have something to tip you off to the fact that they're not using the same units .
Here's my best argument for the binary prefixes: Say you have a cryptographic cipher algorithm that processes 1 byte per clock cycle. Your CPU is 4 GHz. At what rate can your algorithm process data? It's 4 GB/s, not 4 GiB/s.
This stuff happens in telecom all the time. You have DSL and coaxial network connections quantified in bits per second per hertz. If you have megahertz of bandwidth at your disposal, then you have megabits per second of data transfer - not mebibits per second.
Another one: You buy a 16 GB (real GB) flash drive. You have 16 GiB of RAM. Oops, you can't dump your RAM to flash to hibernate, because 16 GiB > 16 GB so it won't fit.
Clarity is important. The lack of clarity is how hundreds of years ago, every town had their own definition of a pound and a yard, and trade was filled with deception. Or even look at today with the multiple definitions of a ton, and also a US gallon versus a UK gallon. I stand by the fact that overloading kilo- to mean 1024 is the original sin.