Re: Types of numerals; bases in natlangs.

On 1/17/06, Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> wrote:
> I don't know what's "silly" about kibi- and mebi-,
I don't personally have any animosity toward the new prefixes; I don't
use them because in general I would not be understood by my peers if I
did.  Nevertheless, I can understand why many folks find them "silly".
  It's purely a subjective thing, but "kibi", thanks to the -/Ibi/
ending, sounds to a native Anglophone like baby talk rather than
technical jargon.  It's really almost cringe-inducing.  "Doesums want
more kibby-bytes innums widdle computer?"   In truth, it's the
reaction that's silly, but it's nevertheless a common one, and quite
automatic.

Philip Newton wrote:
> Or should we introduce a third reading of "megabyte" to indicate 1000
> * 1024 bytes, used only in reference to diskettes?
As I mentioned earlier, that use of "megabyte" is already out there,
as are analogous units at the giga-level.  Perhaps they originated by
determining capacity as multiples of a floppy's capacity?  In any
case, I never did like the base mixture and tended to refer to
floppies as having 1.4 MB - which is understood via rounding to refer
to the same thing while being equally valid - actually more valid -
for MB = 1024x1024 (since 1440K = 1.40625 of such MB).

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>