Octet (ConceptClass, 5)
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An '''octet''' is, as you might have imagined, a sequence of [[eight]] [[bit]]s. Affectionally called a '''byte''', it's overrated and yet another of those silly standards that's come into place just accidentally and stayed forever since. Luckily, there are still quite a few systems which are independent of the word size and do not have any concept of octets, such as networking. | An '''octet''' is, as you might have imagined, a sequence of [[eight]] [[bit]]s. Affectionally called a '''byte''', it's overrated and yet another of those silly standards that's come into place just accidentally and stayed forever since. Luckily, there are still quite a few systems which are independent of the word size and do not have any concept of octets, such as networking. | ||
File sizes are most commonly expressed in terms of octets instead of bits, leaving comparisons between file size and Internet speeds (which ''are'' measured in bits) very confusing to most. A ''kilobyte'' is [[1024]] bytes, a ''megabyte'' is 1024 kilobytes, and so on through ''gigabyte'', ''terabyte'', ''petabyte'' etc. That is until the [[SI]] guys came and messed everything up, where these terms were officially renamed to ''kibibyte'', ''mibibyte'' and so on, which sound retarded, while the original terms are retained for powers of [[1000]] bytes (units which nobody but [[hard disk]] manufacturers ever care about), creating great confusion because now nobody knows which series you actually mean unless you use the silly [[baby talk]] versions. | File sizes are most commonly expressed in terms of octets instead of bits, leaving comparisons between file size and Internet speeds (which ''are'' measured in bits) very confusing to most. A ''kilobyte'' is [[1024]] bytes, a ''megabyte'' is 1024 kilobytes, and so on through ''gigabyte'', ''terabyte'', ''petabyte'' etc. That is until the [[SI]] guys came and messed everything up, where these terms were officially renamed to ''kibibyte'', ''mibibyte'' and so on, which sound retarded, while the original terms are retained for powers of [[1000]] bytes (units which nobody but [[hard disk]] manufacturers ever care about), creating great confusion because now nobody knows which series you actually mean unless you use the silly [[baby talk]] versions. | ||
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Latest revision as of 23:38, 11 February 2011
An octet is, as you might have imagined, a sequence of eight bits. Affectionally called a byte, it's overrated and yet another of those silly standards that's come into place just accidentally and stayed forever since. Luckily, there are still quite a few systems which are independent of the word size and do not have any concept of octets, such as networking.
File sizes are most commonly expressed in terms of octets instead of bits, leaving comparisons between file size and Internet speeds (which are measured in bits) very confusing to most. A kilobyte is 1024 bytes, a megabyte is 1024 kilobytes, and so on through gigabyte, terabyte, petabyte etc. That is until the SI guys came and messed everything up, where these terms were officially renamed to kibibyte, mibibyte and so on, which sound retarded, while the original terms are retained for powers of 1000 bytes (units which nobody but hard disk manufacturers ever care about), creating great confusion because now nobody knows which series you actually mean unless you use the silly baby talk versions.
