The 'wondering about stuff' thread

[Adam Easy Wishes]

Does it not need room for the OS?

[Monster Zero]

Does it not need room for the OS?

That could be it...but I don't see why I should pay for music capacity that is being used up by that. They should have that over and above. Or sell it as 150 GB. Fuck them, capacity shortchanging bastards.

[MattJimF]

It's all to do with the formatting of the drive. Normal hard drives suffer this as well.

Formatting really doesn't take up any space. The "perceived" space loss is a result of the conversion from base-10 (how HDD manufactures list space) to base-2 (how the computer writes/reads data).

If you want to know how much space you'll be able to use, just multiply the HDD specified space by a value of 0.93 (or to be entirely accurate, 0.93132257462). The formatting method (FAT/FAT32/NTFS/HFS etc.) doesn't really matter. Just multiply by 0.93.

Technically, GB (gigabyte) stands for base-10 and GiB (gigibyte) stands for the base-2. When you click on My Computer and view your space, while it says GB, it's actually GiB. No one really uses GiB though, and so GB ends up standing for both, and that's where the confusion is.

1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes (how HDDs are manufactured)

1GiB = 1,073,741,824 bytes (how software actually sees and uses HDD space)

40GB = 37GiB

80GB = 74GiB

100GB = 93GiB

120GB = 111GiB

160GB = 148GiB

200GB = 186GiB

250GB = 232GiB

300GB = 279GiB

320GB = 297GiB

400GB = 372GiB

500GB = 465GiB

750GB = 697GiB

1000GB = 930GiB

Taken from Hard Drive Format Capacity? - Sharky Forums

[Monster Zero]

OK I can't argue with the nerdy science behind it. Cunts.

[Alkaline]

I've owned a few different variations over the years and they have always had a bit less, but it's the fact that it's 11 GB less in this case...but you are right, the percentage works out much the same....I may send a letter that will be no doubt completely ignored to enquire...

How Mac OS X and iOS report storage capacity

The last paragraph hints on the real reason, as with most hard drives, as to why there is only x amount of available space compared to actual hard drive space.

[Alkaline]

It's all to do with the formatting of the drive. Normal hard drives suffer this as well.

Taken from Hard Drive Format Capacity? - Sharky Forums

Dammit fast fingers, i was just on the case

[soundian]

It's all to do with the formatting of the drive. Normal hard drives suffer this as well.

Taken from Hard Drive Format Capacity? - Sharky Forums

It's not the formatting that takes up space, as the article points out.

Unfortunately hardly anyone uses GiB to refer to base2, which would clear up any confusion. I believe EU law states that GB refers to 10^9 bytes and GiB refers to 2^30 bytes, so manufacturers and retailers should sell items labelled correctly. Probably one of the reasons we don't see this too often is because you can just label it GB and you'll either get what you paid for (1,000,000,000 bytes) or more than you paid for (1,073,741, 824 bytes). No one is going to sue because they got more than they paid for.

[Bigsby]

I don't know all about this stuff, but I would like to recommend that everyone with an ipod dumps iTunes and gets Sharepod instead, much, much better.

[Hugh_Jazz]

As a geologist, I thought this was a cool WTF moment.

Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California has a phenomena called the Sliding Stones:

Some of these rocks are hundreds of kilograms in weight, yet are apparently moved by natural forces. Question is, how?

Many neighbouring rocks, often of very different size, follow congruent paths i.e. they begin moving, and end moving at the same point e.g:

Some even turn sharp corners e.g.:

A few facts about Death Valley......it is extremely hot and dry (< 2" of annual rainfall on average), but when it rains, it rains hard. The playa is almost perfectly flat, but is surrounded by mountains. Annual temperature maxes out at >50degC, but can go sub-zero during the winter.

See if you can guess how this happens, without the use of Google. Fact is, nobody really knows how this happens.

I think this is cool as fuck.

[Monster Zero]

Aliens. Pranksters that they are. Shifting big stanes and making circles in fields.

[Chris]

As a geologist, I thought this was a cool WTF moment.

Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California has a phenomena called the Sliding Stones:

Some of these rocks are hundreds of kilograms in weight, yet are apparently moved by natural forces. Question is, how?

Many neighbouring rocks, often of very different size, follow congruent paths i.e. they begin moving, and end moving at the same point e.g:

Some even turn sharp corners e.g.:

A few facts about Death Valley......it is extremely hot and dry (< 2" of annual rainfall on average), but when it rains, it rains hard. The playa is almost perfectly flat, but is surrounded by mountains. Annual temperature maxes out at >50degC, but can go sub-zero during the winter.

See if you can guess how this happens, without the use of Google. Fact is, nobody really knows how this happens.

I think this is cool as fuck.

Flash floods? Ice forming and pushing the rocks as the moisture expands?

Those are my guesses. I'm away to look it up though, if there's wiki article it should go into the good reading on wikipedia thread.

