Alien Surfer

I wasn’t talking about HDD sizes, but I know the person to which I was replying was talking about HDD’s specifically. I shou,d have clarified I was talking in more general terms (CPU RAM, NVM sizes, etc.)

I remember being miffed about the advertising of the HDD sizes. So I think you are correct there. Wish I could go back to the mid 80’s and do some research on my old HDDs and floppies. I honestly just can’t remember, so thank you.

I hate the new prefixes, not just because they aren’t the older nomenclature, but because they feel ridiculous to speak out loud. If a less silly sounding prefix was chosen, I probably wouldn’t be tainted about it.

I agree with you. A long time ago, those of us “in the know” techies could parse the difference like it was a native language. When talking anything but computers, it was always the SI of 1000. When talking about computers, it was always 1024.

I think the masses were confused and the SI purists felt their SI prefixes were being corrupted. So they made a distinction/standard between binary numbering system prefixes and decimal numbering system prefixes.

I hate it. Feels wrong because I’m old and set in my ways. People like me are confused because we still use the old nomenclature, and when someone else uses the old nomenclature (when talking about computers), it’s ambiguous to us because we don’t know which numbering system they are using (e.g., binary as opposed to decimal). I still have to ask and half say binary and half say decimal.

I suppose if they’re teaching it in high school and college it’ll become native soon enough, if it hasn’t already with the next generations.

It was certainly iconic. Felt like the glory days of computers, networking, and user groups. I always got that excited feeling like when you’re a kid and anything is possible! It was before extreme specialization, and you literally could learn everything. It was a time when we felt like we had something special before the masses were even aware of it.

Then ISPs popped up, and we ditched our modems and BBS’s for IRC and Usenet. Still before the masses were aware. Still a special time.

Then, eventually, corporations got wind of a new market to target, and the masses moved in. They used ridiculous names like portals, email chains, properties, social media, etc., and everything went to shit fast. It felt like something special was taken away from those of us who were at the beginning. It lost that special feeling and turned toxic in no time.

Some embraced it, but more rejected it and would not dare join Facebook or MySpace or wherever corporate, ad-infested places the lemmings amassed. Instead, we created niche places a bit too technical for the sheeple to follow. We became rebels of conformity. And then, we became old and obsolete.

It was a concurrent evolution and devolution as we were thrown toward the modern-day internet.

Regardless of how it turned out, I am very thankful and glad I was a part of that early, amazing culture!

Sysop… reminds of the good ol’ BBS days. What a great time that was.