The Vent and Rant Thread

[Katsunami]

So, I've been reading some stuff on Wikipedia, and noticed that they are using Kibibyte, and Mebibyte... fools.

Yes, I know. Kibibyte and Mebibyte have been the 'official' SI terms since 1998, but because everybody has been using Kilobyte and Megabyte since the 70's, the new terms never took hold.

In practice, i have *never* met someone apart from some teenage or low-twenties epic Linux zealots who use Kibibyte or Mebibyte.

When I've heard the term used by one of those people, when talking to someone who isn't an over the top nerd who doesn't know the terms, the reaction of the other person is something like: "WTF dude, are you trying to be interesting or something? Be normal, fool/idiot/nerd."

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

So, I've been reading some stuff on Wikipedia, and noticed that they are using Kibibyte, and Mebibyte... fools.

Yes, I know. Kibibyte and Mebibyte have been the 'official' SI terms since 1998, but because everybody has been using Kilobyte and Megabyte since the 70's, the new terms never took hold.

In practice, i have *never* met someone apart from some teenage or low-twenties epic Linux zealots who use Kibibyte or Mebibyte.

When I've heard the term used by one of those people, when talking to someone who isn't an over the top nerd who doesn't know the terms, the reaction of the other person is something like: "WTF dude, are you trying to be interesting or something? Be normal, fool/idiot/nerd."

This is the first I've ever heard of them, and I work in IT...

[Blossom]

So some ladies from my online book club are getting together this weekend. I was super excited to go. I stupidly mentioned it to my mother and sister last month even though hubby said he will take me and drop me off.

So Mom calls and ask me about Saturday. I told her I wasn't going to the meeting because I'm fighting the flu. Her and sister threw a fit at me because get this....They were going to show up and spend the day with us. OMG I'm having nightmare flashbacks of my teen years.

This is why I stay locked in my little apartment. They are still stalking me. It's my fault I should have kept my mouth shut. I can't go anywhere with them knowing where or they will show up.

This flu has saved me mountains of embarrassment. I was looking forward to actually hanging out with the ladies in the club talking books but looks like I'll have to wait for the next meeting and this time keep my mouth shut about it.

Mom and sis yelled at me because they wanted to go out to eat. I told them you don't eat with a flu you starve it. I do not want to eat out with them. They are the most rude, embarrassing and have no manners. They constantly bicker at each other.
For an introvert as myself, it's a nightmare!



Sent from my Nexus 7

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by orlok

This is the first I've ever heard of them, and I work in IT...

I've heard of them, work in IT, and have never seen the usage in the wild from anyone who makes their living in computers.
_____
Dennis

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by orlok

This is the first I've ever heard of them, and I work in IT...

I'm convinced this stuff was pushed by the hard drive manufacturers.

"Kilo" is 1000, and "Mega" is 1.000.000, in "normal life." In the "IT life", it has been, and ever will be, 1024 and 1.048.576.

However, the hard disk manufactuers have been using thousand and million for the longest time. So, a 500 megabyte (MB) hard disk (which was normal during the mid-90's) was 500 x 1000 x 1000 bytes, instead of 500 x 1024 x 1024. When such a hard drive is put into a computer with an operating system that uses counts by 1024 instead of 1000, the hard disk will show up as 476.8 MB.

I'm 100% convinced that the HDD manufacturers pushed the stupid KiB, MiB, TiB (Kibi, Mebi, Gebi, Tebi) with SI, so they could keep selling their disks in MB and GB (and now, TB).

Because... a 256 GB SSD, containing 256 billion bytes exactly is now completely correct. The 'official' amount of space for a computer is now 238 GiB.

And it holds true: The SSD in this laptop is sold as 256 GB, or 256.000.000.000 bytes. Divide this by (1024 x 1024 x 1024), and the outcome will be 238,4 GB before formatting... and sure enough, Windows reports the drive space as 237 GB available after formatting.

'Officially', Windows is wrong, and it 'should' be displayed as 237 GiB. Linux does this (and I don't know if it can be changed somewhere).

Microsoft has to say something about this..

