1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:14,880 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:18,000 Speaker 1: Johan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 4 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:20,640 Speaker 1: And how the tech are you? It's time for a 5 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:23,400 Speaker 1: tech Stuff tidbits. And I thought it would be a 6 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:26,240 Speaker 1: good idea to do an episode to talk about bits 7 00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:28,960 Speaker 1: and bytes, largely because I think a lot of folks 8 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:32,560 Speaker 1: can confuse the two, include myself in that, and to 9 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:37,640 Speaker 1: be fair, it is confusing, like even when you're in 10 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:41,600 Speaker 1: the computer science field, this can get confusing. It's totally understandable. 11 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:44,960 Speaker 1: So we talk about data transfer rates in terms like 12 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:49,080 Speaker 1: megabits or gigabits per second, but we talk about data 13 00:00:49,159 --> 00:00:53,680 Speaker 1: storage in terms of gigabytes or terabytes. And then we 14 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:58,320 Speaker 1: talk about you know, memory in terms of megabytes or gigabytes, 15 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:01,360 Speaker 1: and we mean different negabytes and gigabytes that we do 16 00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:04,240 Speaker 1: with data storage. So it's not hard to get this 17 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:08,520 Speaker 1: stuff mixed up. But let's start with the bit. It's 18 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:12,160 Speaker 1: the easiest one to understand. So in computer terms, a 19 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:19,040 Speaker 1: bit is the smallest unit of information. So in computer data, 20 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:21,880 Speaker 1: you know analogies, you would call a bit the same 21 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:25,399 Speaker 1: thing as an atom. As like the building block for 22 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:31,040 Speaker 1: computer information, and a bit is a binary digit. It's 23 00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:36,280 Speaker 1: how we, you know, can talk about individual pieces of 24 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:39,440 Speaker 1: data and we represent it as being either a zero 25 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:42,440 Speaker 1: or a one. It's base two. It's a zero or 26 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:44,440 Speaker 1: a one. And I often say you can think of 27 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:47,320 Speaker 1: a bit kind of like an on or off switch, 28 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:49,920 Speaker 1: and you can say like, well, one means the switches 29 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:54,480 Speaker 1: on and zero means the switches off. John Wilder, two 30 00:01:54,560 --> 00:02:00,200 Speaker 1: key mathematician, suggested the term bit back in n So 31 00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:04,080 Speaker 1: we're talking about the very early days of modern computer science. 32 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 1: I mean a lot of groundwork had been laid by 33 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:10,960 Speaker 1: people like you know, Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace. But 34 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:15,440 Speaker 1: the late forties is really where we start getting the 35 00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:20,400 Speaker 1: foundation of modern computer science, and computers had been around 36 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:24,079 Speaker 1: a little bit, byn not by a lot. We were 37 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:28,040 Speaker 1: pretty young, um, and a lot of the computer technology 38 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:30,960 Speaker 1: actually evolved from earlier machines that were meant to do 39 00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: everything from count ballots to guide a loom when weaving 40 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:40,120 Speaker 1: a specific pattern. The evolution of the bit involves stuff 41 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:41,960 Speaker 1: like punch cards. But to get into all of that 42 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:45,000 Speaker 1: would be a little bit too much for a Tidbits episode. 43 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:48,680 Speaker 1: So two key coined this term, but it was Claude 44 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 1: Shannon who really popularized it in his work titled A 45 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:56,919 Speaker 1: Mathematical Theory of Communication. He credited credited two Key in 46 00:02:57,000 --> 00:02:59,920 Speaker 1: that work, so Shannon didn't try and pass this all 47 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:02,720 Speaker 1: phys his own idea. I think that's awesome because I 48 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:04,680 Speaker 1: don't see that a lot, you know, I see people 49 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:08,120 Speaker 1: using terms and not indicating that, hey, someone else actually 50 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:11,400 Speaker 1: thought this up. That wasn't Claude Shannon's style. Shannon was 51 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:13,959 Speaker 1: quick to credit to Key with coming up with the 52 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:19,680 Speaker 1: idea anyway. Shannon laid out the that a device capable 53 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:24,560 Speaker 1: of two stable positions or states such as off and on. 54 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:28,400 Speaker 1: There's the off state and the on state. Well, something 55 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:32,640 Speaker 1: like that can store one bit of information, and that 56 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:36,920 Speaker 1: this meant for in number of such devices you can 57 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:40,840 Speaker 1: store in bits of information. So, in other words, if 58 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:44,720 Speaker 1: you have twenty switches right, and each of the switches 59 00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:47,600 Speaker 1: has an on or off position, you can store up 60 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:51,800 Speaker 1: to twenty bits with that system. From there, Shannon dives 61 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:54,120 Speaker 1: into how this approach can be used to communicate on 62 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:58,680 Speaker 1: a computational basis. The paper itself is free to read online. 