From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from lists.gentoo.org (pigeon.gentoo.org [208.92.234.80]) by finch.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 08AED1387FD for ; Sun, 30 Mar 2014 23:55:06 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id AD4ABE0AAB; Sun, 30 Mar 2014 23:54:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-ve0-f172.google.com (mail-ve0-f172.google.com [209.85.128.172]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 10F89E0AA7 for ; Sun, 30 Mar 2014 23:54:52 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-ve0-f172.google.com with SMTP id jx11so7677732veb.31 for ; Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:54:52 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject :from:to:content-type; bh=X1ajiYJcnEryySVK/wx/4oPIeXnK7tm4J33vgvcOFww=; b=DDwlWvizCxAtFeSqPIriupuuqhw+riU44om8Dst4wRsm4850hWwAnO6U0cfwM7vfp8 Tfxh1p+T5Oy6Ss83RSjsPdXWild6nlfcvnsr7dfPoWvyDW9C9Fw1+yHLtHKo575ysST/ fgtjX4sYwYRelnPtnQAdrSs0ZeC39fMWGeYt9mWeJgUDD1W4yidkvXcEI8yE06dKJeka paxPhHxdNnCll38sDwuZiBnvuyy0xInP0HRrrOJfePynn5o+zVlzYuGMjQoJ/koJMAUL hMgTu2GqUCPL1HBGrIUQCTdiQDUO4BVLhRA32BkMK2l8xQ8UNtdnyRm0TVj3Ugt52c8s lDpA== Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Project discussion list X-BeenThere: gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org Reply-To: gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.52.51.197 with SMTP id m5mr17095074vdo.9.1396223692386; Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:54:52 -0700 (PDT) Sender: freemanrich@gmail.com Received: by 10.52.29.142 with HTTP; Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:54:52 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <5338AC74.2070005@gmail.com> References: <53342A5F.70903@gentoo.org> <20140330103342.76108bfb@pomiot.lan> <20140330163513.3e4cab1a@googlemail.com> <20140330173143.7b541b00@googlemail.com> <5338AC74.2070005@gmail.com> Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 19:54:52 -0400 X-Google-Sender-Auth: A2jDqP7X9sTlMviwQrAds6LSj68 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-project] Call for agenda items - Council meeting 2014-04-08 From: Rich Freeman To: gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Archives-Salt: 52a4066e-51cb-4bb5-8765-8013f7894f7b X-Archives-Hash: f5161e8b8231141666da9afb8b5a4972 On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 7:44 PM, Douglas James Dunn wrote: > The system you are most familiar with really depends on what Operating > System you use. if you don't use computers you probably were exposed to > either the SI units or imperial base 10 units. SI units ARE in base 10. Most imperial units aren't in base 10, and the SI prefixes aren't generally used with imperial units. You don't usually report height in centiyards, etc. There seems to be some kind of misconception that this has something to do with imperial vs metric units. Bits and bytes are such a modern concept that they were pseudo-metric from the start, but programmers tended to use the SI prefixes in non-SI ways - defining a kilobyte as 1024 bytes. "Kilo" is an SI prefix, but the SI defines it as 1000, not 1024. The 1024-byte kilobyte was never metric or SI or imperial. Fairly recently JEDEC codified the 1024-byte kilobyte, but also endorsed the 1024-byte kibibyte, and the usage obviously predates that standard. Before then, programmers never really had a "standard" for the kilobyte. Since programmers don't tend to do a lot of compound units, getting their terms endorsed by a standards body was probably not much of a priority. If they had gone to the SI/ISO (or whatever was around in the 60s) they'd almost certainly have been shot down on having a 1024-byte kilobyte. Rich