4GiB limit, chunk download, what to use to demux and remux?

[Andy Waddington]

Sometime before sending, David Woodhouse typed (and on Sunday 2012-08-05 sent):
> This thread is starting to grate on my pedant's nerves.
> 
> It's 4GiB, not 4GB... or 4Gb or 4Gib.
> 
> 1GiB is 1024 * 1024 * 1024 bytes; 1,073,741,824 bytes.
> 1GB is 1000 * 1000 * 1000 bytes;  1,000,000,000 bytes.

That's a comparitively recent innovation, driven by disc manufacturers
who wanted a unit that made their discs sound bigger and computer people
who still need a symbol for a more natural unit of data. GB used to mean
what GiB means now, because disc manufacturers have more clout and weren't
compelled to name their unit something different, forcing the existing unit
to change meaning and resulting in gratuitous confusion (even if it is a
more sensible naming convention).

> 1Gb is 1000 * 1000 * 1000 *bits*;   125,000,000 bytes.
> 1Gib is 1024 * 1024 * 1024 bits;    134,217,728 bytes.

And that assumes an eight-bit byte, which is by far the most common
size nowadays, but didn't used to be so universal - I've used machines
with ten-bit bytes, and memory with a parity bit has nine-bit bytes
(even though only eight bits of actual information).

If you want a word which universally means an eight-bit unit, it's more
correct to use "octets", surely ?

Andy