Comment Re:1 GB Google fiber service (Score 4, Interesting) 120
Yeah, there really is some ignorance towards basic computing terms out there.
If the service was 1 GB/s, then that'd be 8 Gb/s. Let alone that the fine summary says "1 GB Google fiber service", so is wrong twice over by using B and no '/s' or 'ps'.
All laughing aside, data transfer speed is rated in bits per second (bps or b/s), while data storage capacity is rated in Bytes (B), with a capitalised prefix T/era, G/iga, M/ega. There's a huge difference between B/b, and even major stores which sell lots of computer equipment get them mixed up. I'm sure I don't need to preach to the converted, as they say, but I've started so I'll finish..
I'm often annoyed by things like "portable 500 Gb drive" which if such an ad was correct should only have 62.5 GB of space. The same the other way around where Internet (capital I) service providers sometimes use B when advertising speeds. It doesn't help when the idiots who should know what they're on about say the wrong things for such simple matters.
Maybe it should've said "125 MB/s Google fiber service" (which I know is the wrong way to report data speed, unless you're trying to simplify how fast you can pillage the Internet with your download speed in an easy-to think of way), but then that would confuse the poor common IT-illiterate users into thinking that it was wasn't "big" and "fast".
Likewise, but on a tangent, years ago the memory in a computer wasn't a large selling factor, but now laptops are advertised with the memory size before the drive space. This can only help to confuse users when they see "Intel Pentium Dual Core 4GB 500GB 14" HD LED..." for sale. Previously the standard used to be drive space before memory size, and sometimes is still done that way today. No fixed standard. Does it have a 4 GB drive with 500 GB memory?! Of course not, but I'm sure some might still ask the question in bewilderment.
For the record, I've only got 30 Mb/s service here in the UK from Virgin.