Computers clump zeros and ones into packets of eight called ' Bytes', but to speak of Kilobytes is an insult to the Binary System. When Ubergeeks talk kilobytes , they are not referring to thousands of the things , but two to the tenth power of them-- 32 times 32 is 1024 , not 1000
In 2002 , Roy Williams pointed out that any Richter Scale defining the quantitative impact of Information will err by millions if gigabytes are rounded off to eight billion bits- Yet as this list illustrates, a million isn't what it used to be:
- A bit is the information in one coin toss - yes or no, 1 or zero, win or lose.
- A byte is 8 bits ; 5 bits approximate the information in the letter A.
A kilobyte is about one handwritten page.
- 50 kilobytes: The Constitution of the United States
- 75 kilobytes: Executive Summary of new UN global warming report
- 250 kilobytes: an editorial cartoon
A megabyte is 220 bytes
- 1 megabyte: a rather short novel .
- 2 megabytes: a sharp color photograph.
- 5 megabytes: Shakespeare's Works
- 25 megabytes The actual UN global warming report
- 100 megabytes: A yard of books.
- 500 megabytes: a CD
A gigabyte is 230 bytes
- 1 gigabyte : the human genome , or a ton of books.
- 10 gigabytes: a BlueRay DVD of The Matrix Trilogy
20 gigabytes: The Complete Mozart in very high fidelity
- 250 gigabytes: the ground floor of Harvard's Widener Library
a terabyte is 240 bytes.
- ~ 1 terabyte: the sum of all Federal , State and City regulations
- 2.5 terabytes: Everything in Widener Library.
- 5 terabytes: every article in every academic journal printed last year.
- 10 terabytes: The Library of Congress.
40 terabytes: every word in all the hardcover books printed last year
- 50 terabytes: all of last year's mass market periodicals.
- 60 terabytes: all the audio CDs sold last year.
- 150 terabytes: all the newspapers printed in 2006.
A petabyte is ~ 1015 bytes--250 to be exact.
- 1 petabyte: last year's global production of office documents.
- 3 petabytes: all the libraries in America.
- 10 petabytes: all the film Hollywood ran through its cameras in 2006
- 400 petabytes: every snapshot taken in 2006
An exabyte is 260 bytes .
2 exabytes: the capacity of all hard disks produced last year
5 exabytes: every word so far spoken.
- 6 exabytes: the DNA of everyone living
- 10 exabytes: everything on videotape
- 2 exabytes: the capacity of all hard disks produced last year
- A zettabyte is the estimated total cell phone pixel capture by the year 2018
- A yottabyte is how many atoms can dance on the head of a terapin.