Gigabyte Confusion
Following up on RAM Makers to
Blame for MB and GB Confusion, Tim Larson writes:
Dan Knight wrote:
We've had RAM measured in KB in personal computers
since 1975 or so. Hard drives started coming into their own about
five years later. Modern hard drives commonly have 512 byte sectors
(not a nice decimal number like 500), so it's obvious that hard
drive makers are familiar with binary math.
I'm sure there was a convenience at one time to read a
"memory-sized chunk" from a drive, so using units driven by binary
math made sense. But, unlike with main memory, there is absolutely
nothing that requires drives to be a multiple of a power of 2.
Since hard drives are always used with operating
systems, their advertised capacity should be what those operating
systems report. Giga may mean 1,000,000,000 in the decimal world,
but in the world of computers, GB means 1,073,741,824 bytes.
Therein lies the problem. "Giga" has a well-defined meaning that
predates this incorrect use in the computing industry.
Drive makers should be required to advertise
numbers consistent with the rest of the industry. Maybe the best
solution would be to do what Apple does with Disk Utility, which is
to report the capacity in binary GB followed by the actual number
of bytes in parentheses).
Or, more simply, just use decimal GB throughout the industry -
that is, why leave the computing industry in a bizarre parallel
universe where kilo- does not mean 1000? Completely avoid all the
confusion created by binary interpretations of metric prefixes.
I've always seen the term "kilobyte" (speaking of 1024 bytes) to
be a descriptor of convenience, not a normative. I'm sure the early
engineers who used it thought the same. If they thought their use
would someday fragment metric definitions, being good engineers,
they probably would have come up with kibi-, mebi-, and gibi- on
their own.
Tim (self-avowed math/computing geek :)
Hi Tim,
I'm a self-avowed math, science, and computing
geek myself, but I have no problem with a system where M means a
million meters or liters or Watts - yet it means 1,048,576 when
counting bytes.
In the computer industry, 1,024 is normative when
measuring RAM or reporting storage space, not 1,000. Why? Probably
because memory chips are invariably a power of 2. Rather than
explaining where the "extra 24 bytes" came from, it was probably
simpler to adapt the metric names and label it a kilobyte.
I agree that it would have been less confusing if
they'd come up with a different naming convention, but we've been
using this for over 30 years in the world of personal computing. I
can't see KiB, MiB, GiB, and TiB catching on any more that I expect
to see the world use AD properly (before the year) or make
the switch from BC to the BCE that some now prefer.
Heck, I live in a country where the metric system
remains a mystery to most. Outside of buying a 2 liter bottle of
soda, most of us in the States are hopelessly mired in the quaint,
antiquated, confusing English system of weights and measures where
there are two liquid ounces (US and British) and two weight ounces
(Troy and avoirdupois). I don't know exactly what a cubic inch is,
but we used it for generations to measure engine displacement. How
does a 3.0 liter engine compare to a 318? The average consumer here
doesn't have a clue.
Even the rocket scientists at NASA have problems
working with the rest of the world because we continue to use a
system of threes and twelves and eights and quarters.
Compared to that, remembering that a KB is 1024
bytes is easy. The problem comes when someone insists that kilo-,
mega-, giga-, and tera- can only mean one thing.
Dan
Wanted: A White Keyboard with Big Letters
Franklin Warren writes:
To Whom:
Why is it that all keyboard mfgs cannot make a keyboard that is
fully Mac compatible with large characters and numerals on the
keys. I have bought several keyboards that had this feature but
they were not fully compatible. Some of the consumers out here are
getting old and have cataracts and macular degeneration going on as
I do and it would seem to me that some mfg would realize that most
folks would not give a tinkers damn if the there was a size
increase in the keys characters! Also why do they keep with black?
Black is the most idiotic color to make on a keyboard. Don't people
that design them know anything about light?
Thanks,
Frank
Hi Frank,
Another good reason for leanring touch typing -
albeit undoubtedly too late for a good portion of the
population.
Apple has been building keyboard with white keys
on and off for several years, and their new aluminum keyboards do
have white keys. They also require Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later.
Matias also
makes white keyboards.