Although the International Electronic Commission established the term kibibyte for 1024 bytes, with the abbreviation KiB, Windows Explorer continues to use the abbreviation KB. Why doesn't Explorer get with the program?

Because nobody else is on the program either.

If you look around you, you'll find that nobody (to within experimental error) uses the terms kibibyte and KiB. When you buy computer memory, the amount is specified in megabytes and gigabytes, not mebibytes and gibibytes. The storage capacity printed on your blank CD is indicated in megabytes. Every document on the Internet (to within experimental error) which talks about memory and storage uses the terms kilobyte/KB, megabyte/MB, gigabyte/GB, etc. You have to go out of your way to find people who use the terms kibibyte/KiB, mebibyte/MiB, gibibyte/GiB, etc.

In other words, the entire computing industry has ignored the guidance of the IEC.

Explorer is just following existing practice. Everybody (to within experimental error) refers to 1024 bytes as a kilobyte, not a kibibyte. If Explorer were to switch to the term kibibyte, it would merely be showing users information in a form they cannot understand, and for what purpose? So you can feel superior because you know what that term means and other people don't.

I'm not someone who advocates to be a stick in the mud (even though I detest changes for the sake of changing), and I've got enough stuff to rail about with regard to Windows and Microsoft, but in this case, I think they're right. The entire industry, except for Linux (the distro's I've used, that is) has ignored the 'new' terms.

Except for the HDD/SSD manufacturers and (some) die-hard Linux d00des, *everybody* means "1024" when they talk about a Kilobyte, so I think it's stupid of Wikipedia to confuse its readers by adopting the 'new' terms.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Blossom

So Mom calls and ask me about Saturday. I told her I wasn't going to the meeting because I'm fighting the flu. Her and sister threw a fit at me because get this....They were going to show up and spend the day with us. OMG I'm having nightmare flashbacks of my teen years.

This is why I stay locked in my little apartment. They are still stalking me. It's my fault I should have kept my mouth shut. I can't go anywhere with them knowing where or they will show up.

My mom suggested something like that, 20 years ago or so, when I told her I'd be taking my girlfriend (my first, back then) to a restaurant and a movie.

When my mom said: "Sounds like fun, maybe I and *** will come too" (she was divorced for about a year or two, and had a new boyfriend, with whom she's still living nowadays), I told her to better not try it, or I'd not talk to her for a decade.

She didn't show up. Fortunately. For her.

===

PS: About girlfriends... someone remembered Ms. NoHints from a few tens of pages back, whom I invited to a restaurant that had turned, unbeknownst to me, into a super-highend exclusive place?

Yeah, that one. I took her somewhere else, had some fun, then thought to myself "Youre such an idiot, will you never learn?", dated her despite knowing I probably shouldn't, and winged it, disregarding everything from the past.

Well... I'm not single anymore since some time, and I love it, because of her.

Now, if necessary, I ask if I need to know something (other way around too), and all communication back and forth is clear, straight forward, and without beating around the bush. Best of all, it's almost impossible to misinterpret.

If she asks, I can even tell her I don't like her clothes (as long as I tell her why), and she will interpret it a "He doesn't like these clothes", instead of "OMG, he hates me, I'm ugly, and the relationship will be over soon!" Wonderful

The 'hint-less life' was a bit difficult to start out with (even though I've always said I wanted that), but now that we got into the habit of just asking and expecting a straight forward answer without having to read between the lines, it's as easy as it gets

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

My mom suggested something like that, 20 years ago or so, when I told her I'd be taking my girlfriend (my first, back then) to a restaurant and a movie.

When my mom said: "Sounds like fun, maybe I and *** will come too" (she was divorced for about a year or two, and had a new boyfriend, with whom she's still living nowadays), I told her to better not try it, or I'd not talk to her for a decade.

She didn't show up. Fortunately. For her.

She used to follow me everywhere. I wasn't allowed friends or even to go outside to get the mail. It was very bad Kat. She pulled me out of school in the 4th grade after scaring the crap out of me since I was a kid who liked school but I was scared some man would hurt me because she told me they would. I was a frighten kid scared of everything because she would tell me things. I realized now she is severely mentally ill.

