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List:       opensuse
Subject:    Re: [opensuse] How to configure konqueror to show KB and MB instead of KiB and MiB??
From:       "Boyd Stephen Smith Jr." <bss () iguanasuicide ! net>
Date:       2009-06-30 16:03:00
Message-ID: 200906301103.05993.bss () iguanasuicide ! net
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In <1246347277.28278.4.camel@acme.pacific>, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
>On Mon, 2009-06-29 at 18:51 -0500, David C. Rankin wrote:
>> 	KDE4 konqueror is displaying size in KiB and MiB instead of the
>> traditional KB and MB. Where can I change this so I can view the size in
>> KB & MB? The 'i' means nothing to my use of konqueror, but it is
>> distracting to the eye to now have a whole new useless column of 'i's
>> streaming down the page.

I don't know of an option to have dolphin/konqueror use standard SI instead 
of binary-SI prefixes, but if such an option exists (or is created) it 
better be *accurate* and not just a UI change.

So, 41.6 KiB ~= 42.5 KB.

>Not only that, Ki is non standard.

Not true.  It is an IEC standard for binary-SI prefixes.  They are 
recommended against for measuring anything other than bits or bytes.  Also 
bits and bytes aren't included as SI units.[1]

RAM is measured in GiB, even if it is traditionally written GB.  HD space 
from the manufacturer is traditionally measured and written with GB or TB, 
while most OSes have reported file and file system sizes in KiB, MiB, GiB, 
or TiB, even if it was written KB, MB, GB, TB.  Bandwith is almost always 
measures in Kbit/s or Mbit/s and labeled that way, although some users have 
misunderstood this to me Kibit/s or even KiB/s.

>I have never seen KiG for kilograms,

A Kig, if ever used[2], would be a kilo-binary-gram a.k.a. a kebigram a.k.a. 
1024 grams.  Grams use a lowercase 'g'.

>or KiM for kilometers.

Kim = 1024 meters.  Meters use a lowercase 'm'.

>Are milligrams now MiG

The binary prefixes are only defined for positive powers of 2^10, so there 
is no milli-binary-gram.  An Mig is 1024 Kig or 1048576 g(rams).

>and hectograms now HeG?

IIRC, hecto- is *100, right?  If so, it doesn't have a binary-SI prefix, so 
this would not be a valid unit.

>I think someone was bored one day. Or this is some emerging EU standard?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix#IEC_standard_prefixes (and the 
rest of the page, too.)
-- 
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.           	 ,= ,-_-. =.
bss@iguanasuicide.net            	((_/)o o(\_))
ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy 	 `-'(. .)`-'
http://iguanasuicide.net/        	     \_/

[1]  This means both (a) using SI prefixes for bits or bytes and (b) using 
binary-SI prefixes for SI units are equally invalid.  The former is more 
accepted though.

[2] Please don't use binary-SI for non-computing units.

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