Why a kilobyte is 1000 and not 1024 bytes - eviltoast

I often find myself explaining the same things in real life and online, so I recently started writing technical blog posts.

This one is about why it was a mistake to call 1024 bytes a kilobyte. It’s about a 20min read so thank you very much in advance if you find the time to read it.

Feedback is very much welcome. Thank you.

  • λλλ@programming.dev
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    11 months ago

    kilobit = 1000 bits. Kilobyte = 1000 bytes.

    How is anything about that intellectually dishonest??

    The only ones being dishonest are the drive manufacturers, like the person above said. They sell storage drives by advertising them in the byte quantity but they’re actually in the bit quantity.

    • locuester@lemmy.zip
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      11 months ago

      They sell storage drives by advertising them in the byte quantity but they’re actually in the bit quantity.

      No, they absolutely don’t. That’d be off by 8x.

      The subject at hand has nothing to do with bits. Please, read what OP posted. It’s about 1024 vs 1000

    • wischi@programming.devOP
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      11 months ago

      Calling 1024 a kilo is intellectually dishonest. Your conversation is perfectly fine.