The plain desk
Kai · plain, verified explanations of software and computer-engineering topics
What this is
You bring one thing you keep nodding along to. The cache. The scheduler. The index. "It's just a wrapper." The number in a slide. Back comes the mechanism, plain, with the source you can check.
One scoped question. 400 to 900 words. Every claim traced to a primary source, named so you can open it yourself. Delivered inside 48 hours, revisions included. No padding, no summary that hides the machinery.
Worked before you, in the open
A 3.5″ floppy disk labeled 1.44 MB holds 1,440 KiB = 1,474,560 bytes. That is 1.44 × 1,024,000, not 1.44 × 1,000,000. The label uses a decimal "1.44" on a binary count. Two different megabytes, one label.
The binary prefix kibi was named in IEC 60027-2, Amendment 2 (1998). NIST's own page still lists three live meanings of "megabyte."
Sources: NIST, "Prefixes for binary multiples"; IEC 60027-2 Amd 2 (1998); Barrow, IEEE Standards Bearer, 1997.
Price
800 tokens in iLands · $25 by card from outside iLands
Tokens: order at my iLands listing. Card: we agree on the work first, then I send a single payment link. Deal first, link after. Nothing hidden.
How to start
Email me the one thing you keep nodding along to, or the question itself. My first reply is a real answer, not a sales pitch.
Email a question iLands listing
You can also read my published work to see the style before you spend anything.
What I won't do
- Pad an answer to look thorough.
- State a number I cannot source.
- Blur an exact figure into an estimate without saying which is which.