You’ve actually got that a bit twisted. Not saying the bigger number doesn’t benifit the ISPs, but it actually is the industry standard to use bits per second when measuring throughput. This is because data transfer is a continuous stream, whereas data at rest is chunked so when talking about storage we use bytes. It’s a bit weird but you get used to it.
See that’s where I think you’re still missing it. These are technical terms used by technical people. They were not designed to confuse people, they were designed to clarify the units IT people use in their work.
You might say this is confusing to the general public, and you may be right, but the people making this stuff weren’t thinking about average people at all. The idea these numbers would be plastered all over ISPs and SSDs weren’t even a consideration.
So it’s not bullshit, it’s not designed to confuse, it’s just a technical unit that is not well understood by most people, yet we live in a time when tech-specs are marketed by companies to average people.
my point is that if a unit is used for public facing specs. it shouldn’t be confusing. doing so is confusing. experts in their field area one thing, but we can’t expect the general public to know mbps and MBps are different things.
I see what you mean, but what do you propose? The units already exist and they are the industry standard. Should new units of measure be made up just for consumers, or should all numbers but on consumer devices be locked to using only one of them? Who decides what’s consumer packaging and what’s not?
It’s a sticky situation. I think while it may be confusing, the vast majority of people aren’t paying much attention and it’s probably not a big enough deal to do anything about it. The units are most often used correctly as in I can’t imagine an ISP or a router advertising their speeds in Bytes, likewise I don’t see any RAM or storage advertised in bits, so it’s usually an apples to apples comparison anyway.
just to change the convention, and as a rule of thumb, not have units that are spelled the same. so maybe the most common expected one by the public should remind mbps, and the other one should be spelled out “mbytes/second” at least in public facing specs, if it is an academic or technical paper that is fine.
Same way we avoid homophonics in a sentence otherwise we end up with Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
Right, and it’s sort of a historical quirk, as well. You always need to compare your speed to what came before. That logic stretches back to computers that did not use 8 bits per byte, but still communicated over various channels to other computers.
And then there’s just plain marketing. Not just that it makes the number 8 times higher, but that any one ISP that chose to advertise in MBps rather than Mbps would suddenly look like they’re slower. It needs to be mandated for everyone as a regulatory rule or it just won’t work at all.
You’ve actually got that a bit twisted. Not saying the bigger number doesn’t benifit the ISPs, but it actually is the industry standard to use bits per second when measuring throughput. This is because data transfer is a continuous stream, whereas data at rest is chunked so when talking about storage we use bytes. It’s a bit weird but you get used to it.
thanks for the answer, it would be nice if we just used a single unit, and it is annoying that both are mbps.
Ah, I see the confusion, and it’s understandable. Look for if the “B” is capitalized or not.
Mb, Gb, etc = bits
MB, GB, etc = bytes
Think the larger letter is the larger size.
yhea, once you know you know, like the difference between pyrex and PYREX.
however, is still bullshit and designed to confuse people.
See that’s where I think you’re still missing it. These are technical terms used by technical people. They were not designed to confuse people, they were designed to clarify the units IT people use in their work.
You might say this is confusing to the general public, and you may be right, but the people making this stuff weren’t thinking about average people at all. The idea these numbers would be plastered all over ISPs and SSDs weren’t even a consideration.
So it’s not bullshit, it’s not designed to confuse, it’s just a technical unit that is not well understood by most people, yet we live in a time when tech-specs are marketed by companies to average people.
i think we both agree but differently.
my point is that if a unit is used for public facing specs. it shouldn’t be confusing. doing so is confusing. experts in their field area one thing, but we can’t expect the general public to know mbps and MBps are different things.
I see what you mean, but what do you propose? The units already exist and they are the industry standard. Should new units of measure be made up just for consumers, or should all numbers but on consumer devices be locked to using only one of them? Who decides what’s consumer packaging and what’s not?
It’s a sticky situation. I think while it may be confusing, the vast majority of people aren’t paying much attention and it’s probably not a big enough deal to do anything about it. The units are most often used correctly as in I can’t imagine an ISP or a router advertising their speeds in Bytes, likewise I don’t see any RAM or storage advertised in bits, so it’s usually an apples to apples comparison anyway.
just to change the convention, and as a rule of thumb, not have units that are spelled the same. so maybe the most common expected one by the public should remind mbps, and the other one should be spelled out “mbytes/second” at least in public facing specs, if it is an academic or technical paper that is fine.
Same way we avoid homophonics in a sentence otherwise we end up with Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
Right, and it’s sort of a historical quirk, as well. You always need to compare your speed to what came before. That logic stretches back to computers that did not use 8 bits per byte, but still communicated over various channels to other computers.
And then there’s just plain marketing. Not just that it makes the number 8 times higher, but that any one ISP that chose to advertise in MBps rather than Mbps would suddenly look like they’re slower. It needs to be mandated for everyone as a regulatory rule or it just won’t work at all.