She followed me even to youth meetings at church. No one would talk to me. At 17 I started staying weekends with my youth pastors but even that had issues. They were fanatics and I was easy prey.

The only place she couldn't follow me was the internet. Now she is on Facebook but back then she thought the internet evil. I met my husband on the internet and he whisk me away from all of that abuse. Now I'm back here and stuck.

Now the only way to stay away is to stay in the apartment or keep my mouth shut if hubby and I go somewhere. She still asks all the inappropriate questions, still tries to interrogate me. I do not live on ground floor and she can't climb steps. There was a huge reason we did that. I love my mom but I want to love her from a very far distance.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I've heard of them, work in IT, and have never seen the usage in the wild from anyone who makes their living in computers.
_____
Dennis

Dennis, sweetie:

YOU having heard of something is hardly evidence that it's in the mainstream. More like, it's noticeable in some far-flung corner of the Net, under 3 levels of forums, 2 layers of encryption and 2 uber-passwords, and you read about the way to get there in the middle of a Myst Game Con, 25 years ago, and oh, yeah, you remembered not to accidentally trip the turtle, and so, you were there, and you saw it, and read it, and consumed it and now you remember it. After discussing it with some famous guy that's dead now.

That's what YOU remembering it is like. The rest of us? Shugar, sugar, I've slept since then.

Spoiler:

(Dennis knows that I say this with awe and affection. He's brill. But HIM having heard of something is hardly dispositive that it's in the zeitgeist, ffs!)

(And, yes, if someone wants to be all uber-nerdy, sure, it's technically correct. The question is, for the typical user, does it matter? Sure, it matters for CE guys, and all that, but for the rest of us? Nyet.)

Hitch

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Dennis, sweetie:

YOU having heard of something is hardly evidence that it's in the mainstream. More like, it's noticeable in some far-flung corner of the Net, under 3 levels of forums, 2 layers of encryption and 2 uber-passwords, and you read about the way to get there in the middle of a Myst Game Con, 25 years ago, and oh, yeah, you remembered not to accidentally trip the turtle, and so, you were there, and you saw it, and read it, and consumed it and now you remember it. After discussing it with some famous guy that's dead now.

That's what YOU remembering it is like. The rest of us? Shugar, sugar, I've slept since then.

I have a magpie mind, and remember what I read. My SO commissioned a button from a friend who does custom calligraphy emblazoned "Oh! Shiny facts!" after watching me chase down various ratholes on the Internet.

It can come in handy, but the usual result is that I know more about something than the person I'm talking to, largely regardless of topic.

(I am a director of a company an old friend founded, and my title is Director and Factotum. My actual function is "guy who Bill calls when he doesn't know about something, figuring I will know about it." Generally, that's the case, but some of the things he doesn't know are sources of wonder.)

Spoiler:

(Dennis knows that I say this with awe and affection. He's brill. But HIM having heard of something is hardly dispositive that it's in the zeitgeist, ffs!)

I certainly hope it's not taken as evidence of that.

(And, yes, if someone wants to be all uber-nerdy, sure, it's technically correct. The question is, for the typical user, does it matter? Sure, it matters for CE guys, and all that, but for the rest of us? Nyet.)

There are bigger sources of confusion. I've grown very tired of explaining that the size listed for a hard drive when you buy it is the raw, unformatted size, and how much will be usable after formatting and creating a file system is a different matter. (My desktop has a 500GB Toshiba SATA HD. 450GB are available after initialization and formatting with an NTFS file system. I expected that.)
______
Dennis

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Blossom

She used to follow me everywhere. I wasn't allowed friends or even to go outside to get the mail. It was very bad Kat. She pulled me out of school in the 4th grade after scaring the crap out of me since I was a kid who liked school but I was scared some man would hurt me because she told me they would. I was a frighten kid scared of everything because she would tell me things. I realized now she is severely mentally ill.

You know? This sounds a lot like Edward (Eddie) Kasprak's mom, from Stephen King's IT. His mom keeps telling him he's sick, and treating him as such. And therefore, he's asthmatic, and a hypochondriac. Your mom obviously made you afraid without needing to.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

You know? This sounds a lot like Edward (Eddie) Kasprak's mom, from Stephen King's IT. His mom keeps telling him he's sick, and treating him as such. And therefore, he's asthmatic, and a hypochondriac. Your mom obviously made you afraid without needing to.

