From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Mar 30 8:25:29 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from winnie.fit.edu (fit.edu [163.118.5.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4799D37B71D for ; Fri, 30 Mar 2001 08:25:27 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from kruptos@netzero.net) Received: from netzero.net (rm305w-b.campbell.fit.edu [163.118.216.112]) by winnie.fit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id LAA05434 for ; Fri, 30 Mar 2001 11:26:12 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <3AC4B41D.F60548BA@netzero.net> Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 11:28:13 -0500 From: Kevin Brunelle X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.12 i386) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: patenting the digit 1 and 0 References: <20010330003425.429EA274B@sitemail.everyone.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Ignoring the humor in this article there is one huge mistake. > containing zeroes and ones -- the mathematical building blocks of all computer languages and > programs This is not correct. One and Zero are the most common human readable REPRESENTATION of binary data. Your computer does not see them at all, it sees a high or not high electrical pulse. I challenge any one to show me ones and zeros on their hard drive with a magnifying glass. Am I the only person who remembers some of the older hex charts [I am a youngin so I have just read books that used them]. 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,u,v,w,x,y,z :: the human representation is completely independent to what happens. Anyway, enough of a rant today. This is to be taken with a grain of salt -- I am a freak and I know it. Personally I like Tron's view of what a bit was. Shrinking and blinking based on state. It doesn't get any kinkier than that. Now, changing all the programs to display a - or + for 0 or 1 respectively would be the hard part. ;-) --+-+-+- == 42 -Kevin Brunelle Credo quia Absurdum To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message