+++
date    = "2024-09-09T21:06:40+00:00"
lastmod = "2024-09-09T21:06:40+00:00"
tags    = [ "musings" ]
+++

I [sometimes forget](/tdro/messages/crawl) that
[KiB](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobyte) style units are confusing. The
{{< abbr kB "1000 bytes" >}} / {{< abbr KB "1024 bytes" >}} is practically
ambiguous. Kibi is "2 to the 10" or 1024 (binary), but...

> 1 kB &asymp; 1 KB &asymp; 1 KiB &asymp; 1000 B &asymp; 1024 B? Read my mind?

The [SI](https://www.britannica.com/science/International-System-of-Units)
metric system is still a great feat though and unifies primary dimensions
(length) on equivalent units (meters). Instead of hands, inches, feet, chains,
furlongs, barleycorns, rods, and links --- it's just meters prefixed arbitrarily.
Time's probably messed up though.

True story: I saw a '6 soft white rolls' bread package morph into "6 50 foot
white rolls" because of metric illness.