Saturday, December 24, 2011

There are 10 Types of People; those who understand binary and those who do not!!


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"...far too often we judge these practices and beliefs with (lack of better phrasing) – stating such things as they are crazy, their whole culture is nuts!..." 
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HUH? Ten types of people those who understand binary and those who do not? The grammar and sentence structure police coming to put me into handcuffs once and for all? How can there be a choice of TWO types of people (those who do and do not understand binary) yet I use a number of ten people. Obviously I am nuts and do not understand simple English and the most basic of comparison structures.

So to keep myself from being outcast as an idiot, and judged as mentally deficient, I will rephrase.

“There are two types of people, those who understand binary and those who do not”.. There we can relax now. I can be accepted and must be reasonably able to function in our society.

BUT, for those readers who do not understand binary, I will explain. Binary is a numbering system with a base of 2. Not what we have been raised and educated to count with, a numbering system with a base of 10. Our “normal” system, is based on counting in groups of 10’s

Example:

The number 4,758 is made up of

8 X 1’s =8
5 X 10’s =50
7 X 100’s =700
4 X 1000’s = 4,000
summed up - 4000+700+50+8  = 4,758

Whereas Binary is based on counting 2’s

The number 1110 is made up of

0 X 1’s  = 0
1 X 2’s  = 2
1 X 4’s  = 4
1 X 8’s  = 8
summed up - 8+4+2=14

So in binary 1110 is equivalent to the number 14 in our comfortable base 10 system.

If you don’t understand this... no worries. BUT you will have to trust me that the binary number 10 is actually the number 2 in our regular counting system.


NOW THAT WAS A RECORD CONFUSING PREAMBLE!! But it is a shining example of a case that although something is perfectly accurate and understandable, at first glance, or not bothering to taking time to understand – looks ridiculous and terribly incorrect.

So the statement beginning all of this - There are 10 Types of People; those who understand binary and those who do not! Actually by now having taken the time to learn and understand is PERFECTLY accurate. And looked at in the proper context (10 in binary = 2 in our daily numbering system). In fact , computer programmers (who are thoroughly educated in binary, as it is the most basic component of computer language) find this a very logical and accurate statement.

Thanks for your patience in reading this far.. my point, we exist in North America and observe foreign religious beliefs, political systems, economic structures, cultural traditions and family values. And  far too often we judge these practices and beliefs with (lack of better phrasing) – stating such things as they are crazy, their whole culture is nuts! We ask ourselves as we read headlines of religious wars, political upheaval, cultural traditions, “how can they even think this behaviour is acceptable or normal?”

I suggest that they, following their beliefs, are equally within their proper state of mind as we are, as we follow our beliefs. We may not understand, and from what we know, and from our perspective think they are all wacko. So, I too often have to remind myself as I hear of seemingly unnatural or terrible situation across the big pond, that other peoples do not wake up in the morning and say “ I am going to be nuts today” any more than myself waking up and saying same.

Does 10=2? Matter of fact it does. But only if we take time to be willing to adjust our perspective.

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