[Coco] kibibyte

[James Hrubik]

So, as we all know, a 512K CoCo has 0.5 ( 1/2 ) Kibibyte of memory  
( 524,288 bytes rather than 512,000 bytes ) and a 32K CoCo has  
0.03125  ( 1/32 ) Kibibyte of RAM ( 32,768 bytes rather than  
32,000 ).  Back when I was teaching the metric ( French ) system to  
our future leaders I was supposed to stress that use of the French  
system was MUCH simpler than use of English ( American ) units and  
that if the troglodytes would get out of the way and everyone would  
use the French system, all would be just peachy and nobody would have  
to use those ugly fractions ( I have a suspicion that ratios in  
France are legally only expressed in powers of ten, and that is why  
their economy is so messed up.  I can easily imagine their unions  
going for a wage or vacation time increase! ).

[The fact that the English units were just so handy and "human" was  
not supposed to matter, and that was in the days when the Ohio speed  
limit was 1.6 Km/minute ( today it is 1.47 Km/minute, and 1.73 Km/ 
minute in case you need to know how long it will take to get between  
exits on the Interstate ).   Good thing the signs are still in mph.   
<G>]

Now we have a situation where the binary mathematics do not want to  
conform to the French system either, so the solution is to throw mud  
in the water and tell everyone that life will be simpler that way,  
too.  It is a good thing they didn't try to mess up hex while they  
were at it, but maybe "oui" and "non" translate and hex ( "dix" is  
not "dix" if it follows "un-eff" ) is too complex for the French  
language.  Personally, I think that a lot of this is nothing more  
than some engineer with too much time on his hands exercising the  
Kukubytes within his skull.

And don't tell me that calling the French system "SI" is not a French  
plot to manipulate other people in the grand tradition of Cardinal  
Richelieu <G>.

Two bits, four bits, six bits, a byte.  Everyone for SI -- well, you  
finish the cheer.

On Aug 15, 2007, at 8:31 AM, Rogelio Perea wrote:

> I, for one, have more than heard about the IEC and it has been so  
> for years.
> Been heavily involved in ISO efforts and worked closely with the  
> ITU and
> IEEE while working in Mexico with matters that related to the  
> telephone
> company. Probably all these terms could sound 'Esperanto' to some but
> believe me they are not.
>
> I agree with the wikipedia entry (hence the IEC standard): the  
> ambiguity
> with which the term kilobyte has been used in the past has created  
> a rift on
> the appreciation of the real capacity of today's mass storage  
> media... back
> in the days of the CoCo (to put things in topic!) all this really  
> didn't
> matter... and still doesn't, that's part of the the charming beauty  
> of such
> vintage technology  :-)
>
>
> -=[ Rogelio ]=-
>
>
> On 8/15/07, Jim Hickle <jlhickle at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> "Kibibytes"  sounds like a brand of dog food.  Has anyone ever  
>> even heard
>> of the  "International Electrotechnical Commission"?  Are they the  
>> same
>> people who wanted us all to speak Esperanto back in the '60's ?
>
> --
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> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco

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