Comments on: Why Your Computer Thinks Its Hard Drive Is Smaller Than the Manufacturer Claims http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/1279 Clear Answers to Common Computing Questions Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:37:30 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: купить картину http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/1279/comment-page-1#comment-22623 купить картину Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:57:05 +0000 http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/?p=1279#comment-22623 Круто, спасибо! ;) Круто, спасибо! ;)

]]> By: joco http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/1279/comment-page-1#comment-22314 joco Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:14:03 +0000 http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/?p=1279#comment-22314 A non-technical person may have no idea what a gibibyte is - and no one can blame them - but trying to explain the thing with an analogy with compound interest may help them. Just tell them to think about it as if it was a 1.024% interest. Gibibyte (and generally the bi thing) is useful indeed, because kilo cannot mean 1000 outside and 1024 inside ComputerLand. Kilo is 1000, period. A non-technical person may have no idea what a gibibyte is – and no one can blame them – but trying to explain the thing with an analogy with compound interest may help them. Just tell them to think about it as if it was a 1.024% interest.
Gibibyte (and generally the bi thing) is useful indeed, because kilo cannot mean 1000 outside and 1024 inside ComputerLand. Kilo is 1000, period.

]]> By: Of Zen and Computing http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/1279/comment-page-1#comment-20358 Of Zen and Computing Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:27:30 +0000 http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/?p=1279#comment-20358 Ross: According to Wikipedia, networking operates in multiples of 10 as well. I personally have no in-depth understanding of the actual arguments for and against, so I stuck to just the math for this piece. I agree with you though. Any time I am ever talking about file sizes, memory or storage capacity, I am thinking in powers of 2. To me, a 1 GB = 1,024 MB. Ross: According to Wikipedia, networking operates in multiples of 10 as well. I personally have no in-depth understanding of the actual arguments for and against, so I stuck to just the math for this piece.

I agree with you though. Any time I am ever talking about file sizes, memory or storage capacity, I am thinking in powers of 2. To me, a 1 GB = 1,024 MB.

]]> By: Ross http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/1279/comment-page-1#comment-20323 Ross Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:10:23 +0000 http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/?p=1279#comment-20323 Heh I actually fall into the "marketing people just want to screw us" camp :) It's ONLY hard drive manufacturers that think a GB is 1000MB. When you buy a 1GB RAM chip, you're getting 1024MB of RAM. When you buy a video card w/ 256MB of memory, you're getting 256MB memory. CPU memory caches, actual size. I understand that it might be tougher to sell a 465 when 500 sounds so much nicer, but it *is* inaccurate. Very easy to understand explanation though, now I have somewhere to send folks when they ask me this question :) Heh I actually fall into the “marketing people just want to screw us” camp :) It’s ONLY hard drive manufacturers that think a GB is 1000MB. When you buy a 1GB RAM chip, you’re getting 1024MB of RAM. When you buy a video card w/ 256MB of memory, you’re getting 256MB memory. CPU memory caches, actual size.

I understand that it might be tougher to sell a 465 when 500 sounds so much nicer, but it *is* inaccurate.

Very easy to understand explanation though, now I have somewhere to send folks when they ask me this question :)

]]> By: Insomnic http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/1279/comment-page-1#comment-20265 Insomnic Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:06:29 +0000 http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/?p=1279#comment-20265 It's nice to see an answer to this other than "marketing people just want to screw us". Thanks for providing the math. It’s nice to see an answer to this other than “marketing people just want to screw us”. Thanks for providing the math.

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