Where is Electronically Stored Information? It’s Everywhere! - Electronically Stored Information - page 87

The. standard. is. called. the. American. Standard. Code. for.
Information.Interchange.(ASCII). *
So,. without. getting. any. deeper. into. the. engineering. of.
computer. communications,. sufice. it. to. say. that. everything.
you. see. on. your. computer. screen,. all. the. data. that. will. be.
important. if. you. need. to. capture,. organize,. preserve,. and.
produce.electronic.data,.all.the.coding.that.runs.the.applica-
tions.that.allowed.you.to.create.that.data.or.locate.or.look.at.
that.data,.basically.everything.that.happens.inside.of.a.digital.
device.all.depend.on.those.bits.and.bytes.of.information.and.
the.way.they.are.organized.
As. you. probably. igured. out. by. now,. data. storage. on. a.
computer.is.often.referred.to.with.terms.that.end.in.the.word.
bytes ..Or.you.may.have.heard.it.referred.to.without.the. bytes .
part.and.wondered.what. megs .and. gigs .were.
Well,.think.about.those.bytes.of.data..As.you.can.imag-
ine,.it.takes.quite.a.few.of.those.to.create.a.sentence,.or.a.
section.of.code..If.you.put.a.thousand.of.them.together,.it.
would. be. a. pretty. good. number. to. start. with. wouldn't. it?.
Well,. there. you. go—one. thousand. bytes. is. a. kilo. of. bytes,.
better.known.as.a.kilobyte.
One.thing.I.need.to.make.clear.however,.so.I.don't.get.in.
trouble.with.the.geeks.out.there,.is.that.a.kilobyte.isn't.actu-
ally.1,000.bytes..If.we.were.dealing.with.decimal.notation.that.
would.work,.but.because.this.is.binary,.we.have.to.use.binary.
notation.and.binary.math..So,.a.kilobyte.is.symbolized.by.2.to.
the.10th.power.(2 10 ),.which.adds.up.to.1,024.bytes..A.mega-
byte.would.be.2.to.the.20th.power,.which.equals.1,048,576.
bytes..So,.the.numbers.we.talk.about.are.not.exact,.but.they.
are.close.enough.to.give.you.the.idea.
There.is.a.quote.that.has.often.been.attributed.to.Bill.Gates.
(but.that.he.vehemently.denies.ever.making).that.640.[kilo-
bytes.of.storage].should.be.enough.for.anybody. † .Whether.he.
*. http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9907/06/1963.idg/index.html..
Retrieved.2011-02-12.
†. https://groups.google.com/group/alt.folklore.computers/msg/.99ce4b.0555.bf.
35f4?pli=1..Retrieved.2011-02-12.