She did that too. It would take 33 years before I lost all that stupid fear. It was baby steps and alot of growing old and suddenly not caring about all that foolish stuff.

I'm going to have to check that book out.

Sent from my XT1528

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Blossom

So some ladies from my online book club are getting together this weekend. I was super excited to go. I stupidly mentioned it to my mother and sister last month even though hubby said he will take me and drop me off.

So Mom calls and ask me about Saturday. I told her I wasn't going to the meeting because I'm fighting the flu. Her and sister threw a fit at me because get this....They were going to show up and spend the day with us. OMG I'm having nightmare flashbacks of my teen years.

This is why I stay locked in my little apartment. They are still stalking me. It's my fault I should have kept my mouth shut. I can't go anywhere with them knowing where or they will show up.

This flu has saved me mountains of embarrassment. I was looking forward to actually hanging out with the ladies in the club talking books but looks like I'll have to wait for the next meeting and this time keep my mouth shut about it.

Mom and sis yelled at me because they wanted to go out to eat. I told them you don't eat with a flu you starve it. I do not want to eat out with them. They are the most rude, embarrassing and have no manners. They constantly bicker at each other.
For an introvert as myself, it's a nightmare!



Sent from my Nexus 7

This is why you tell mom after the fact. Pretty much on everything.
What mom doesn't know can't hurt you.
It isn't like we are children and have to put up (live) with the BS.

Now why are you stuck in your apartment? I assume you have cell phones. Does your mom have a tracker on them? So she will know every move you make?
If it was me, I wouldn't tell your mom or sister anything and I would go where I wanted with my husband. If mom calls, let it go to voice mail or just not tell her where you are.

Live your life. Don't let her mentally hold you hostage.
Better yet, every time she calls tell her you and hubby are busy trying to make her a grandmother then click end.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

You know? This sounds a lot like Edward (Eddie) Kasprak's mom, from Stephen King's IT. His mom keeps telling him he's sick, and treating him as such. And therefore, he's asthmatic, and a hypochondriac. Your mom obviously made you afraid without needing to.

Bad parents can be deadly for children.

I ran across an account years back of a young boy raised by strict, fire and brimstone Fundamentalist Christian parents. He became convinced by what they said that everything he did was a mortal sin, and he was doomed to burn in Hell for eternity. His response was quite logical - do nothing. He retreated into catatonia.

Along similar lines, psychologist Gregory Bateson wrote a book called Steps to an Ecology of Mind, which was an outgrowth of his attempts to understand schizophrenia and treat schizophrenics. His postulate of the etiology of the disease was the "double bind". Put the child in the position where whatever they did was wrong, and it wasn't possible to please mom and dad. A variety of unfortunate behaviors resulted.

I've occasionally done something mentioned by psychiatrist Eric Berne in one of his books, and asked myself "How would I raise a child if I wanted to produce an adult who behaves like the one I'm trying to deal with?" The answers that suggest themselves tend to be horrifying.

(I once dated a woman who was schizophrenic, and broke up with her when I realized I was becoming irrational. I met her mother and sisters and got some idea of the stresses that produced her. I was profoundly grateful I hadn't grown up in her family.)
______
Dennis

[Cinisajoy]

Oh and feel better soon Blossom.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

This is why you tell mom after the fact. Pretty much on everything.
What mom doesn't know can't hurt you.
It isn't like we are children and have to put up (live) with the BS.

Sometimes it seems parents don't realize children actually grow into adults.

When I was somewhere in my 20's we had a family dinner, and my Mom told me 'to behave myself in the restaurant.' I told her that if she said something like that ever again, she could *** the dinner.

Recently, when I told her I had a girlfriend, she probably thought I'd need a refresher course after such a long time, and she embarked on 'how to behave around/handle a girl.' After listening politely for a minute or two, I just asked her to drop it.

1st, it's none of her business. 2nd, if I'd actually do what she suggested, I couldn't be further from the truth. Said girl would run, screaming, in the direction of either the North or South pole.