63 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:01,160 Speaker 1: You can find it again. You just just search for 64 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: the title, which was a mathematical theory of communication. It'll 65 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 1: pop right up and you can read it. Uh, it's 66 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 1: a technical document, and honestly, it's the kind of paper 67 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 1: where I need to have a separate tab open so 68 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,960 Speaker 1: I can look up terms and meanings just to try 69 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:20,400 Speaker 1: to keep up. And even that is being generous. It 70 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:23,760 Speaker 1: it is. Uh, someone in computer science totally makes sense 71 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:27,120 Speaker 1: to them, like, no no brainer. For someone like me 72 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:30,200 Speaker 1: with my background in English literature, it requires a bit 73 00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:32,919 Speaker 1: more homework on my part. But it is a truly 74 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:36,680 Speaker 1: fascinating and foundational piece of work in the computer science discipline. 75 00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:40,520 Speaker 1: But then, what can you represent if you have just 76 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 1: a single bit with a switch that's off or on. Well, 77 00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:49,200 Speaker 1: with just two states, you can't really represent anything terribly 78 00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:54,240 Speaker 1: useful for communication. Uh, you could do yes, no, but 79 00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:57,320 Speaker 1: that's it. Like you couldn't form a question. You could 80 00:04:57,360 --> 00:05:03,520 Speaker 1: just maybe given answer that's very very very simple, But 81 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:06,120 Speaker 1: you couldn't really process information with a single bit, like 82 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 1: a processors that can only handle one bit would be useless. 83 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:12,480 Speaker 1: So let's look at what happens when we have more 84 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:16,080 Speaker 1: bits in our disposal. Well, each bit again has two 85 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 1: potential states off on zero, one. But if you have 86 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:24,359 Speaker 1: two bits together, well, then you can get a shaven haircut. Sorry, 87 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:27,640 Speaker 1: that's a very ill dated dad joke. If you happen 88 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,640 Speaker 1: to know the whole shaven a haircut two bits, good 89 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:34,920 Speaker 1: for you. You might have appreciated that very bad joke 90 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,240 Speaker 1: I made. No. No. If you have two bits, you 91 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:42,120 Speaker 1: technically can represent four states with those two bits, right, 92 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:45,359 Speaker 1: you can have zero zero, that's the first one. You 93 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:48,680 Speaker 1: can have zero one, you could have one zero, or 94 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:50,600 Speaker 1: you could have one one. So with two bits you 95 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:56,160 Speaker 1: can represent four things. Well, what if you had four bits, Well, 96 00:05:56,240 --> 00:05:59,720 Speaker 1: that means you could represent sixteen different outcomes and they 97 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:03,840 Speaker 1: would range from zero zero, zero zero to one one 98 00:06:03,839 --> 00:06:06,920 Speaker 1: one one, and there will be sixteen different ones. If 99 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:09,480 Speaker 1: you had eight bits, you could represent up to two 100 00:06:09,640 --> 00:06:14,680 Speaker 1: hundred fifty six versions or outcomes. So the easy way 101 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:17,000 Speaker 1: to represent this is to take the number two. That 102 00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:19,600 Speaker 1: represents the number of states that each bit can have. 103 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:22,360 Speaker 1: You know, a zero or a one, that's two states. 104 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:24,840 Speaker 1: So you take the number two and you raise that 105 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:28,000 Speaker 1: too to a power equivalent to the number of bits 106 00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:31,720 Speaker 1: you're talking about. So eight bits is the same as 107 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:35,080 Speaker 1: saying two to the eighth power or two hundred fifty 108 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:40,040 Speaker 1: six potential values. So this means that as you double bits, 109 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:41,880 Speaker 1: you are you know, or as you increase bits, you 110 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:46,320 Speaker 1: are logarithmically increasing the number of potential states. So if 111 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:50,360 Speaker 1: we double eight bits to get sixteen bits, that doesn't 112 00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:55,120 Speaker 1: mean that we double two hundred fifty six to twelve. No, no, no, no, 113 00:06:55,520 --> 00:06:59,120 Speaker 1: it is two to the power of sixteen. That that 114 00:06:59,279 --> 00:07:02,800 Speaker 1: is sixty five thousand ft six. So you see that 115 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:07,240 Speaker 1: as you add bits to a system, you dramatically increase 116 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:09,600 Speaker 1: the number of states. In fact, every time you add 117 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:14,760 Speaker 1: a bit two systems capability of handling bits, you double 118 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:20,280 Speaker 1: the number of of potential values you can represent. So 119 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:24,080 Speaker 1: this is what I meant by a logarithmic increase. All right, 120 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:27,360 Speaker 1: So once you go with binary digits, you start to 121 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:29,440 Speaker 1: look at how many bits you need to do whatever 122 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:31,920 Speaker 1: it is you need to do. So let's say that 123 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 1: you want to start off just by representing the Latin alphabet, right, 124 00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:38,880 Speaker 1: You want to be able to use bits to designate 125 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:42,160 Speaker 1: letters of the alphabet and say this combination of bits 126 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:45,080 Speaker 1: means A, this one means B. Well, if you're just 127 00:07:45,120 --> 00:07:47,360 Speaker 1: looking at the number of letters in the Latin alphabet, 128 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:51,720 Speaker 1: we would need at least twenty six values. Right, we 129 00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:56,000 Speaker 1: would need twenty six different combinations in order