[MEncoder-users] Using SI units in mencoder

[D Richard Felker III]

On Tue, Feb 08, 2005 at 04:06:47PM -0800, Trent Piepho wrote:
> On Tue, 8 Feb 2005, asym wrote:
> > Software won't change either, too much of it from too many different 
> > authors for it to be corrected within our lifetimes.  And software 
> > developers, like the one responding, have "staked a claim" that they are 
> > unwilling to give up.  Years ago the IEEE recommended people call 1024 
> > bytes a "kibibyte" and abbreviate it "KiB" but to this day nobody does.  SI 
> 
> Probably because the use of kilobyte to mean 2^10 bytes was around for decades
> before IEEE came up with a new name.  The IEEE basically told programmers that
> they need to stop using the terms they've used since bytes were invented
> because hard drive manfacture's marketing departments want them.

exactly. i couldn't have put it better. further, ieee/si has no
authority to redefine a term used in someone else's field. even if
kilo does mean 1000 in si/metric units, that has nothing to do with
bytes or computer storage, and they have no business sticking their
noses where they don't belong and dictating to people in another field
that we should change our definitions to conform with them.

rich