So hard drives woud be priced in the 5 p$/b range.

 

A billion is 10^9 in most parts of the world. Except with a few folks in Minden. What do expect from living between Carnarvon and Norland!

Sheeesh!

 

Except a few folks?

The forum poll is currently at 14 votes and 21% voted for the old 10^12 billion. (I voted for 10^9 billion).

Now we just need a vote to get rid of that stupid dB thing once and for all.

 

A thousand is 1000 ones.
A million is 1000 thousands.
A billion is 1000 millions.
A trillion is 1000 billions.
etc.

Seems plain enough to me.

 

The forum poll is currently at 14 votes and 21% voted for the old 10^12 billion. (I voted for 10^9 billion).

Heck, it makes no difference to me anyway. I'll never have anything like 10^9 or 10^12 dollars, or even pennies, or farthings. Numbers like that are not a part of real experience for most of us.

Interesting to note that Larry Ellison has something like 4x10^12 dollars, so he's a billionaire either way. Further interesting to note, in 2010 he took $1.8x10^9 in pay, not in stock options or net increase in stock holdings, but $1.8x10^9 in cash. To make it even further interesting, he actually put Oracle into the red to do it. Finally, the real head scratcher, the shareholders and board of directors still kept him on as CEO. Whaaa...?

A couple of other little facts around this.
> According to the 2010 Canadian Census, he took home more than every man, woman and child employed in the town of Sudbury, Ontario.
> According to US demographic data, he took home more than 40,000 average US wage earners.

WhY wOuLd hE NeEd MoRe BiLlIoNS???? HaS He NoT gOt EnOuGh?? WhAt Is WrOnG WiTh HiS BrAiN??? I think we should award him the "Most Evil Man in the World" award.

I certainly do not understand billions of any kind in viceral terms, just as terms in science problems.

So...billions is as billions does...I guess,

 

Did you used to have farthings in Canada too?
We had them back when there were still 240 pence in the pound.

 

1 Terabyte is a trillion. We are approaching petabyte (10E15) and exabytes (10E18).

 

Interesting to note that Larry Ellison has something like 4x10^12 dollars, so he's a billionaire either way.

He's worth 4 trillion?

You might want to check your sources?

I think you are off by a factor of 100. Forbes has his total worth at $41 billion ($4.1x10^10).

 

I think you are off by a factor of 100.

Exactly. See? Means nothing to me...

 

Did you used to have farthings in Canada too?
We had them back when there were still 240 pence in the pound.

No, not in Canada, but I was born in Ireland.

 

Anyone remember when a penny was worth two cents?

And four farthings in a penny?

 

I remember the 4 farthings to the penny.

 

I was auditing a crypto course one time and the instructor was using coins as an example of things that can represent two states. At one point he said something like, "So each coin is 1 bit; and I piped up, 'Unless it's a quarter in which case it's two bits!" Most of the cadets didn't get it.

 

LOL. Reminds me of someone I know.

You must be a cool genius, just like me!

Funny though, I used to get called a trouble maker. It was meant to put me in my place. Problem is, they had no idea where my place was. Now I wear the moniker with pride.

 

The talk ended up revolving around money, but it's natural that sums that big don't mean anything to us mere mortals when expressed in currency.
I still can't decide if I could live for the rest of my life with 10 million euros or if it's too little. I just can't wrap around the number in my mind. I 'd need pen and paper for that.

I had scientific purposes in mind when I brought up the subject.

 

The talk ended up revolving around money, but it's natural that sums that big don't mean anything to us mere mortals when expressed in currency.
I still can't decide if I could live for the rest of my life with 10 million euros or if it's too little. I just can't wrap around the number in my mind. I 'd need pen and paper for that.

I had scientific purposes in mind when I brought up the subject.

I don't think there are all that many scientific venues in which "billion" would be used over gigasomethings. So, fortunately, it probably isn't too much of a point of confusion in technical circles (except when talking about funding!).

 

Hm... I guess you are right. We use Giga for Herz and beyond that I can't think of another unit right now that need that prefix.

Must be the completionist in my head acting up. However, I do remember having a lot of problems in high school that had such big quantities.

 

bi means two.....that means thousand thousand,hence million million is a billion....sounds funny

 

Hm... I guess you are right. We use Giga for Herz and beyond that I can't think of another unit right now that need that prefix.

Must be the completionist in my head acting up. However, I do remember having a lot of problems in high school that had such big quantities.

Like I said, computer memory slings Giga around with ease, and we are firmly in Tera. It keeps growing.

 

The talk ended up revolving around money.

A billion used to be a million million (10^12).

The US financial world changed a billion to be a thousand million (10^9).

In the scientific world, we avoid the ambiguity by using 10^9 or 10^12.