> Even if you disagree on how proper it is, that seems like an extremely small and unimportant qualm.
Use of 'kibibytes' and 'KiB' reflects a fundamentally wrongheaded view of the world, either unserious or too-serious, which shouldn't be taken seriously.
> When doing science, is it inappropriate to distinguish between the numbers 1000 and 1024?
Of course not! In computers, 'kilo-' means 1,024; everywhere else it means 1,000. This is a simple rule; network-device and hard-drive manufacturers are just wrong when they violate it.
Use of 'kibibytes' and 'KiB' reflects a fundamentally wrongheaded view of the world, either unserious or too-serious, which shouldn't be taken seriously.