OK, so I’m a little oldskool but…

…I have been pondering as to WTF `MiB`s and `GiB`s are for a little while now. As in, “download this file – Size: 15 MiB“

They keep cropping up – a couple of years ago I’d certainly never seen this unit of measurement.

Well – in case you too had wondered, here’s a likely candidate for the answer;

[Excerpt from http://kerneltrap.org/node/340]

” Bits, bytes, kilobytes, megabytes… and now, mebibytes? When one speaks about a kilobyte referring to computer memory, one refers to 1024 bytes. This is more an “accepted innaccuracy” than anything. Though simple enough at the kilobyte level, as memory sizes increase from kilo to mega to giga and beyond, things get more and more confusing. The recent change is an attempt to move away from this “accepted innaccuracy” towards an official and accurate standard.

Some seem to support this change. Others fear it will only add confusion. What do you think?

Even Eric is not that enthused by this naming standard, but explains, “In the *absence* of a clear consensus, I will follow best practices. Best practice in editing a technical or standards document is to (a) avoid ambiguous usages, seek clarity and precision; and (b) to use, follow and reference international standards.“

Alan Cox offers support to this change, “Eric using MiB seems the right thing. Its an ugly but appropriate unit, its at least recommended as a solution by a standards body. We can either redefine SI units (“You cannot change the laws of physics”) or find a better label. What better than a recommended one others use.“.

The standards they refer to are detailed on the the National Institute of Standards and Technology web page title, “Definitions of the SI units: The binary prefixes“. You can find more on this International System of Units (SI) here. “

Films…

Whilst I am sitting here, some films come to mind which I have always meant to note down somewhere, for various reasons. Some are, in my humble opinion at least, poignant and others are clever or beautifully produced. Others are just plain fun. In no order other than the one they appear to be in.

Memento, Donnie Darko, Blood Diamond, City Of God, In My Fathers Den, The Big Lebowski, Team America, SAW, SAW II, Something About Mary, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, Million Dollar Babe, Last King Of Scotland, Naked, The Kite Runner, Adventures of Mark Twain, Dead Mans Shoes, Apocalypto, Jacobs Ladder, The Devils Advocate, Bad Things, Mystic River, Das Boot….TBC

Blue Skies…

Ever since having done my first skydive about a year ago now, and most recently last August , I have been in a state of suspense. When I woke this morning I could feel that feeling. I looked to the sky and it was clear blue. In fact it still is. The weekend is looking very promising.  Video from my first tandems will be posted shortly. Unfortunately I didn’t get my 1st AFF jump filmed, because I was feeling tight and unwilling to part with another £100. I will have video of my next  (and all future?) jumps, courtesy of some crazy South African with a new headcam ;)   

All your passwords…

are belong to firewire…. Using inherent `flaws` in firewire technology (or not, as MS would have it) it is relatively trivial to get Direct Memory Access and to modify the password protection that’s stored in local memory. Guess it’s the `fire` in firewire that can burn you ;)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/04/windows_password_bypass_tool/

Tools and Sources from http://www.storm.net.nz/projects