As for compatability, what problems are you
running into with the other keyboards? And what version of the Mac
OS are you using?
Dan
Hi Dan,
At 81 and headed towards 82 in a hurry I don't think touch
typing is for me. I did try for a while and find that my fingers
are so big it is useless as I am always hitting two keys at
once.
I am using 10.4.10 O/S. I looked the internet over and thus far
have found some places that make large letter keyboards and have
bought four of them in the past and been disappointed in them and
go back to the white Apple keyboard I am now on. I had one I really
liked except that the hot keys did not work on it and did not have
the eject button, etc. but the keys were large and yellow with
large black letters and I could see it well. I gave it to a buddy
of mine that has those miserable PC's that I despise. I have gone
through around 13 complete Apple systems in over twenty years and
most likely have spent around $150,000.00 on computer stuff during
that period. Apple has never learned how to advertise and appears
never will so I quit trying to educate them on that score. If their
competition hasn't been paying their ad dept's salary they should
have! Apple should be the one with the most sales but as I said
they never learned how to tell people what they had. Even so if
they had left Power Computing alone and let them sell their
computers they would have eventually had a huge base of owners that
would have had no place to go except back to Apple if they then
wanted to pull the O/S back from Power Computing. Now that someone
had the brains to put Intel chips and allow both O/S to run why
would anyone want to buy a PC?
The white keys I like as you can see them they reflect! Black is
the absence of color and when I look at their black keyboards all I
see is black and cannot se the letters. Had to buy at $20.00 a shot
two PC large stick ons and use them of what I could on the Mac and
they don't stay well and came off so quit that! In case no one has
mentioned it to you Dan, getting old is not for wimps! (Grin)
Thanks for the expeditious comback,
Frank
Frank,
Thanks for sharing the additional information.
Using Google, I've found the Key Monster keyboard, which is
available in black, white, yellow, and rainbow colors. The letters
on the key caps are huge. The big drawback is that I can't find
anyone outside of the UK who carries it. It sells for about
£65 plus shipping, which could get costly going over the
pond.
You should be able to use Keyboard Shortcuts in
Keyboard & Mouse in the Control Center to redefine any keys
that aren't doing what you want them to.
I'll see if any readers can locate a similar
keyboard in North America.
Dan
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the info. I appreciate your efforts. I am rather
curious about why the boards have changed the position of the
option and command keys. Most of the ones I have found on the net
have left off the numeric keys among other features on a lot of
them. Is it a copyright or patent thing?
Yeah I had pulled up a UK one once and realized it was in pounds
and knew the cost would be high to get it here, plus the fact that
it is costly to start with, considering the exchange rate.
I suppose that the mfg's consider this like they do orphan
diseases, not worth the effort. I am an old retired Navy Chief
Aviation Electronics Technician, and the WWII Vets are dying off at
the rate of 2000 a day, so we will all be gone soon. Don't much
like the world I see today anyway, so I am glad I am on the way
out!
Thanks Dan,
Frank
Frank,
The placement of option and command keys on most
keyboards is the way Windows users expect it. Mac OS X 10.4
even has a provision for remapping these keys when using a Windows
keyboard so they're where Mac users expect them to be.
I don't know of any copyright or patent on
extended keyboard layout. Leaving off the numeric keypad may be one
way to keep size and costs down.
Dan
Poor Advice about Upgrading from a Performa
6300
Mr. Knight.
Regarding the letter you
received and printed on your website today (Aug 20, 2007) about
upgrading a performa 6300. The writer
made specific mention that he is barely computer literate, so I
have to wonder why you gave him such an intimidating set of
instructions for upgrading his machine. I'm very computer literate,
and when I looked at your instructions my first thought was: yeah,
I can do that, but what a pain in the butt.
Why not simply recommend he purchase a used G3 iMac from
Baucom Computers for
$50 or from one of the LEM lists. I'm sure the MicroCenter tech
referred him to your site because it would be a good place to find
out where to get a machine that meets his minimum technology
needs (support for USB printers) not for a complex set of
instructions on adding PCI cards (where's he going to buy one?)
installing a newer OS (where's he going to get one?), swapping out
hard drives (how do I open the case?), etc. The guy doesn't want
that hassle. He wants to take his 6300 to MicroCenter with a
computer that meets his new needs and have them transfer his files
and recommend a printer he can buy, all on a budget.
