• Bob Hawke (unregistered) in reply to Ed
    Ed:
    Holy shit. Michael Moore posts to TDWTF?

    Paul Keating is Interesting too - former Prime Minister (and before that Treasurer) of Australia???

  • db (unregistered) in reply to Brendan
    Brendan:
    Berislav Lopac:
    You know what is the difference between a novice programmer and an expert programmer? The novice thinks that 1 megabyte has 1000 bytes; the expert thinks that 1 kilometer has 1024 meters.

    I'd hope an expert programmer understands the difference between MB, Mb, MiB and Mib, and knows that none of them have anything to do with movies about aliens and special agents in dark suits...

    It might as well be about the movie. There's the measures from base two to various powers and there are the cocaine fueled lies of salesfolk. There's no point inventing a new abbreviation because the salesfolk will corrupt that too once it becomes popular enough.

  • Dirk (unregistered) in reply to Ant. Build
    Ant. Build:
    WTF is Nick's favourite food, then?
    That's the question on everyone's lips!
  • wsinda (unregistered)

    A million, a billion, ... Oh what's the mloody difference?

  • Robert Kosten (unregistered) in reply to Berislav Lopac
    Berislav Lopac:
    You know what is the difference between a novice programmer and an expert programmer? The novice thinks that 1 megabyte has 1000 bytes; the expert thinks that 1 kilometer has 1024 meters.
    The guru knows that the novice is correct and that kibimeters are what the expert thinks in...
  • (cs) in reply to Robert Kosten
    Robert Kosten:
    Berislav Lopac:
    You know what is the difference between a novice programmer and an expert programmer? The novice thinks that 1 megabyte has 1000 bytes; the expert thinks that 1 kilometer has 1024 meters.
    The guru knows that the novice is correct and that kibimeters are what the expert thinks in...
    Someone who actually knows the difference between standards and Internet's mental diarrhoea, knows that "mebi", "kibi" and whatnot are there only to add confusion and that the guru just wants to impress fellow novice programmers. The "*bi" prefix system is incomplete, and unnecessary - nobody uses "megabyte" to say "one million of bytes" except marketoids who also use other artifices like "dynamic power" (PMPO) to sell 5W speakers as 200W PMPO, dynamic contrast to sell 1:1000 screens as 1:200000 DC screens. In general education an hour rarely has 60 minutes, and for some reason it doesn't seem to confuse people.
  • Still Not Tim (unregistered) in reply to wsinda
    wsinda:
    A million, a billion, ... Oh what's the mloody difference?

    if you worry about it too long, you get the mloody mlues... ( and wander round singing "Nights in Prestayn"... )

  • Robert Kosten (unregistered) in reply to Kiss me I'm Polish
    Kiss me I'm Polish:
    Someone who actually knows the difference between standards and Internet's mental diarrhoea, knows that "mebi", "kibi" and whatnot are there only to add confusion
    That would imply they were created for that purpose, I don't think you actually mean that.
    Kiss me I'm Polish:
    and that the guru just wants to impress fellow novice programmers.
    Who said the guru states any of this? He _knows_, but that doesn't mean anything ;-)
    Kiss me I'm Polish:
    The "*bi" prefix system is incomplete, and unnecessary - nobody uses "megabyte" to say "one million of bytes" except marketoids who also use other artifices like "dynamic power" (PMPO) to sell 5W speakers as 200W PMPO, dynamic contrast to sell 1:1000 screens as 1:200000 DC screens.
    And "Except marketoids" isn't a good reason for a technically precise nomenclature?
    Kiss me I'm Polish:
    In general education an hour rarely has 60 minutes, and for some reason it doesn't seem to confuse people.
    Mostly because they usually ought to be "cum tempore", that is with 15 minutes extra to get to the room, you see how that adds up? Just because it doesn't confuse _most_ people doesn't mean that a precise expression is useless, you know? Otherwise we wouldn't bother with ISO-Dates and other such unneccessaries. And now chill a little, wasn't it obvious that my reply was a bit tongue in cheek?
  • (cs) in reply to David
    David:
    The image is easy to explain - history means stuff that happened a long time ago, and the clock represents time. It was also built a long time ago.

    The name DB2 was inspired by two bees.

    Coffee also featured heavily during the meetings where DB2 was developed.

    And developed by eye bee M.

  • Ian (unregistered) in reply to NSCoder
    NSCoder:
    Maybe the phone box was French, and selling bread. That wouldn't be a WTF at all.

    A friend of mine once had a bread box that was labeled in both english and french. Unfortunately the french was first so it said "Pain Bread" on the front. Suffice it to say I didn't eat any.

