From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jun 14 07:40:47 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (unknown [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9C984106564A for ; Thu, 14 Jun 2012 07:40:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (imap.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.187.76.162]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 32D7D8FC12 for ; Thu, 14 Jun 2012 07:40:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from seedling.black-earth.co.uk (seedling.black-earth.co.uk [81.187.76.163]) (authenticated bits=0) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.14.5/8.14.5) with ESMTP id q5E7eYgV070898 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Thu, 14 Jun 2012 08:40:35 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) X-DKIM: OpenDKIM Filter v2.5.2 smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk q5E7eYgV070898 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=infracaninophile.co.uk; s=201001-infracaninophile; t=1339659635; bh=ZxLG1DkTrEbO5oHZ7GEuArupGQsJxHNN5Aq46ThGsio=; h=Date:From:To:Subject:References:In-Reply-To:Cc:Content-Type: Message-ID:Mime-Version; b=eKwN/CqVW4UKpnUoT369B6jIkFUTogC+cQtpcZIzuRqkxOLELxofnlRmaZ+RaXdlY LKWnokzYRf4hhQnrFvwtK3lNfjQd7Sjl9ogl1G9lmRks5Gxs0mTLy+DTDBoDlhwON/ L/AwLqCkzucRoi3s3V3MxgxSGfCREJMJ67HgX0Yk= Message-ID: <4FD9956B.2010501@infracaninophile.co.uk> Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 08:40:27 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:13.0) Gecko/20120601 Thunderbird/13.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <20120614081107.c0439718.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20120614081107.c0439718.freebsd@edvax.de> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.4.2 OpenPGP: id=60AE908C Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enig6419AE1C6DAC786BAC984176" X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.97.4 at lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.8 required=5.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, DKIM_ADSP_ALL,DKIM_SIGNED,T_DKIM_INVALID autolearn=no version=3.3.2 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.2 (2011-06-06) on lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk Subject: Re: `ls -l` shows size of file other than of the folder? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 07:40:47 -0000 This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enig6419AE1C6DAC786BAC984176 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 14/06/2012 07:11, Polytropon wrote: > In IT context, already in the 60's and 70's, unit prefixes > k, M and G always were interpreted as of 2^n (or 1024*), > even if the unit was _words_, not bytes. :-) Which was incorrect in principle > Even school taught that in the 80's: When dealing with > computers, 1 kB !=3D 1000 B, but 1 kB =3D 1024 B. That is > considered basic knowledge. Schools teach a lot of things that are so glossed over or so over-simplified as to be basically wrong. They have been known to teach things that were common knowledge at the time and were later shown to be simply incorrect[*]. > Every IT person should be aware of this. It's common to "abuse" > the SI units with the (known!) deviant interpretation. Really? If I said the bandwidth usage was 10Mb/s would you immediately understand that was 10,000,000,000 bits per second? Yes, bandwidth is always denoted in strict SI powers-of-1000 scale modifiers, always has been, but the corrosive effect of muddling 2^10 vs 10^3 in computing just leads to confusion and error. > Sometimes, you find hardware vendors "forgetting" the factor > mismatch 1024 vs. 1000 when they tell you how many GB the new > shiny hard disk has. :-) Oh dear. It is so galling to realise that the sales people were actually right all along isn't it? Does one's geek credibility no good at all to realise that we've been out pedanted by some suits... SI has published the standard for byte-wise scale factors: Ki, Mi, Gi etc. Best to start using them immediately and pretend that the whole shameful episode of being unable to distinguish 1024 from 1000 never ever happened. Cheers, Matthew [*] I have memories of school lessons stating definitively that there were only 2 allotropes of carbon[+]. Buckminsterfullerene wasn't discovered until I was at University. [+] Although this was factually incorrect at the time of teaching: look up lonsdaleite. Just because it never occurs in any more than microscopic amounts doesn't mean it doesn't matter. --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate JID: matthew@infracaninophile.co.uk Kent, CT11 9PW --------------enig6419AE1C6DAC786BAC984176 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.16 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk/ZlXIACgkQ8Mjk52CukIxZggCePqMjwZCsklP3CTgqzpMxmnCW aQYAnjsubAYCwJEkTd1jG/c0etbjqkaE =2fZn -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enig6419AE1C6DAC786BAC984176--