Talk:Kilobit
Discussion about centralization took place at Talk:Binary prefix.
How can a kilobit be 1000 _OR_ 1024 bits?
- See binary prefix - Omegatron 00:45, Jun 4, 2005 (UTC)
I just added a more meaningful byte value conversion, as that's something people would likely be looking for....
upper vs lower case
The article states that using lower-case 'b' for bits and upper-case 'B' for bytes is unchallenged. It should be noted that it can depend entirely upon context and while this seperation is the most common, lower-case 'b' also often means bytes, and older technical manuals sometimes upper-case 'B' means bits. Carewolf 09:09, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
kbit is incorrect?
"abbreviated kb, sometimes also (incorrectly) kbit" yet the unit of choice for this article is kbit ie. "kbit/s" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.152.115.183 (talk) 22:43, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
"bit" is the SI symbol for bit. So, it's definitely "kbit" under metric system rules. However, "kbit" is not an abbreviation, all abbreviations are forbidden in metric system - it's a symbol (or prefix + unit symbol, actually) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.171.97.252 (talk) 09:10, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
Yes, kb = kbit but their useage was frowned upon as non-standard. A bit like putting "BTW" in the middle of a formal business letter, you just don't do it. "Kb" meant bits and programming in assembly or for cryptology, and knowing the difference was required.
ie) To oversimplify for todays PC's: 8 bits make 1 Byte, therefore pressing 1 key on a keyboard produces a character that is 1 Byte in size.
The KB/Kb confusion occurred back when people made some mistakes typing computer books.
And before the 1990's people often used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter
Plus there are mentally lazy people and incompent software companies which wouldn't take the time to learn that KB = KiloBytes and Kb = Kilobits.
The differences between Binary vs Microsoft/soft bytes (as they were once termed) was only importent before the 1990's.
On odd occasions KBB indicated Binary KiloBytes, but was a programming shorthand that wasn't a widely adopted standard, instead Binary KB was considered more acceptable.
The usage of soft bytes is like asking someone the time, if their watch says 9:08 they may say nine o'clock, ten after nine, or quarter after nine.
As a result, I'd hazard guess that the average person just sees the Kb, KB, kB, KiB discussions as meaningless drivel by PC resellers and zombie-bean-counters.
After decades of KB, Kb usage, I can't say I'll bother to learn use kB/kb/KiB/kib/Kib/kIB.
"Kb" as a possible abbreviation, vs. "kb"
Other technology definition sources include the possibility of Kb for "kilobit," where here there is only "kb." The kilobyte page notes both KB and kB, as does this page. However, this page does not seem to accept the possibility of "Kb." Was this intentional? Can Kb be included as an option?
One of those sources: http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/diGi8tech/KGlossary.html
kilo-
A prefix indicating 1000 in the metric system. Because computing is based on powers of 2, in this context kilo usually means 2(to the tenth), or 1024. To differentiate between these two uses, a lowercase k is used to indicate 1000 (as in kHz), and an uppercase K to indicate 1024(as in KB).
kilobit
Abbreviated Kb or Kbit. 1024 bits(binary digits).