  • (cs) in reply to Robert Kosten
    Robert Kosten:
    And now chill a little, wasn't it obvious that my reply was a bit tongue in cheek?
    I'm calm like a morning breeze and enjoy some academic discussion while enjoying my latte. So grab your cup and let's get going:
    Robert Kosten:
    Kiss me I'm Polish:
    Someone who actually knows the difference between standards and Internet's mental diarrhoea, knows that "mebi", "kibi" and whatnot are there only to add confusion
    That would imply they were created for that purpose, I don't think you actually mean that.
    I mean they're unnecessary. If you know the difference between 1000 and 1024, you don't need kibi, it's easy enough. If you don't know the difference, you don't know what kibi means.
    Robert Kosten:
    Kiss me I'm Polish:
    and that the guru just wants to impress fellow novice programmers.
    Who said the guru states any of this? He _knows_, but that doesn't mean anything ;-)
    A guru that doesn't share his wisdom with everybody within his voice range? That's not a guru! That's a communist spy.
    Robert Kosten:
    Kiss me I'm Polish:
    The "*bi" prefix system is incomplete, and unnecessary - nobody uses "megabyte" to say "one million of bytes" except marketoids who also use other artifices like "dynamic power" (PMPO) to sell 5W speakers as 200W PMPO, dynamic contrast to sell 1:1000 screens as 1:200000 DC screens.
    And "Except marketoids" isn't a good reason for a technically precise nomenclature?

    No, because it's redundant. Ok so the use of standard prefixes is screwed because it means something different for historical reasons, but we'll probably sooner see USA adopt metric system than IT switch to kibi. And it sounds silly: "I've downloaded 40 mebs of free software, free as in free speech not as in free beer".

    Robert Kosten:
    Kiss me I'm Polish:
    In general education an hour rarely has 60 minutes, and for some reason it doesn't seem to confuse people.
    Mostly because they usually ought to be "cum tempore", that is with 15 minutes extra to get to the room, you see how that adds up?
    No. Just because in some cases this adds up to 60 minutes, doesn't mean it's the rule. I've had courses where 2 hours added up to 90 minutes and that was it. I've also had 55 minutes classes (in another country) with 15 minutes, so it wouldn't add up to 2 full hours. "Hour" means "unit" in these cases.
    Robert Kosten:
    Just because it doesn't confuse _most_ people doesn't mean that a precise expression is useless, you know? Otherwise we wouldn't bother with ISO-Dates and other such unneccessaries.

    No. Dates actually do confuse people a lot. That's why ISO happened to them. Yet, some still find it more natural to have 8/31/2009 even if you throw ISO standards carved in stone at them.

    Radians are precise too, and are in theory the preferred unit for angle measures, but they're quite painful to use. All interesting angles have stupid values in radians. What's pi/3? It's gibberish. What's 0.9 KiB?

    Just because something is more precise doesn't mean it's more useful.

  • Jim (unregistered) in reply to Anon Coward for this one
    Anon Coward for this one:
    Nick, that's my favorite "food" to eat too. Especially when shaven...

    I thought only chineses heat cats :-)

  • C (unregistered) in reply to Brazen
    Brazen:
    T $:
    Ye find yeself in yon edited image. Ye see two buttons. Will thoust close it?

    Obvious exits are: OK and Cancel

    [ OK ]

    You have been eaten by a grue.

    Or rather "your edits have been eaten by a grue"! ;-)

  • ebu (unregistered) in reply to Kiss me I'm Polish
    Kiss me I'm Polish:
    Robert Kosten:
    Kiss me I'm Polish:
    The "*bi" prefix system is incomplete, and unnecessary - nobody uses "megabyte" to say "one million of bytes" except marketoids who also use other artifices like "dynamic power" (PMPO) to sell 5W speakers as 200W PMPO, dynamic contrast to sell 1:1000 screens as 1:200000 DC screens.
    And "Except marketoids" isn't a good reason for a technically precise nomenclature?

    No, because it's redundant. Ok so the use of standard prefixes is screwed because it means something different for historical reasons, but we'll probably sooner see USA adopt metric system than IT switch to kibi. And it sounds silly: "I've downloaded 40 mebs of free software, free as in free speech not as in free beer".

    standard prefixes:

    kilo = 1.000 mega = 1.000 x 1.000 = 1.000.000 giga = 1.000 x 1.000 x 1.000 = 1.000.000.000

    binary prefixes:

    kibi = 1.024 mebi = 1.024 x 1.024 = 1.048.576 gibi = 1.024 x 1.024 x 1.024 = 1.073.741.824

    the computer industry has always used their prefixes wrong and they knew it... example:

    "1.44Mb" 3½ floppy = 1.44 x 1.000 x 1.024

    Won't somebody please think of the children!?

