this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
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[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

100 mbps? That's 100 millibits per second, or 0.1 bits per second. I'd certainly hope for better bandwidth than one bit every ten seconds; that's slower than smoke signals.

[–] simple@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I wish we can all move to MB/s and get rid of the endless confusion on names

[–] thantik@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We should change to mibibits! We need easily factored numbers of 10, not this old powers of 2 stuff! (/s if it wasn't obvious)

[–] Bassman1805@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Sarcasm noted, but: mibi/gibi are the powers of 2 version.

We all say megabit or gigabit when talking about internet speeds, but in many cases under the hood it's actually measured in mibi/gibibits. Just means it's 2% more when converted into base 10 ;)

[–] UntouchedWagons@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

How about Mebinibbles?

[–] greybeard@lemmy.one 4 points 1 year ago

I say we split the different and go for nibbles per fortnight.

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The reason we don't is because the network does not care how the files you transfer are formatted.

It measure the amount of bits it can transfer.

Whether the file in question is for example a text document (8bit) or a HEIF (10bit)

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Mbps, megabits per second, is the standard. No idea why this author opted to use the highly unusual millibit.

[–] calavera@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

I almost replied saying you had no idea you were talking about, but then I realized.... Lol

[–] antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Except that’s like dividing by zero. A millibit is undefined. A bit is the smallest indivisible unit of digital information.

But capitalization is important to distinguish between b for bit and B for Byte.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No, that's like dividing by 1,000.

Anyway, computer scientists split the bit back in 1969, which is how we're able to make smaller and smaller computers: the bits are all smaller, so we can pack more into a single potato chip.

[–] antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

Lol thanks for the chuckle

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago

Information entropy is measured in bits, and the bits are almost always fractional.

[–] Pretzilla@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Good catch but not quite. bps is a rate so it is allowed to be an abstract expression.

How many chickens per hour cross the road?

And more importantly, why.

[–] poopsmith@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

If you had really slow Internet, like smoke signals or semaphores across a nation, you could characterize it as millibit:

1 bit over 1000 seconds = 1 millibit/s.

But yeah, it's basically meaningless in today's age for Internet speeds.

[–] SaltySalamander@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're right, I'm horny for words.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

I tried to get it to point to my username (but it's cool if you want to argue)

[–] thesmokingman@programming.dev -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The title used the wrong abbreviation and you didn’t read the linked press release. The previous standard was 25/3 Mbps so there’s no reason to downgrade; had you bothered to read the link you’re supposedly commenting on you’d see the new standard is 100/20 Mbps. That’s also laughably low for a regular household with a modicum of modern usage but we can’t really expect much from agencies under regulatory capture.

They were making a joke about units and the use of a lowercase m instead of an uppercase M for Megabits per second.....