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

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Masterkit <masterkit@mediaone.net> wrote:

>Forget all that nitpicking.   If you know the difference, that's good enough.
>For anyone who really thinks a k is 1000 bytes, you're wasting your time on
>them.  They're decimal-only types.  They can't fathom binary and hex would be
far
>beyond their limits, as they can only count on ten fingers and they probably
find
>that challenging.

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.

Then why did the computer folks start using the kilo
designation in the first place?  This is not a "well they
don't know a thing about binary or hex" matter.  It is a
matter of definition.  Kilo means one thousand of
something.