Editing 394: Kilobyte
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
| β | This comic pokes fun at the confusion over the definition of a kilobyte. Historically, 1024 bytes was called a kilobyte for convenience purposes (same with megabyte and gigabyte); this usage was frowned upon by both the {{w|International Bureau of Weights and Measures}} and the {{w|Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}}, but both let it slide as they had more important things to deal with. Later, hard drive manufacturers realized they could save money by selling hard drives marketed X amount of gigabytes and declare that they meant it as a literal 1 | + | This comic pokes fun at the confusion over the definition of a kilobyte. Historically, 1024 bytes was called a kilobyte for convenience purposes (same with megabyte and gigabyte); this usage was frowned upon by both the {{w|International Bureau of Weights and Measures}} and the {{w|Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}}, but both let it slide as they had more important things to deal with. Later, hard drive manufacturers realized they could save money by selling hard drives marketed X amount of gigabytes and declare that they meant it as a literal 1,000,000 bytes (a 7% difference). Despite its iffy origins, the official definition now states that 1 kilobyte is 1000 bytes, however some continue to use the older meaning referring to 1024. The first row of the table is simply mocking this discrepancy. |
The second row is Randall's interpretation on how {{w|Stan Kelly-Bootle}} would approach this problem. Kelly-Bootle is known for writing ''The Computer Contradictionary'', which satirizes the jargon and language of the computer industry. Kelly-Bootle was likely motivated to write this work after working for several years at IBM, a company infamous for its excessive use of acronyms in the work place. Averaging the two definitions together to get 1012 bytes is simply a humorous approach that Kelly-Bootle would likely have taken ("''Should array indices start at 0 or 1? My compromise of 0.5 was rejected without, I thought, proper consideration.''" β Stan Kelly-Bootle). The serendipitous fact that the initials of Kelly-Bootle's name are "KB," the same letters used to abbreviate the word "kilobyte," adds a layer of plausibility to the joke. This is the first of Randall's many humorous [[:category:Compromise|compromises]]. | The second row is Randall's interpretation on how {{w|Stan Kelly-Bootle}} would approach this problem. Kelly-Bootle is known for writing ''The Computer Contradictionary'', which satirizes the jargon and language of the computer industry. Kelly-Bootle was likely motivated to write this work after working for several years at IBM, a company infamous for its excessive use of acronyms in the work place. Averaging the two definitions together to get 1012 bytes is simply a humorous approach that Kelly-Bootle would likely have taken ("''Should array indices start at 0 or 1? My compromise of 0.5 was rejected without, I thought, proper consideration.''" β Stan Kelly-Bootle). The serendipitous fact that the initials of Kelly-Bootle's name are "KB," the same letters used to abbreviate the word "kilobyte," adds a layer of plausibility to the joke. This is the first of Randall's many humorous [[:category:Compromise|compromises]]. | ||