to represent 130 00:07:56,680 --> 00:08:00,880 Speaker 1: the just the basic alphabet. Full were bits would let 131 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:05,200 Speaker 1: us sixteen values, so that's not enough, But five bits 132 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:07,760 Speaker 1: would give us thirty two as because two to the 133 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:12,360 Speaker 1: fifth power is thirty two. So with five bits we 134 00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:15,120 Speaker 1: could represent all the letters of the alphabet, and we'd 135 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:17,840 Speaker 1: have a couple of values left over where we could 136 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:22,800 Speaker 1: represent simple punctuation. However, we wouldn't be able to have 137 00:08:23,080 --> 00:08:25,760 Speaker 1: upper and lower case letters. All letters would have to 138 00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:28,640 Speaker 1: be the same case because each case would be a 139 00:08:28,760 --> 00:08:32,640 Speaker 1: state or a value of its own. So capital J 140 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,280 Speaker 1: and a lower case J would each require their own designations, 141 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:38,560 Speaker 1: and we don't have enough bits to do that. If 142 00:08:38,559 --> 00:08:40,560 Speaker 1: we have thirty two, we we would have have to 143 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:42,719 Speaker 1: have at least fifty two in order to do that, 144 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:46,040 Speaker 1: and we don't have that. We've got thirty two plus. 145 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:48,679 Speaker 1: We wouldn't be able to represent any numerals, or at 146 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:50,800 Speaker 1: least not all of them. Would just thirty two bits, 147 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:53,679 Speaker 1: unless we were to sacrifice some letters of the alphabet, 148 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:56,440 Speaker 1: because otherwise the alphabet takes up too many of the 149 00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:01,160 Speaker 1: states or values. Now, the term by began to pop 150 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:04,439 Speaker 1: up a little bit around this time to describe the 151 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:09,200 Speaker 1: number of bits engineers were using to represent a character set. So, 152 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:12,840 Speaker 1: for example, if we used five bits to represent all 153 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:15,520 Speaker 1: the characters in our set, which I mean again, we 154 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:18,560 Speaker 1: would be limited to thirty two characters, then we would 155 00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:23,959 Speaker 1: naturally refer to five bits as a byte in our system. 156 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:26,760 Speaker 1: And you've probably heard that eight bits are a byte. 157 00:09:27,080 --> 00:09:30,440 Speaker 1: Well they are now, but in the early days, what 158 00:09:30,559 --> 00:09:33,040 Speaker 1: you're referred to as a byte depended upon the system 159 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:36,600 Speaker 1: architecture you were working with at the time, so the 160 00:09:36,679 --> 00:09:41,280 Speaker 1: bite was not always in forever on men. Uh, you know, 161 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:44,480 Speaker 1: eight bits, that's not the way that worked. There were 162 00:09:44,520 --> 00:09:48,560 Speaker 1: five bit bytes, six bit bytes, seven bit bytes. Uh. 163 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:53,160 Speaker 1: These were all kind of hashing out over time as 164 00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:57,160 Speaker 1: various companies were building out computer systems. Also in the 165 00:09:57,160 --> 00:09:59,880 Speaker 1: early days of computing, designers created machines that had to 166 00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:03,760 Speaker 1: for an instruction set. Architectures, and some systems used a 167 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:08,000 Speaker 1: five bit sized word, which is a collection of bits 168 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:12,240 Speaker 1: that becomes the native unit of storage. By storage, we're 169 00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:14,880 Speaker 1: not just talking about storing data like in a hard drive. 170 00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:18,440 Speaker 1: We're really talking about storage in the sense of a 171 00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:20,880 Speaker 1: computer has to be able to hold onto a certain 172 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:25,400 Speaker 1: amount of information in order to process the information, you know, 173 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:28,160 Speaker 1: to execute some sort of operation on the data. So 174 00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:32,120 Speaker 1: you're you're essentially talking about was the processor's capacity, how 175 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:36,160 Speaker 1: much information can it hold in order to do operations 176 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:39,920 Speaker 1: on that data. So smaller word size means you are 177 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:44,680 Speaker 1: working with smaller amounts of information that the processor can handle, 178 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:47,040 Speaker 1: and it limits what your processor can do and thus 179 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:50,160 Speaker 1: limits what your computer can do. So when we talk words, 180 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:54,880 Speaker 1: we're talking about stuff like CPU registers, which temporarily store 181 00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:58,240 Speaker 1: small pieces of information while the CPU executes some sort 182 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:01,600 Speaker 1: of process on that data. Some early systems used five 183 00:11:01,679 --> 00:11:05,440 Speaker 1: bit words, some used six bit words. Uh, and then 184 00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:08,480 Speaker 1: they grew very quickly from there because that was so 185 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:12,000 Speaker 1: limited that you couldn't do much with them. All Right, 186 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:15,600 Speaker 1: we were just getting started. We're gonna take a quick break. 187 00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:17,960 Speaker 1: When we come back, we will continue to talk about 188 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:28,559 Speaker 1: bits and bites. Okay, So in the early days of computing, 189 00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:35,000 Speaker 1: the technological limitations would determine word length. So let's let's 190 00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:38,360 Speaker 1: review really quickly. A bit is a single unit of information. 