You know what I can't get my head around? (1 Viewer)

[snakybus]

This whole ones and zeroes thing.

You have an mp3, ok, and it is, supposedly, all information made up of ones and zeroes, which translates into sound waves, fair enough.

But the idea that these ones and zeroes, which as far as I know are abstract concepts, are stored in physical form in an i-pod or your hard drive or whatever. aaaaaargh, that messes with my mind!

Can any of you tecky types shed any light on this? All this information, for example, which I'm now imparting to you in real time is a bnunch of ones and zeroes on some computer (my computer I guess, and then it goes to Pete's computer). Like on a hard drive? But what does it look like?

Sounds like magic to me.

Come to think of it, the human brain is pretty amazing too, but people diodn't invent that I guess.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

its to do with sound waves - you know the way the longer the sound wave is the lower the note (or something like that) - when these sound waves are converted to digital 1s and 0s the length and size of the wave is represented like this:


110111111110111100111011101011110101101001110111

and so on and so forth, except you'd have a lot more 1s and 0s and a good few more font sizes. bold font can be used as well

remember these guys?

 

[snakybus]

I knew it!

 

[nofriendo]

0110110001100101011000010111001001101110001000000111001101101111011011010110010100100000011000100110100101101110011000010111001001111001

 

[Lefty Frizzell]

0110110001100101011000010111001001101110001000000111001101101111011011010110010100100000011000100110100101101110011000010111001001111001

Is that the theme tune to Hawaii Five-O?

 

[kings lead hat]

its the same way a record player and needle works.........

except on a computer.

 

[snakybus]

I wasn't necessarily talking about music - I just used that as an example.

It's digital intormation I can't get my head around.

I'm currently reading a thing about relays and microprocessors and it's most informative. I now know what a pixel is.

 

[snakybus]

ok, so it's apparently all to do with circuits and relays and stuff

all these tiny circuits opening and closing like a gate! and when they're closed we call it 1 and when they're open we call it 0 (well, slightly more complex that that)

so it's not actually a 1 or a zero! ha! I knew it! Like there isn't a tiny man engraving "1" and "0" on the hard drive with an engraving pen.

we could just as easily call it "open" and "closed", or "black" and "white"

now what I can't get my head around is the number of 1s and 0s that must occur just to make a musical note or a word or a pixel

mental!

 

[Bladez]

now what I can't get my head around is the number of 1s and 0s that must occur just to make a musical note or a word or a pixel

Well it depends on how many unique notes, words and pixels you want to represent. Each must be represented with a unique sequence of 1s and 0s so that you can tell them apart. So with a single binary 'digit' you have two states, 1 and 0 - so you can represent two unique things. With two digits you can represent four different things and so forth. And with n digits you can represent 2^n things.

.....you were joking, weren't you? I'll get my coat

 

[kings lead hat]

its the same way a record player and needle works.........

except on a computer.

I wasnt joking....any form of data is broken down to 1's and 0's and then stored on the hard drive. when its read it then transforms the 1' and 0's back into whatever data it is.

extremely basic explanation but thats it

just like a record player + record

 

[flashback]

Bladez has it.

You think encoding music in binary is good?
With enough ATGCs in the right order you have a human being.

 

[Funkykitchen]

...2

 

[tripoli]

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Smoke and mirrors, it's all smoke and mirrors.
like juggling.

 

[snakybus]

Well it depends on how many unique notes, words and pixels you want to represent. Each must be represented with a unique sequence of 1s and 0s so that you can tell them apart. So with a single binary 'digit' you have two states, 1 and 0 - so you can represent two unique things. With two digits you can represent four different things and so forth. And with n digits you can represent 2^n things.

.....you were joking, weren't you? I'll get my coat

No I wasn't joking! Seriously I know hardly anything about this stuff.

I understand what King's Lead Hat is saying too, hmm. But the fact that your mp3 player (the "record player needle", if you like) converts the digital code into a soundwave, but its actual functionality - like, the "hand that puts the needle in the groove" that works on digital thingamajigs too? So you have a digital thing turning a digital thing into a soundwave?

 

[Wavioli]

yeah dude- a cd is literally that - a compact disc(read record)

except unlike a record which can have an infinate amounts of dips and bumps between 1 and 0 a cd (or hard drive) its either a dip or a bump, albeit very small.

 

[snakybus]

yeah dude- a cd is literally that - a compact disc(read record)

except unlike a record which can have an infinate amounts of dips and bumps between 1 and 0 a cd (or hard drive) its either a dip or a bump, albeit very small.

Oh yes, well I knew that.

 

[Pantone247]

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

christ I actually laughed at this... kill me now!

 

[tripoli]

christ I actually laughed at this... kill me now!

a guy in college told me that in a operating systems lecture one day. worst joke i've ever heard.

 

[Squiggle]

This place
http://www.thinkgeek.com

sells t-shirts with it printed on them as a slogan.

In case anyone is interested.