  • Leo (unregistered)

    I still refuse to believe that anyone actually uses the "binary prefixes" except to mock them.

  • jay (unregistered)

    While I like a good conspiracy theory as much as anyone, I have a hard time believing that marketing people are deliberately using ambiguities about the definition of "mega" to confuse people. Is there really a lot of potential gain from claiming that a thumb drive is "4.3 GB" (4.3 x 1000^3) when it's really only "4.0 GB" (4.0 x 1024^3)? So, what, they could overcharge you by 8%? Surely there are far more effective rip-offs that one could pull. (Like, say, claiming that social security has a trust fund ...)

    Who was it who said, "Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence?"

  • värttinä (unregistered) in reply to Dr.Evil
    Dr.Evil:
    Ant. Build:
    WTF is Nick's favourite food, then?
    As has been alluded to already, I'm guessing something of a feline nature.
    It could be just he enjoys megapussi.
  • (cs) in reply to pac man
    pac man:
    UGH element K books - i'm not surprised by this screw-up. I've had to use element K training materials in several training courses i've taken, and those books are always full of typos and errors. the best part is when the errors are in code samples, so the example you're trying to learn from DOESN'T WORK.
    Sounds like the MSDN.
  • Sir Wilhelm (unregistered) in reply to Austin

    TRWTF: Is it a billion from US and UK (1 thousand million) or a billion from The Rest of The World (1 million million)?.

    CAPTCHA: tation. The klingon billion?

  • MP (unregistered) in reply to jay
    jay:
    While I like a good conspiracy theory as much as anyone, I have a hard time believing that marketing people are deliberately using ambiguities about the definition of "mega" to confuse people. Is there really a lot of potential gain from claiming that a thumb drive is "4.3 GB" (4.3 x 1000^3) when it's really only "4.0 GB" (4.0 x 1024^3)? So, what, they could overcharge you by 8%? Surely there are far more effective rip-offs that one could pull. (Like, say, claiming that social security has a trust fund ...)

    Who was it who said, "Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence?"

    Napoleon

  • wolfo (unregistered) in reply to jonnyq
    jonnyq:
    It may have been advertising rates for nearby countries: "FRANCE 1¢/MIN ... SPAIN 1¢/MIN"

    While France and Spain aren't exactly 'nearby' Namibia, I was thinking the same thing about the marquee.

  • jbrecken (unregistered)

    The correct translation is "If DB2 were a woman, she'd be an 8, a B-cup."

  • AH (unregistered) in reply to MP
    MP:
    jay:
    While I like a good conspiracy theory as much as anyone, I have a hard time believing that marketing people are deliberately using ambiguities about the definition of "mega" to confuse people. Is there really a lot of potential gain from claiming that a thumb drive is "4.3 GB" (4.3 x 1000^3) when it's really only "4.0 GB" (4.0 x 1024^3)? So, what, they could overcharge you by 8%? Surely there are far more effective rip-offs that one could pull. (Like, say, claiming that social security has a trust fund ...)

    Who was it who said, "Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence?"

    Napoleon

    Hitler

  • HopelessIntern (unregistered) in reply to jay

    Perhaps not in selling thumb drives. But here in the UK, ISPs looove to tell you you are getting a 20mb line, knowing you think this means you will be able to download at speeds of 20MB/s. This is misleading, as adverts often shorten it to "meg" to avoid the bit/byte confusion laymen often harbour. They won't tell you that all speeds are listen in megabits and you need to divide by 8 to get your speed in MB/s as expressed in most browsers/download clients.

    And yes, I do think this is nothing more than a marketing ploy.

  • BillyBob (unregistered)

    To be fair on the secret question/answer errord, sometimes these are for more than just computers.

    For example, my bank uses the same secret questions (which I provided over the net) to verify who I am when I talk to them on the phone.

    You don't want to be caught out by this...

  • caecus (unregistered) in reply to BillyBob
    "This phone booth in Windhoek is obviously in distress," Chris Pliers writes, "who should I call?"
    He-Man!
  • Shifty Pete (unregistered) in reply to Some Chef
    Some Chef:
    Ant. Build:
    WTF is Nick's favourite food, then?
    Shitake mushrooms (Nick used an incorrect spelling of Shiitake)

    You know, the first time I ever saw that word, I read it as Shitcake and thought to myself "WTF were they thinking, calling a food that?".

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