Veraster
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I've been wondering why they measure stuff having to do with data transfer speeds in bits per second instead of bytes per second. Everything else is measured in bytes. You don't normally hear anybody say they have a pc with 64 gigabits of ram or say that you have an 8 terabit hard drive.
I don't know about everyone else, but when I think of data, I find it easier to use bytes instead of bits. It's what everything else having to do with data is measured in. If an ISP advertizes speeds of 20megabits/sec, I have to divide in by 8 to convert it to megabytes/second to be able to comprehend how fast or slow it is. Seeing something with bytes instead of bits just saves everyone the step of having to dividing by 8.
Using bits for this stuff like saying you are going to travel 316800000 inches to get to your destination. 316800000 inches is a real unit of measurement that can be converted into miles. It's just not understandable by most people in this form. So let's make it not have a lot of zeros to be easier to work with. The distance to the destination can be expressed as 316.8 megainches. It's still in inches. Most people can't quickly determine how far 316.8 megainches is in miles without a calculator. You may need to know how far that is in miles to know how many gallons of gas you will need to purchase for your car during the trip. So using megainches for distance is pointless and slightly inconvenient. It's better to use miles. If you are a metric system user, you may prefer your units for long trips to be in kilometers instead of millimeters. It's less math but the distance from Germany to China shouldn't be measured in millimeters for the sake of being practical, right?
Why is it the norm to show transfer speeds in bits instead of bytes? Is it to make stupid people think a 20megabit/second connection is faster than a 4megabyte/second connection (since 20 is greater than 4) and trick them into buying crappy hardware or a crappy internet plan?
I don't know about everyone else, but when I think of data, I find it easier to use bytes instead of bits. It's what everything else having to do with data is measured in. If an ISP advertizes speeds of 20megabits/sec, I have to divide in by 8 to convert it to megabytes/second to be able to comprehend how fast or slow it is. Seeing something with bytes instead of bits just saves everyone the step of having to dividing by 8.
Using bits for this stuff like saying you are going to travel 316800000 inches to get to your destination. 316800000 inches is a real unit of measurement that can be converted into miles. It's just not understandable by most people in this form. So let's make it not have a lot of zeros to be easier to work with. The distance to the destination can be expressed as 316.8 megainches. It's still in inches. Most people can't quickly determine how far 316.8 megainches is in miles without a calculator. You may need to know how far that is in miles to know how many gallons of gas you will need to purchase for your car during the trip. So using megainches for distance is pointless and slightly inconvenient. It's better to use miles. If you are a metric system user, you may prefer your units for long trips to be in kilometers instead of millimeters. It's less math but the distance from Germany to China shouldn't be measured in millimeters for the sake of being practical, right?
Why is it the norm to show transfer speeds in bits instead of bytes? Is it to make stupid people think a 20megabit/second connection is faster than a 4megabyte/second connection (since 20 is greater than 4) and trick them into buying crappy hardware or a crappy internet plan?
