How big do YOU believe a Mega-byte is?

[Bud]

I've had actual heated arguments, with very smart and accomplished engineers over this. What's your opinion.

( Then I went and made a mistake in the poll - now corected, above.)

[Mega-Bite]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabyte
Gives several possible definitions. I love #3 "1 024 000 bytes - 1024 times 1000. This is an (erroneous) definition used by floppy disk manufacturers."

Ahh, the power of 2, er, Cheese...

[Bud]

Yep, I've seen the WikiPedia article. (One of the engineers with which I've had this debate referred to it like it was an authoritative source.) I understand the ambiguity. I think one answer is correct, another is a convenient mis-use of the correct term, and the rest is foolishness. I was just curious what everybody else thought.

(Of course, then I went and confused the issue further by making a mistake in the poll. Doh! *smacks self on forehead*)

PS: Bob, I assume that was you. If you'd like me to change your vote (now that there are other options available) just let me know.

[Bud]

If you want to be even more convinced that people are really just dumb monkeys that have accidently learned to write, somebody give me a definition of a Billion.

(Please do so without referring to an encylopedia.)

[LyleAustin Profile E-mail LyleAustin]

Is that an American Billion or an English Billion?

Let's get our terminology straight.

[Bob's cat]

Uh, Bob didn't vote . Being a computer geek by profession, he is conflicted
between 2^30 and 10^6, Given file i/o and telecom stuff he deals with both.
However, 2^30 was not one of the choices Guess he should go with 10^6,
since its the SI standard I'll vote for him (and keep his post count down).

Billion is fun too Culture, Language and national standards get in the way.
Anyway, the general answer is 1,000,000,000.

So we have a bunch of people with Giga-bucks, but only the goverment has
Tera-bucks. Being able to steal and print them helps.

And always remember, Bob's cat is wise (in spite of Bob)

[Bud]

Is that an American Billion or an English Billion?

Let's get our terminology straight.

My point exactly

[Bud]

Uh, Bob didn't vote . Being a computer geek by profession, he is conflicted between 2^30 and 10^6

Um... I'll assume that Bob's cat meant 2^20 (which I believe is one of the choices - now that I've fixed it ). 2^30 could be called a Gigabyte. Of course, so could 10^9.

So we have a bunch of people with Giga-bucks, but only the goverment has Tera-bucks. Being able to steal and print them helps.

I've recently had a conversation very much like this as well.