Re: Bad Metric ... 1k = 1024 or 1000?

[Paul Guertin <pg@sff.net>]

supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) wrote:

> It is easy to dismiss the matter as ignorance, but the fact is
> a "kilo" designation is defined as a "1000x" metric designation.
> The whole purpose of metric is to standardize measures.
> 1 kilometer (1km) is 1000 meters.  1 kilogram (1kg) is
> 1000 grams.  1 kilobyte (1kb) SHOULD be 1000 bytes as
> metrically defined.  But it is not metric.  It stands for 1024
> bytes.

Right, the byte is not a metric unit. I suppose a metric byte
should have 10 bits, like the ones used by Disk ][ drives for
synchronization.

The natural unit of information is the bit, anyway, not the byte,
but AFAIK it's not part of the metric system.

Paul