GiB, KiB, MiB

[DR]

As you know, the way we now present data sizes is to use GiB and MiB instead of GB and MB. The reason for this is explained in a piece that Steve wrote.

So the reason for this post is to present a question to you.... Please vote in the poll and let us know what YOU think.

Although the way we do it is technically accurate, we are keen to know what you, the reader, thinks.

[Dareos]

I have to say that i was totally confuzzled and then some by that. Maths never was my strong point though

[DougMcDonald]

Makes sense, but it's just one of those industry standard things really.

I suppose the only reason that disk space is actually GB is so they can market a technically smaller drive as something bigger.

It's similar in other areas of life i suppose, my old car was a 1.8 engine, but technically it was only 1781.

Always the nature of business to use selective numbering the exaggerate a feature they wan't to oversell

[aidanjt]

I voted #1 because I understand what GiB is, and I understand it maybe for the better since it's an SI unit, but GB/MB/KB and so on were formed from long term experience with hardware and software interaction, computers don't operate on base10 principles, so it doesn't sit in SI's little world that everything is, it's all base16, and traditional numbering maps to that perfectly. The only real confusion comes from hardware folks using Gb and software folks using GB imho.

[malfunction]

Can we add another option to the poll:

"I understand it but you should add a paragraph to every article that states that all HDD manufacturers are lying, thieving gits"

?

[mallett]

Im perfectly happey with the whole MiB and KiB etc because i always just read it as how i have always thought of MB and KB, so makes no difference

[dangel]

Good luck converting the rest of the World to your way of thinking lol..

[Funkstar]

Yeah i understand it too, along with the fact the bandwidth is always Xb as opposed to XB for volume of data.

I agree with Malfunction too. All OSs count things properly, it's just a pain that storage manufacturers don't.

[Agent]

Keep it as it is - It educates people

[Lucio]

Don't really care, whatever Hexus chooses to use, as long as it's consistant it doesn't matter because all you're really doing with the reviews is comparing one number to another that are hopefully using the same units

[shaithis]

I am amazed that after all these years they are trying to change our way of thinking.....although it really doesn't make a huge difference at the end of the day....

The one that still makes me chuckle after all these years though is that half of a byte (i.e. 4 bits) is called a nibble

[kidzer]

The one that still makes me chuckle after all these years though is that half of a byte (i.e. 4 bits) is called a nibble

I was never sure if that one genuine or not, but it amuses me also

"you get a bit, a byte - which is 8 bits, and a nibble - a bit of a byte!" (yes, 4 'technically,' but it ruins the flow of the sentence saying that!)

[katana6434]

As long as it is consistent then you should use keep things as they are. At least it is technically correct.

[Clunk]

Looks fine to me.

[rox0r]

Meh, I'd just be happy if half the cretins out there would get the difference between Mb and Gb correct. Oh and at the same time the people who call hard drives 'memory' instead need a good slap. "What are the specs on your machine then?", "Oh yeah it's got err..a 120Gb memory" cuh

[Splash]

But your machine _does_ have 120Gb of memory, doesn't it?