Tim: >> And it doesn't stop there, either. Is one MB 1024 KB, or something >> else? People have different opinions about that, so it makes MB even >> more vague than KB. Toralf Lund: > Not really. People who say 1kb is 1024 bytes will also say that 1Mb is > 1024kb. They don't change their minds about the factors in the middle > of it all. Unfortunately, that only works if they're consistent (which not everybody is, and why we have this mess), and if you have such clues to fall back on. For instance, if they only ever mention the term MB, you don't know what they're referring to. There's only one example I can come up with that makes virtually useless use of the kilo prefix (and other multiplier prefixes), and that's in computing. Everything else is consistently the same: 10km = ten thousand metres 10kV = ten thousand Volts 10kg = ten thousand grams 10kB = something vague and useless As far as things like hard drive sizing goes, there's another side to the issue: A 10 gig drive, for instance, whatever you think the value of G might refer to, might well be a 10.246 gig drive, but the number was rounded down for simplicity sake. You really do need to list things in bytes if it's important to be precise. -- Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists.