[Soda Jerk]

I don't know all about this stuff, but I would like to recommend that everyone with an ipod dumps iTunes and gets Sharepod instead, much, much better.

What's different/better about it? I only open iTunes to drag and drop folders of MP3's I've ripped onto my iPod, with the artwork attached. Then I'm done, and it's closed again.

I agree iTunes is mince, but I use it for the very bare minimum, so don't have too many complaints, except for how long it takes to load.

[Bigsby]

What's different/better about it? I only open iTunes to drag and drop folders of MP3's I've ripped onto my iPod, with the artwork attached. Then I'm done, and it's closed again.

I agree iTunes is mince, but I use it for the very bare minimum, so don't have too many complaints, except for how long it takes to load.

It's a nifty little program that is actualy stored on your iPod. Therefore you can drag and drop MP3s on or OFF your iPod for any computer you connect it to. No need for 100mb of bloatware on your computer and all the limitaions of iTunes.

[Shaki]

Aliens. Pranksters that they are. Shifting big stanes and making circles in fields.

Either that or God. The Lord moves (stones) in mysterious ways.

[Hugh_Jazz]

Flash floods? Ice forming and pushing the rocks as the moisture expands?

Those are my guesses. I'm away to look it up though, if there's wiki article it should go into the good reading on wikipedia thread.

Reckon that's pretty close.

Best I could come up with was that the playa floods and makes the clay slippery...and then it freezes over into a thin ice sheet (floating on water). High winds then blow the "ice sheet" creating the sliding trails, this explains why rocks of various sizes can move the same distance and in the same direction, because they're locked within the ice sheet and their positions relative to each other remain the same

If the wind direction changes, the entire ice sheet will move in a different direction....hence the "corners" in the slide paths that the rocks take.

Doubt this is 100% right.....I've still got a hard time believing that a 300kg rock, will essentially float on a 2" deep lake.

Nature is ace.

[Guest Gladstone]

Reckon that's pretty close.

Best I could come up with was that the playa floods and makes the clay slippery...and then it freezes over into a thin ice sheet (floating on water). High winds then blow the "ice sheet" creating the sliding trails, this explains why rocks of various sizes can move the same distance and in the same direction, because they're locked within the ice sheet and their positions relative to each other remain the same

If the wind direction changes, the entire ice sheet will move in a different direction....hence the "corners" in the slide paths that the rocks take.

Doubt this is 100% right.....I've still got a hard time believing that a 300kg rock, will essentially float on a 2" deep lake.

Nature is ace.

I googled it and it pretty much what you said there. The wind is the thing that they think moves the rocks, but the wet, slippery clay (copyright, Ghost, 1990) makes it possible.

Nobody's ever actually seen them move though. Why doesn't someone set up a video camera?

[soundian]

In the middle picture above there seems to be earth piled up in front of the big rock, which would mean the ground wasn't frozen when it was moving.

[Alkaline]

Nobody's ever actually seen them move though. Why doesn't someone set up a video camera?

Because then people would know that the mormons did it.

[Hugh_Jazz]

In the middle picture above there seems to be earth piled up in front of the big rock, which would mean the ground wasn't frozen when it was moving.

I think the idea is that the ground is submerged following a flash flood, and only the surface of the floodwater freezes over. The ground itself is basically unfrozen, wet, slippery clay.

[Hugh_Jazz]

I googled it and it pretty much what you said there. The wind is the thing that they think moves the rocks, but the wet, slippery clay (copyright, Ghost, 1990) makes it possible.

Nobody's ever actually seen them move though. Why doesn't someone set up a video camera?

Probably not that easy. For one thing, the playa covers hundreds of square miles, and for motion of the rocks to be visible, you'd have to setup the camera on something that isn't itself going to move. Where woud you put the camera?

[Bigsby]

The Saturdays.

Why?

[Lemonade]

The Saturdays.

Why?

They do appear to be scraping the bottom of the girlband barrel with that lot. Shite singers, and none of them are even tidy.

Thankfully, despite a few late stragglers it does appear that the boyband / girlband thing has died out.

[Bigsby]

They do appear to be scraping the bottom of the girlband barrel with that lot. Shite singers, and none of them are even tidy.

Thankfully, despite a few late stragglers it does appear that the boyband / girlband thing has died out.

They can't even get a number one, in this day and age. Total bollocks. ITV 2 has an hour long show every week about them. o_O

[Lemonade]

I never understand when you watch something like the X-Factor and a boy band turns up to audition. Why the fucking hell would anyone voluntarily want to be part of a boyband? There's something peculiar about a guy in his twenties wanting to be adored by a bunch of 13 year old girls.

[Bigsby]

There's something peculiar about a guy in his twenties wanting to be adored by a bunch of 13 year old girls.

There's a very obvious response to that regarding a certain Aberdeen act that is "sadly" no longer with us but I shall keep the peace and restrain myself on this occassion.