Kilobytes and Variations
There has been so little attention paid to the problem that is the calculation of the size of the kilobyte.
I feel it is time someone fixed this across the world and made it illegal to use the incorrect name/size in software or on packaging.
Currently as it stands, a kilobyte is 1000 bytes (or 10^3).
Windows states that a kilobyte is 1024 bytes (or 2^10).
Officially, this is called a kibibyte.
The problem here is that many people have been brought up using Windows software and currently use the incorrect name for 1024 bytes. Kibibyte is in fact completely ignored by Windows as an appropriate name; Microsoft Office 2007 doesn't even consider it to be a word.
I suggest changing the two names over so that a Kilobyte is indeed 1024 bytes (or 2^10) and Kibibyte is 1000 bytes (or 10^3).
This should be the case for all SI and IEC numbers. Swap them all over and make hard drive manufacturers use the KiB symbol if they're going to carry on like that. This would solve a lot of problems.
Paul
Posted on Monday March 10 2008