I'd Rather Whine than Switch

[Big Wallaby]

I get binary and base-10. I even understand that there is sometimes a need for base-16. But base-3? No thanks. I'll pass on that one. Too much ADD in me.

[WEDFan]

I get binary and base-10. I even understand that there is sometimes a need for base-16. But base-3? No thanks. I'll pass on that one. Too much ADD in me.

I don't know of anyone who actually uses trinary. It just works well for the dirty limerick.

[hobie16]

And don't forget the always confusing B v. b.

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

HA! I remember teaching a basic computer class to new employees. the idea was to give them enough knowledge that they could know what kind of information was available to them.

I always started out by asking for a show of hands, on who was a computer expert. As you might imagine, almost everyone's hand goes up.

I start by showing them a simple binary number, and how it is translated into hexadecimal, then how hex is used in various files and programs, headers etc. pretty basic stuff.

during one class, a newly hired female asked me why "they" didn't just use the alphabet like the rest of the world. (head slap!!)

umm, because digital devices only "know" on and off, zero or one.

she held up her phone, "thats not true, my phone understands me texting and my voice."

(Arrrrrrhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!)

[BRWombat]

...

she held up her phone, "thats not true, my phone understands me texting and my voice."

...

That's when you look her in the eye and calmly ask, "How?"

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

...

she held up her phone, "thats not true, my phone understands me texting and my voice."

...

That's when you look her in the eye and calmly ask, "How?"

Ha! I should have, but her head would have probably burst into flames.

I learned early on, when talking about such things to people with liberal arts degrees (in joke at work) to just keep the old saying in the back of my mind: never try and teach a pig to dance.....

[WEDFan]

I start by showing them a simple binary number, and how it is translated into hexadecimal, then how hex is used in various files and programs, headers etc. pretty basic stuff.

I've noticed that even people with Software Developer/Programmer degrees often have little knowledge of binary or hex. So much of development these days is geared around convenience for the programmer. Architectural patterns, languages, tools -- they're all set up to make programming easy and assume that you can solve any performance issues by scaling servers and resources. My experience has been though, that some of the new patterns just don't scale. Data access layers make DB interactions easy, but the DB handles joining and merging data, for example, so much better.

Binary and Hex (and heaven forbid Octal) are getting to be obscure dialects.

Try telling these kids today that a K in computers isn't 1,000 -- it's 1,024!

[hobie16]

Did you know that a square wave isn't?

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Did you know that a square wave isn't?

if it is, your lissajous pattern needs some tweaking! (twerking?)

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

I start by showing them a simple binary number, and how it is translated into hexadecimal, then how hex is used in various files and programs, headers etc. pretty basic stuff.

I've noticed that even people with Software Developer/Programmer degrees often have little knowledge of binary or hex. So much of development these days is geared around convenience for the programmer. Architectural patterns, languages, tools -- they're all set up to make programming easy and assume that you can solve any performance issues by scaling servers and resources. My experience has been though, that some of the new patterns just don't scale. Data access layers make DB interactions easy, but the DB handles joining and merging data, for example, so much better.

Binary and Hex (and heaven forbid Octal) are getting to be obscure dialects.

Try telling these kids today that a K in computers isn't 1,000 -- it's 1,024!

OCTAL!!!! aRRRRRRRRRRGGGHH! (Encountered in my youth, it has cause "lasting" memories)

yeah, not all that fun. I remember a co-worker once telling me that he had studied programming at UCLA, and at the time, you could tell the computer majors, as they were walking around campus with a stack of tractor feed fanfold paper, with notations written all over it because a line was in error.