191 00:11:38,400 --> 00:11:41,760 Speaker 1: It's either a zero or a one. A bite is 192 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:45,319 Speaker 1: a consecutive group of bits, which we used to represent characters, 193 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:49,120 Speaker 1: and a word refers to a consecutive number of bits 194 00:11:49,240 --> 00:11:53,600 Speaker 1: or bites, used primarily for CPU registers, and you can 195 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:55,800 Speaker 1: think of word size as being an indication of how 196 00:11:55,880 --> 00:11:59,640 Speaker 1: much information on computers CPU can handle for individual operations, 197 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:04,599 Speaker 1: large word size means the computer can handle bigger operations effectively. 198 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:08,679 Speaker 1: By the nineteen fifties, various companies began using a character 199 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:11,040 Speaker 1: set called b c D, which had you know at 200 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:13,720 Speaker 1: least forty eight characters in it, and to encode for 201 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:15,920 Speaker 1: the eight characters you would need to have at least 202 00:12:16,080 --> 00:12:19,440 Speaker 1: six bits, So the six bit bite became kind of 203 00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:22,679 Speaker 1: a standard for a while. By the time IBM was 204 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:25,760 Speaker 1: ready to introduce the System three sixty, the company had 205 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:30,160 Speaker 1: gravitated towards an eight bit size for bites. Now, technically 206 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:33,640 Speaker 1: the three sixty could get by with just seven bits 207 00:12:33,679 --> 00:12:36,240 Speaker 1: to represent all the characters that it was going to use, 208 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:41,200 Speaker 1: but programming is way easier if you're dealing with bites 209 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:45,600 Speaker 1: and words that are based on powers of two. Seven 210 00:12:45,679 --> 00:12:48,839 Speaker 1: is not a power of two, but eight is, so 211 00:12:49,160 --> 00:12:52,120 Speaker 1: bumping up the bite size from seven bits to eight 212 00:12:52,120 --> 00:12:54,839 Speaker 1: bits made more practical sense, and it also meant you 213 00:12:54,920 --> 00:12:57,920 Speaker 1: had two hundred fifty six values to play with instead 214 00:12:57,920 --> 00:12:59,800 Speaker 1: of a hundred twenty eight, which is what you would 215 00:12:59,800 --> 00:13:02,199 Speaker 1: get if you were using seven bits to a byte. 216 00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:06,400 Speaker 1: IBMS move would end up creating the foundation for bites 217 00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:09,640 Speaker 1: moving forward, though it didn't catch on immediately. So by 218 00:13:09,679 --> 00:13:12,720 Speaker 1: the time I was a kid learning about personal computers 219 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:16,040 Speaker 1: in the late seventies and early eighties, a byte was 220 00:13:16,200 --> 00:13:19,360 Speaker 1: pretty firmly established as being eight bits, and in fact, 221 00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:22,320 Speaker 1: I don't remember ever seeing anything that suggested that had 222 00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:24,600 Speaker 1: not always been the case. So I walked away with 223 00:13:24,600 --> 00:13:27,240 Speaker 1: the impression that, you know, a bit was always a 224 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:29,880 Speaker 1: zero or a one, and a byte had always been 225 00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:33,520 Speaker 1: eight bits, but the eight bit byte really wasn't standardized 226 00:13:33,559 --> 00:13:37,360 Speaker 1: until say, the early nineteen seventies. So you've got your bit, 227 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:40,959 Speaker 1: you've got your bite, which is eight bits and super quick. 228 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:44,880 Speaker 1: We should reference what prefixes like kilo, mega, giga, terra 229 00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:47,720 Speaker 1: or killa. This is that's the way most people say it, 230 00:13:47,760 --> 00:13:50,440 Speaker 1: and when they're talking about bytes and bits what those mean, 231 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:54,360 Speaker 1: And they come from metric prefixes, but bits and bytes 232 00:13:54,640 --> 00:13:57,440 Speaker 1: are not metric units, and when it comes to bites 233 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:01,880 Speaker 1: in particularly gets real confusing. So kilo or killa means 234 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:07,400 Speaker 1: one thousand, Mega means million, Giga means billion, Tera means trillion, 235 00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:10,559 Speaker 1: and you can go further. I mean, petta would be quadrillion, 236 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:13,400 Speaker 1: exa would be quintillion. So if you hear something like 237 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:17,120 Speaker 1: an exabyte, they're talking about the quintillion bytes and then 238 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:19,440 Speaker 1: it keeps on going up from there. But for the 239 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:22,600 Speaker 1: average person, terra is kind of where we max out 240 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:25,600 Speaker 1: when we're talking about modern personal computers, like a terabyte 241 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:28,200 Speaker 1: hard drive, that kind of thing. Now, let's talk about 242 00:14:28,840 --> 00:14:32,840 Speaker 1: data transfer speeds and computer storage and computer memory and 243 00:14:32,880 --> 00:14:35,280 Speaker 1: why we use terms like gigabit or gigabyte and what 244 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:38,920 Speaker 1: does actually mean. So when we're talking about transmission speeds, 245 00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:43,920 Speaker 1: we are framing the discussion in terms of bits per second. Uh. 246 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:49,640 Speaker 1: This also can kind of get a little confused with bandwidth. UH, 247 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:53,600 Speaker 1: that's pretty easy to confuse with transmission speed. Bandwidth describes 248 00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:56,440 Speaker 1: the capacity of a network. UH. In other words, the 249 00:14:56,440 --> 00:14:59,560 Speaker 1: amount of data that network can handle or transmit at 250 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:05,440 Speaker 1: any give and time. And networks are not infinitely capable 251 00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:08,360 Speaker 1: of handling data, they do have a cap This is 252 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:09,880 Speaker 1: one of those things that I s p s like 253 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,320 Speaker 1: to reference when they're talking about having to charge people 254 00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:16,480 Speaker 1: in arm in a leg to access the Internet because 255 00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:21,040 Speaker 1: there are capacity limits that a network will hit. Uh, 256 00:15:21,160 --> 00:15:22,960 Speaker 1: most of the time we don't get to the full 257 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,800 Speaker 1: capacity limit. But that's still the story we get told whenever, 258 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:30,120 