I am not...I am not the damsel in distress. I am not some case. I have to work this. I've lived in a cave for 5 years in a world where they killed my kind like cattle. I am not going to be cut down by some monster flu. I am better than that. What a wonder...how very scared I am.

Fred ,'A Hole in the World'


Spike's Bitches 27: I'm Embarrassed for Our Kind.  

[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risque (and frisque), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.


Steph L. - Dec 13, 2005 6:10:57 am PST #9542 of 10003
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe

I don't know what you mean by binary code.

I do know what you mean by binary code.

(No, I don't. I just wanted to go for the true binary X-post.)

Um. Maybe I'm referring to it incorrectly. But since I don't know anything about it, I don't know how I should be referring to it. So far the mathiest people in this thread don't know what I mean, and I don't know how to articulate what I mean.

If you were explaining the binary....system (? is that a better term?) to a retarded 3-year-old lemur, how would you explain it???

Or, what's the story with all the 0s and 1s? How does it work? How does one count with only 0s and 1s? How is that used in relation to computer programming? Or, *is* it used in relation to computer programming? How do a bunch of 0s and 1s make my iTunes work?


§ ita § - Dec 13, 2005 6:11:18 am PST #9543 of 10003
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Steph, do you understand bases? Like the principle of base ten (decimal) vs. base eight?


Steph L. - Dec 13, 2005 6:13:33 am PST #9544 of 10003
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe

Steph, do you understand bases? Like the principle of base 10 (decimal) vs. base 8?

Um. Someone explained base 8 recently -- I can't remember which thread -- and by "recently," I mean "in the past few or 6 months" -- and I sort of grasped the idea, but not really.

Base 10 is just....the numbering system that we common non-mathy folk use in everyday life, right? Because I get that. That's about the only math I get.


Gudanov - Dec 13, 2005 6:14:43 am PST #9545 of 10003
Coding and Sleeping

Binary is just counting when the largest digit you can use is 1.

So:

Regular Number   Binary Number
         0                     0
         1                     1
         2                    10
         3                    11
         4                   100
         5                   101
         6                   110
         etc...


Hil R. - Dec 13, 2005 6:15:33 am PST #9546 of 10003
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

why is a^p = a in Z sub p when p is prime?

That's a direct consequence of Fermat's Little Theorem. Have you learned that yet?

Also, if you divide f(x) by (x-a), why is the remainder always f(a)?

Hmm. I'm not sure about that one. You're assuming that f(x) is a polynomial? You can probably do something with the division algorithm, but I'm not sure exactly what.


Steph L. - Dec 13, 2005 6:16:06 am PST #9547 of 10003
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe

Okay, but I don't understand that chart. How does 6 in normal numbers = 110 in binary?


tommyrot - Dec 13, 2005 6:16:37 am PST #9548 of 10003
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Some computer calculator programs can convert to and from binary. I forget if the one that comes with OS X does that, but the Win XP does.


Connie Neil - Dec 13, 2005 6:16:42 am PST #9549 of 10003
brillig

I had a tag recently that said "There are 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't." Gud's table explains the joke.


Steph L. - Dec 13, 2005 6:17:21 am PST #9550 of 10003
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe

Also, if you divide f(x) by (x-a), why is the remainder always f(a)?

*This* is an understandable question, but "what up with binary code?" ISN'T? You mathy types are confusing.


Steph L. - Dec 13, 2005 6:17:52 am PST #9551 of 10003
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe

I had a tag recently that said "There are 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't." Gud's table explains the joke.

Um. Okay.