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25 new of 122 responses total.
ball
response 83 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 00:38 UTC 2006

Apparently the International Electrotechnical Commission
(whoever they are) want us to use "Ki" in place of K for
1,024.  Computer people have been using K for 1,024 for a
very long time though.
ball
response 84 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 00:39 UTC 2006

Re #81: 1K = 1,024   1k = 1,000.
ball
response 85 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 00:39 UTC 2006

Erm, that was Re #82 ;-)
cross
response 86 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 00:41 UTC 2006

Regarding #84; You know, I've never heard that before.  Like I said, do you
have a citation?
ball
response 87 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 00:43 UTC 2006

I'll have a rummage for one.
cross
response 88 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 00:44 UTC 2006

This is interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibibit

They seem to use ``Kib'' or ``Kibit'' (with a capital K) instead of ``Kbit''
or ``Kb.''  They do acknowledge that ``kilobit'' can be either 2^10 or 10^3
depending on context.
cross
response 89 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 00:48 UTC 2006

This is also interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix

Note that they say that in the SI system, `K' (capitalized) stands for Kelvin,
as a unit of temperature, and `k' (lowercase) only stands for `kilo.'  They
say that outside of SI, K and k are mostly interchangable, and can refer to
either 2^10 or 10^3, as I had originally said.  To wit:

'The one-letter abbreviations are identical to SI prefixes, except for "K",
which is used interchangeably with "k" (in SI, "K" stands for the kelvin, and
only "k" stands for 1,000).'

However, they do say that as of 2005, the binary meanings are deprecated.
ball
response 90 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 00:53 UTC 2006

k (as a multiplier prefix) should only ever be used to mean
1,000.  Everywhere I've ever worked or studies, K has been
capitalised to differentiate it from k.  Telecomms people
talk in terms of kbits/sec, and mean 1,000 bits.  Computer
people talk in Kbytes and mean 1,024.  It's not rocket
science ;-)
ball
response 91 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 00:58 UTC 2006

Here's an example of K from a PDP-11 manual...
http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2005/pdp11/pdp11-40-000009.html
ball
response 92 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 01:12 UTC 2006

Here's a KIM-1 manual from 1976...
http://users.telenet.be/kim1-6502/6502/usrman.html
mcnally
response 93 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 01:12 UTC 2006

 re #90:  You're right that "it's not rocket science", but
 it's not universally or consistently applied, either, which
 means making assumptions based on the use of "k" or "K" is
 dangerous if you need better than approximate numbers.
ball
response 94 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 01:16 UTC 2006

It's been consistently applied in my experience, but it's
true that a few people don't use it correctly.
ball
response 95 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 01:21 UTC 2006

Take a random sample of computer manuals, text books (I hope
they're right!) or EPROM / SRAM data sheets.  K = 1,024 is a
long-standing convention.
cross
response 96 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 01:55 UTC 2006

Yes, but you were talking specifically about K = 1024 and k = 1000, and in
neither of the two references that you posted can I find such a distinction.
Everyone knows that most computer manuals refer to K as 2^10 = 1024.  Your
claim was that they also refer to k as 1000, which is not universal, and in
fact, is a convention I've never heard of before, and is not supported by your
evidence.

If telecom people refer to kbits as 1000 bits, that's great, but what McNally
says is true: if you want to be exact, you've really got to specify.
ball
response 97 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 02:01 UTC 2006

k is 1,000 because of S.I.  (km, kg, kW etc.)  It's only
necessary to specify because some people seem underinformed.
cross
response 98 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 02:06 UTC 2006

*sigh*  It's not being underinformed, Andy, it's recognizing that standards
aren't universally followed.  I don't know how to explain it better than that.
Really, though, it's true: not everyone follows the same standards.
ball
response 99 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 05:20 UTC 2006

Never mind.  Let's talk about wireless networking.  My next
wireless networking task is to find a PCI 802.11g adaptor
that works with NetBSD.  This could take a while.
keesan
response 100 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 18:29 UTC 2006

How are you searching, in BSD online discussions?
ball
response 101 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 18:58 UTC 2006

I'll probably start with the man pages for common device
drivers such as ath(4) and perhaps wi(4).  Hopefully I'll be
able to find a card that has an appropriate chipset.
keesan
response 102 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 19:20 UTC 2006

There are lists of linux-compatible pcmcia cards.  Why don't you search on
BSD PCI wireless?
ball
response 103 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 22 23:06 UTC 2006

The man pages that I mentioned include lists of cards that
are supposed to work.  Sadly some manufacturers will change
the chipset in a product without changing the model number
so it can be something of a lottery.
gull
response 104 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 23 03:25 UTC 2006

Re resp:75: My impression is that the computer world pretty universally 
used K=1,024 until marketing types realized they could put a bigger 
number on hard disk packages if they used K=1000.  For a while they 
tried to avoid confusion (and presumably false advertising claims) by 
using the phrase "million bytes" instead of "megabytes."
ball
response 105 of 122: Mark Unseen   Dec 23 03:32 UTC 2006

I never saw them use K=1,000, but I did see them use
M=1,000,000 which makes sense in the context of S.I.  They
could have excusably used k=1,000 but I never saw that
either.
ball
response 106 of 122: Mark Unseen   Jan 20 01:51 UTC 2007

I now have a D-Link DWL-G510 802.11g PCI wireless network
adaptor working under NetBSD-current.
keesan
response 107 of 122: Mark Unseen   Jan 20 02:00 UTC 2007

What module(s) and what else did you need to do?
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