Speaker 1: whenever it's time to pay the bill. So um, there's that. 259 00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:33,120 Speaker 1: But transmission speed is literally the rate at which data 260 00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:36,000 Speaker 1: crosses from one point in a network to another, and 261 00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:38,480 Speaker 1: that depends on a whole bunch of stuff, Like it 262 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:41,600 Speaker 1: can depend upon the distance between the two points, right, 263 00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:45,360 Speaker 1: Like if you are transferring data from a computer that's 264 00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:47,760 Speaker 1: on the opposite side of the world where from where 265 00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:51,560 Speaker 1: you are, that's going to affect the transmission speed as 266 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:54,760 Speaker 1: opposed to like a computer that's you know, a mile away. 267 00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:57,920 Speaker 1: Then like the kinds of connections, like what kinds of 268 00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:00,560 Speaker 1: wires are connecting you as a copper is it fiber? 269 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:05,720 Speaker 1: You know, that sort of stuff also determines the transmission speed. 270 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:08,840 Speaker 1: There are lots of other elements that do too, but 271 00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:12,520 Speaker 1: ultimately you figure out, you know, what your transmission speed is. 272 00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:16,720 Speaker 1: Here in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission currently 273 00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:20,480 Speaker 1: defines broadband internet speed as twenty five megabits per second down. 274 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:24,600 Speaker 1: That means the that's the data transfer rate that applies 275 00:16:24,600 --> 00:16:27,720 Speaker 1: to information that's coming from the Internet to your computer. 276 00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:31,640 Speaker 1: That that if it's twenty five megabits per second or faster, 277 00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:35,040 Speaker 1: then that means you have broadband access at least on 278 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:39,080 Speaker 1: the down download side, and three megabits per second up. 279 00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:41,520 Speaker 1: So this would be the speed at which your computer 280 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:44,680 Speaker 1: sends data back up to the Internet. So if you 281 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:47,720 Speaker 1: have twenty five megabits down and three megabits up, that 282 00:16:47,800 --> 00:16:51,200 Speaker 1: counts as broadband in the United States. Uh. And since 283 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:57,080 Speaker 1: mega means millions, that means million bits per second downloading, 284 00:16:57,440 --> 00:17:01,080 Speaker 1: three million bits per second uploading. By the way, there 285 00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:03,720 Speaker 1: are a lot of folks out there, including myself, who 286 00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:06,840 Speaker 1: say this definition is way too low and we should 287 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:10,600 Speaker 1: have a higher standard to qualify for broadband designation. And 288 00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:14,000 Speaker 1: that is important. It's not just semantics. It's important because 289 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:18,440 Speaker 1: there are various government initiatives that are dedicated to extending 290 00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:23,280 Speaker 1: broadband service too underserved regions and populations in the United States, 291 00:17:23,840 --> 00:17:26,800 Speaker 1: because people have recognized access to the Internet is one 292 00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:30,639 Speaker 1: of the most important elements to participating in modern society, 293 00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:35,720 Speaker 1: particularly during a pandemic. And so if you define broadband 294 00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:39,000 Speaker 1: as a very low standard, you're you're not really helping 295 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:41,919 Speaker 1: out people with these programs to get access to that 296 00:17:42,119 --> 00:17:44,480 Speaker 1: very low standard, like companies are going to do the 297 00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:47,080 Speaker 1: bare minimum they need to do in order to get 298 00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:51,560 Speaker 1: that access to those people. So you could argue that 299 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:56,560 Speaker 1: this definition would keep people at a technological disadvantage and 300 00:17:56,600 --> 00:18:00,280 Speaker 1: that we really should uh change the definition and to 301 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:05,800 Speaker 1: be more reflective of what broadband really is. Anyway, transfer 302 00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:10,640 Speaker 1: speeds are all in bits per second, and the prefixes kilo, mega, giga, 303 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:13,320 Speaker 1: and so on are very straightforward. Kill a bit is 304 00:18:13,359 --> 00:18:15,600 Speaker 1: a thousand bits, so I kill a bit per second. 305 00:18:16,960 --> 00:18:19,080 Speaker 1: Transfer speed would be terrible, but it would be a 306 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:21,560 Speaker 1: thousand bits per second, and a mega bit is a 307 00:18:21,560 --> 00:18:25,399 Speaker 1: million bits, so very easy to follow. But it is 308 00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:27,679 Speaker 1: a very different story when we talk about bites, and 309 00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:30,359 Speaker 1: it's confusing, is all heck to a lot of folks, 310 00:18:30,359 --> 00:18:33,840 Speaker 1: including folks in computer science. All right, So in the 311 00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:36,919 Speaker 1: early days, there was this real need to stick to 312 00:18:37,119 --> 00:18:41,440 Speaker 1: powers of two when you were talking about bites. Again, 313 00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:44,199 Speaker 1: this dates all the way back to the introduction of 314 00:18:44,240 --> 00:18:48,520 Speaker 1: the IBM system three sixty where executed IBM, we're saying no, no, no, 315 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:52,240 Speaker 1: let's let's just deal with powers of two. It simplifies things. 316 00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:57,720 Speaker 1: Otherwise stuff breaks down. So rather than describe one thousand bites, 317 00:18:57,800 --> 00:19:00,240 Speaker 1: you know that a killer bite is a thousand bights. 318 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:04,320 Speaker 1: It was more elegant within the computer science model to 319 00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:08,720 Speaker 1: describe a kilo bite as one thousand twenty four bites. 