Bit vs Byte

[nq:1]If you, an average non techie, read or hear Bit or Byte, what do you think? Bit - small? Byte -> bite?[/nq]
Probably. Byte might be a misspelled bite.
For a techie: Bit = BInary digiT
Byte = 8 bits.
Interesting aside why don't we capitalize bit, being an initialism? Just another inconsistency from the early days of computing?

dg (domain=ccwebster)

don groves filted:
[nq:2]If you, an average non techie, read or hear Bit or Byte, what do you think? Bit - small? Byte -> bite?[/nq]
[nq:1]Probably. Byte might be a misspelled bite. For a techie: Bit = BInary digiT Byte = 8 bits. Interesting aside why don't we capitalize bit, being an initialism? Just another inconsistency from the early days of computing?[/nq]
Because it abbreviate

[nq:2]If you, an average non techie, read or hear Bit or Byte, what do you think? Bit - small? Byte -> bite?[/nq]
[nq:1]Probably. Byte might be a misspelled bite. For a techie: Bit = BInary digiT Byte = 8 bits. Interesting aside why don't we capitalize bit, being an initialism? Just another inconsistency from the early days of computing?[/nq]
Perhaps because some people use kb/s to mean

[nq:1]For a techie: Bit = BInary digiT Byte = 8 bits.[/nq]
For a real techie, a byte is not 8 bits. That is an octet. On some platforms a byte is also an octet.

Martin Ambuhl typed thus:
[nq:2]For a techie: Bit = BInary digiT Byte = 8 bits.[/nq]
[nq:1]For a real techie, a byte is not 8 bits. That is an octet. On some platforms a byte is also an octet.[/nq]
Well quite. On ICL 1900 machines, a byte was 6 bits and a word was 4 bytes.

David (moving to a new identity)
==
replace the first component of address with the defini

[nq:1]Martin Ambuhl typed thus:[/nq]
[nq:2]For a real techie, a byte is not 8 bits. That is an octet. On some platforms a byte is also an octet.[/nq]
[nq:1]Well quite. On ICL 1900 machines, a byte was 6 bits and a word was 4 bytes.[/nq]
All this talk of bits reminds me of a definition of Windows 95:

"32-bit extensions for a 16-bit patch to an 8-bit operating system orig

don groves filted:
[nq:2]Martin Ambuhl typed thus: Well quite. On ICL 1900 machines, a byte was 6 bits and a word was 4 bytes.[/nq]
[nq:1]All this talk of bits reminds me of a definition of Windows 95: "32-bit extensions for a 16-bit patch to an 8-bit operating system originally coded for a 4-bit microprocessor, written by a 2-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition"[/nq]
Y

[nq:1]For a techie: Bit = BInary digiT Byte = 8 bits.[/nq]
8 bits is an octet. A byte is the smallest addressable unit of storage.Often a byte is an octet, but other times it isn't.
Brian

[nq:1]Also, don't forget the Nybble (half a Byte, or 4 bits).[/nq]
Does anybody know whether it was originally spelled "nybble" or "nibble"? Looking at the Usenet archive, the first mention of "nibble" is 1/82, and for "nybble", it's 12/83, but I think the term itself goes back a few years before that.
It's actually useful to be able to talk about the high-order and low-order n(yi)bbles in

[nq:1]For a techie: Bit = BInary digiT Interesting aside why don't we capitalize bit, being an initialism?[/nq]
Not all acronyms get block-capitalized. Consider laser, radar, scuba, Pakistan. In this case of "but" there is an especially good reason not to: the word's natural meaning is also apposite, and one may reasonably argue that this, not the acronymic reading, is the primary reason why i