Right now, more than 15 billion miles from Earth, a 48-year-old spacecraft is hurtling through interstellar space at 38,000 miles per hour.
  • otp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    51·
    3 days ago

    A kilobyte must have sounded like so much memory back then.

    A byte is 8 bits. Even if we want to call bits quarters ($0.25) and bytes dollars, 69KB would be $69,000! That’s a lot of dollars.

    (And it’s actually 1,024 or something instead of 1,000, which just increases it that much more).

    It’s crazy how KBs used to be incredibly meaningful, and now we’re buying multi-TB drives like they’re nothing!

    EDIT: Math fail. Let’s say TWO bits are a quarter…lmao

    • pemptago@lemmy.mlEnglish
      8·
      3 days ago

      Wouldn’t a byte be $2 if a bit was a quarter, or do you mean 2 bits are a quarter? Also i think you were right to use powers of 10 in your estimate. Article says kilobyte, not kibibyte. I really like what your conversion illustrates, I’m just tripping up on the details. I could be wrong-- commenting so someone can correct me if i am-- if a bit is a quarter, 69 Kilobytes would be $138,000

      • otp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        LOL…yes. should’ve been an Eighth, but we don’t have a coin for that.

        Your math is right. I was just thinking of a Byte as $1.00 and going from there. Then remembered that bits are smaller, but they shouldn’t be $1 because a single bit is not very powerful. But making it worth $1 or $0.01 would make the math messier.

        But yes. Two bits are a quarter is probably the best compromise! Lol