320 00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:11,520 Speaker 1: A thousand twenty four is the same thing as two 321 00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:15,800 Speaker 1: to the tenth power, but two to the tenth power 322 00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:19,159 Speaker 1: or one thousand twenty four. There there's no easy naming 323 00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:23,720 Speaker 1: convention to use for to describe one thousand twenty four bites, 324 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:27,080 Speaker 1: and the computer science world kind of appropriated kill a 325 00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:30,320 Speaker 1: bite to describe it, because a thousand twenty four is 326 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:33,160 Speaker 1: kind of like a thousand if you squint your eyes 327 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:37,320 Speaker 1: a little. From a computational standpoint, sticking with powers of 328 00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:42,160 Speaker 1: two made things easier. From a semantic standpoint, it done 329 00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:44,480 Speaker 1: mess things up because I kill a bit is a 330 00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:47,240 Speaker 1: thousand bits, But to kill a bite at least originally 331 00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:52,719 Speaker 1: was a thousand twenty four bites bud weight. It'll get worse, 332 00:19:52,960 --> 00:20:04,360 Speaker 1: I'll explain after we come back from this quick break. Okay, 333 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:08,159 Speaker 1: a kilobyte is a thousand twenty four bytes because we 334 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:10,320 Speaker 1: wanted to stick to that power of two things. Well, 335 00:20:10,359 --> 00:20:14,200 Speaker 1: then we get to megabyte. Well, mega means million, so 336 00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:18,440 Speaker 1: megabyte should mean one million bytes. But in those same 337 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:21,439 Speaker 1: little areas of computer science, particularly those dealing with like 338 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:25,920 Speaker 1: computer memory, that kind of stuff, a megabyte was really 339 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:29,680 Speaker 1: seen as actually being one million, forty eight thousand, five 340 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:34,480 Speaker 1: hundred seventy six bytes. And you might say, what, what why? 341 00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,720 Speaker 1: Well again, it's those powers of two, So a kilobyte 342 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:39,920 Speaker 1: was two to the tenth power. A megabyte was two 343 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:43,920 Speaker 1: to the twenty power or one thousand, twenty four squared. 344 00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:47,399 Speaker 1: But hey, one million, forty eight thousand, five d seventy 345 00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:49,159 Speaker 1: six bytes is kind of hard to say, right, So 346 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:52,880 Speaker 1: let's just call it a megabyte, right, It's called a megabyte. 347 00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:57,840 Speaker 1: Who's gonna care. By the late nineties, the International Electrochemical 348 00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:01,119 Speaker 1: Commission had had enough of this nonsense because it was 349 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:04,679 Speaker 1: causing tons of confusion. I mean, the computer science world 350 00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:07,639 Speaker 1: was going all humpty dumpty on the rest of us. Uh, 351 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:11,199 Speaker 1: if you don't understand that reference, Okay, And Alice and 352 00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:14,119 Speaker 1: through the looking glass there's this encounter she has with 353 00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:16,840 Speaker 1: Humpty dumpty, you know, the egg that sat on the wall, 354 00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:20,880 Speaker 1: and Humpty Dumpty says words mean whatever he wants them 355 00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:23,240 Speaker 1: to mean. He says, like, you know, the only question 356 00:21:23,280 --> 00:21:25,679 Speaker 1: is who who is to be the master the words 357 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:28,639 Speaker 1: or me? And I'm not letting the words push me around. 358 00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:30,960 Speaker 1: So when I use words, they mean exactly what I 359 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,159 Speaker 1: want them to mean. That's kind of what the computer 360 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:34,959 Speaker 1: science world was doing to the rest of us, And 361 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:37,879 Speaker 1: the brave among us said, Yo, you can't do that. 362 00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:42,680 Speaker 1: Words mean things. So anyway, the I e C made 363 00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:48,480 Speaker 1: a recommendation that KILLO, mega, giga, etcetera. Would mean the 364 00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:51,399 Speaker 1: same thing they mean in metric systems. So in other words, 365 00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:55,359 Speaker 1: if you use the word megabyte, you meant one million bytes. 366 00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:58,119 Speaker 1: And if you wanted to go to the power of 367 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:00,600 Speaker 1: two route like if you if you really wanted to 368 00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:06,280 Speaker 1: call one million, forty eight thousand bytes something, the I 369 00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:09,240 Speaker 1: e C said, well, don't use megabyte. That's confusing. Will 370 00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:12,600 Speaker 1: create a new designation. Call it a membe bite, m 371 00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:16,760 Speaker 1: E B I byte b y t E. So the 372 00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:18,920 Speaker 1: one thousand, twenty four version that wouldn't be called a 373 00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:22,040 Speaker 1: kilobyte anymore, that'd be called a kippi byte. And they 374 00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:24,639 Speaker 1: also went ahead and said the one thousand to twenty 375 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:26,920 Speaker 1: four to the third power or two to the thirty 376 00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:29,960 Speaker 1: power would no longer be a gigabyte. That would be 377 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:33,080 Speaker 1: a gimby byte, and one thousand twenty four to the 378 00:22:33,119 --> 00:22:36,560 Speaker 1: fourth power or two to the power would be a 379 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:40,040 Speaker 1: tabby byte, not a terabyte, and so on, and so 380 00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:43,119 Speaker 1: if you said gigabyte, you meant a billion bytes, and 381 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:47,000 Speaker 1: terabyte would be a trillion bytes. This was meant to 382 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:51,040 Speaker 1: clarify things so that everyone knew what people were talking 383 00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:55,119 Speaker 1: about when they were using a specific designation, and that 384 00:22:55,160 --> 00:22:57,760 Speaker 1: would clear everything up, except the computer science world at 385 00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:01,919 Speaker 1: large kind of ignored the suggestion. So there remains this 386 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:07,040 Speaker 1: use of the terminology that, depending upon the context, will 387 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:10,879 Speaker 1: mean one number of bites or a different number of bites. 