Sometimes I think that even Mac users aren't immune from the
"but I can save money if I do it myself" PC mentality.
Best Regards,
Frederick Goff
Frederick,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I read Fred
Parker's letter as telling me he is satisfied with his Performa
6300 but frustrated that he can't buy a new printer for it. My
suggestion was that he pick up a Performa 6360, which will work
just like his current computer (but faster), accept any cards in
his 6300 (such as a video card or TV tuner), and allow him to
retain his files while gaining USB.
Unless his Performa has ethernet, which is highly
unlikely, there's no easy way to transfer data between it and an
iMac. The two computers don't share a data port in common. Worse
yet, the G3 iMac comes with a that horrid round hockey-puck mouse
and that odd original Apple USB
keyboard. I wouldn't wish them on anyone - and buying a decent
mouse and keyboard only adds to the cost of moving to an iMac.
I've been in and out of computers since the Apple
II+ era, and I don't understand why people are intimidated by them.
They're just parts plugged together. It's not like a car engine.
With a little patience, anyone can upgrade RAM, replace a hard
drive, add an expansion card to almost any computer. (iMacs, eMacs,
and Mac minis being the exception to the rule.)
If Mr. Parker isn't comfortable with the steps I
outlined, I'm sure he could pay a neighborhood kid $10 to do the
whole thing for him. Far better than paying MicroCenter to put
together a network with a LocalTalk bridge or putting the
Performa's hard drive in a FireWire enclosure to move the data.
Dan
Thanks for sharing your reasoning. I guess there's just not
enough information in his email to give him the best advice, since
we both read it and came away with completely different
conclusions. I read his primary concern as keeping it as simple as
possible while letting him get a new printer. You read it as his
primary concern being able to maintain the identical computing
experience while getting a new printer. The best advice is probably
for Mr. Parker to decide what is most important to him. After all,
if it's just getting a printer, there are places he can go to get
printers that will work with his Performa.
Frederick,
Yes, that's one of the things we have to deal with
- trying to determine what the end user really needs. Based on my
experience with old printers, I'd rather see him get a modern
printer. Supplies will also be easier to find.
Dan
G3 All-in-One Problem
Brian Bettenhausen writes:
Dan,
I didn't know who else to ask; I've been searching on the Net
for days trying to figure this issue out. I have a G3 All in One. The display doesn't come on,
and it appears the power supply is clicking. Any suggestions on
links to point me to for repair or replacement parts?
Thanks in advance!
Brian Bettenhausen
Brian,
Sorry, but I have no hands on experience with the
G3 All-in-One. I'd guess the power supply may be wearing out, but
your best bet is probably to ask on G-List, our Google Group for G3, G4, and
G5 Power Macs.
Perhaps a reader can shed light on this.
Dan
Missing AppleWorks
Ed Simanowski says:
As I read the recounts of some many of your readers' experiences
with AppleWorks and the sense of loss that they are feeling, I was
reminded of my first experiences with ClarisWorks. I purchased
version 2.0 my freshman year of college and upgraded through each
sequential version until most recently, when I purchased AppleWorks
6. I remember using ClarisWorks' "Communications" sessions to
transfer files to my sister via our 2400 baud modems. But I think
the most remarkable thing about ClarisWorks was that I could carry
a copy of the application on a high density floppy disk to the
college computer labs and have room to spare for saved documents.
Oh, the lengths I would go to avoid using Microsoft Word 5.0!
I'm hesitant to try iWork. Not only because my beloved G4 iMac is going to be underpowered, but
because Claris (Apple)Works has served me so well for more than ten
years. I'm comfortable with it. It just works. It does just about
everything well. Would you expect any less from an Apple
product?
Thanks for letting me come to terms with the loss of a great
piece of software.
Ed Simanowski
You're welcome.
Dan Knight has been publishing Low
End Mac since April 1997. Mailbag columns come from email responses to his Mac Musings, Mac Daniel, Online Tech Journal, and other columns on the site.