388 00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:14,560 Speaker 1: Like if you're talking about RAM, for example, you're really 389 00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:16,920 Speaker 1: referring to the power of two version the base to 390 00:23:17,119 --> 00:23:21,080 Speaker 1: description in other words, like the one twenty four for 391 00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:24,160 Speaker 1: kill a byte. But if you're talking about hard drives, 392 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:27,280 Speaker 1: while you're typically talking about the base ten version, because 393 00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:31,800 Speaker 1: these days hard drives when they're marketed, are marketed toward that. 394 00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:36,240 Speaker 1: So a five hundred gigabyte hard drive is supposed to 395 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:40,240 Speaker 1: be five hundred billion bytes, although it's usually slightly off 396 00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:42,520 Speaker 1: from that, but it's supposed to be in that neighborhood, 397 00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:45,480 Speaker 1: and it's not you know, the the power of two 398 00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:49,760 Speaker 1: variation of of that. So yeah, it's all clear as mud. Right, 399 00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:52,879 Speaker 1: So kill a bit is different from a kilobyte, and 400 00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:56,320 Speaker 1: sometimes a kilobyte is different from a different kilobyte depending 401 00:23:56,359 --> 00:24:01,840 Speaker 1: on the context. Hurts main things here, science geeks, Now, 402 00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:03,680 Speaker 1: I'm not I'm actually I'm not so sure about that 403 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:06,480 Speaker 1: anymore the more I read into this, uh, and it 404 00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:10,320 Speaker 1: got more muddy too, because there's not really a universal 405 00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:15,520 Speaker 1: standard on how to abbreviate things like megabits versus megabytes, 406 00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:18,120 Speaker 1: so it can be confusing when you're reading a document 407 00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:22,200 Speaker 1: about whether or not the author means megabits or megabytes. Now, 408 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:24,120 Speaker 1: some folks will tell you it all depends on which 409 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:28,280 Speaker 1: letter in the abbreviation happens to be capitalized, but really 410 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:32,120 Speaker 1: that's not universal. You you really need to define those 411 00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:36,479 Speaker 1: abbreviations upfront for any given piece, because there's no formal 412 00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:39,120 Speaker 1: agreement on which one should be used. Where there are 413 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:41,840 Speaker 1: some schools and some scientists who have a preference that 414 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:45,720 Speaker 1: they demand folks follow, but again, it's not universal, so 415 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:49,280 Speaker 1: it doesn't really help. All right, But let's let's talk 416 00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:52,680 Speaker 1: quickly about using bytes and bits in a practical example, 417 00:24:53,119 --> 00:24:56,199 Speaker 1: why you would care. Let's say that you had a 418 00:24:56,280 --> 00:25:00,640 Speaker 1: single sided, single layer DVD and d v D has 419 00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:04,320 Speaker 1: a data storage capacity of four point seven gigabytes, and 420 00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:07,560 Speaker 1: in this case we do mean the base ten version, 421 00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:11,440 Speaker 1: so gigga does mean billion, not one thousand, twenty four 422 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:15,159 Speaker 1: to the third power, so we're talking four point seven 423 00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:18,800 Speaker 1: billion bytes of data. Now, let's say we want to 424 00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:21,240 Speaker 1: send a copy of the data that's on this DVD 425 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:25,480 Speaker 1: to a computer that's on our network. And let's say 426 00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:29,199 Speaker 1: that the connection between the two computers has a transmission 427 00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:31,600 Speaker 1: speed of three hundred megabits per second, which means it 428 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:36,360 Speaker 1: can transfer three hundred million bits every second. How long 429 00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,639 Speaker 1: will it take us to transfer the information on the 430 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:43,560 Speaker 1: DVD to the other computer. Well, we have to remember 431 00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:47,000 Speaker 1: that a bite is eight bits, so four point seven 432 00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:52,360 Speaker 1: billion bytes is actually thirty seven point six billion bits, 433 00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:55,320 Speaker 1: and we can move three hundred million bits per second. 434 00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:57,680 Speaker 1: So we do some division and we see that means 435 00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:00,000 Speaker 1: it will take us about a hundred twenty five seconds 436 00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:04,080 Speaker 1: or just over two minutes to transfer that full DVD 437 00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:06,679 Speaker 1: to the other computer. That's, of course, assuming that we 438 00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:10,160 Speaker 1: have a steady transfer speed, which never happens in real life, 439 00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:12,080 Speaker 1: but you know, for the sake of this example, we'll 440 00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:14,600 Speaker 1: just assume it works. And a lot of different stuff 441 00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:18,160 Speaker 1: effects transmission speed, including how many other devices are transmitting 442 00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:21,359 Speaker 1: data over that same network at that moment um, which 443 00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:25,680 Speaker 1: also again applies to the network's bannedwidth capacity. But yeah, 444 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:29,000 Speaker 1: you get the idea now. Remembering the bits versus bites 445 00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:31,440 Speaker 1: is really handy if you want to make some rough 446 00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:33,240 Speaker 1: estimates of how long it's going to take you to 447 00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:37,679 Speaker 1: download a specific something. I used the DVD example, but 448 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,439 Speaker 1: perhaps one that would be more applicable to folks listening 449 00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,200 Speaker 1: to this show would be if you wanted to download 450 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:46,280 Speaker 1: a game like, let's say, to your PC or to 451 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:50,760 Speaker 1: a console. Some games like Call of Duty, Black Ops, 452 00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:54,920 Speaker 1: Cold War are well over one hundred gigabytes in size, 453 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,399 Speaker 1: and since digital download has become a prevalent way that 454 00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,399 Speaker 1: gamers get access to games, that means you have to 455 00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:05,640 Speaker 1: download more than a hundred billion bytes or eight hundred 456 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:10,640 Speaker 1: billion bits of information to your console. And I imagine 457 00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:12,840 Speaker 1: a lot of folks out there don't have access to 458 00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:15,720 Speaker 1: an Internet connection that has a gigabit per second or 459 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:19,960 Speaker 1: faster transfer speed um. For example, I live in a 460 00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:23,720 Speaker 1: pretty nice area of Atlanta. I mean it's not the nicest, 461 00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:27,120 Speaker 1: but it's it's pretty nice, and and I max out 462 00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:30,720 Speaker 1: and around a hundred megabits per second under ideal conditions. 463 00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:32,879 Speaker 1: Most of the time, I'm somewhere in the fifty to 464 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:36,760 Speaker 1: sixty megabits per second range. I don't have access to 465 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:41,119 Speaker 1: gigabit fiber, I cannot get gigabit speeds, so fifty to 466 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:43,680 Speaker 1: sixty megabits per second is the best I can hope for. 467 00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:47,720 Speaker 1: So knowing your transmission speed plus remembering that it's eight 468 00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:50,480 Speaker 1: bits to a bite, can help you estimate how long 469 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:52,920 Speaker 1: it's going to take you to download that latest game. 470 00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:57,240 Speaker 1: For me, it usually means I'll download and it'll finish 471 00:27:57,320 --> 00:27:59,720 Speaker 1: shortly before the sequel to whatever it is I'm trying 472 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:04,040 Speaker 1: to download comes out. Okay, that's hyperbole, but not by 473 00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:09,080 Speaker 1: much anyway. I hope that this episode has cleared up 474 00:28:09,119 --> 00:28:12,600 Speaker 1: bits versus bites for most of you. It's it does 475 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,080 Speaker 1: get way more technical than what I went into. And 476 00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:18,320 Speaker 1: you know, we didn't talk about things like what is 477 00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:22,200 Speaker 1: a thirty two bits system versus a sixty four bit system? 478 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:24,679 Speaker 1: And you know, what does that mean effectively does that 479 00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:27,160 Speaker 1: Does that have anything to do with the computer speed? 480 00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:31,080 Speaker 1: What about things like processors and and how many bits 481 00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:35,160 Speaker 1: they can handle? Does that mean they're faster? Um? That 482 00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:39,080 Speaker 1: we might cover in a separate Tech Stuff Tidbits episode. 483 00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:41,040 Speaker 1: This was really just more of the basics of bits 484 00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:45,360 Speaker 1: versus bites and the confusing nature once you start getting 485 00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:48,640 Speaker 1: into you know, the kill a byte and megabyte and 486 00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:53,680 Speaker 1: gigabyte world, um, particularly if you're talking about RAM, because 487 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:55,640 Speaker 1: then you get back to that powers of two things 488 00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:59,120 Speaker 1: and I get it from the computer science world, like 489 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:02,280 Speaker 1: I get the idea, uh that working within base to 490 00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:06,840 Speaker 1: simplifies things massively and that therefore it makes way more 491 00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:11,240 Speaker 1: sense to to look at large collections of numbers in 492 00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:14,680 Speaker 1: terms of base two. Uh. But using the exact same 493 00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:19,440 Speaker 1: terminology that we use to describe other groups of like 494 00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:25,160 Speaker 1: data storage space. That's where that's where it grinds my gears, 495 00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:29,720 Speaker 1: As some of my fellow podcasters like to say. Anyway, 496 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:32,200 Speaker 1: hope that that was useful information for you. If you 497 00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:34,720 Speaker 1: have any suggestions for topics I should cover on tech stuff, 498 00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:38,120 Speaker 1: whether it's a tidbit, a company, a trend in tech, 499 00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:41,560 Speaker 1: anything like that, send me a message On Twitter, the 500 00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:43,960 Speaker 1: handle for the show is text Stuff H s W 501 00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:52,960 Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff 502 00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:56,200 Speaker 1: is an I heart Radio production. For more podcasts from 503 00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:59,959 Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app Apple Podcasts, 504 00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:02,080 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.