17MAY07 – A little lesson and then a little fun. We’ve all seen the zero’s and one’s representing binary computer languages or code. The truth is that plus’s or minus’s or A’s and Z’s could have also been used. The zero’s and one’s only indicate that a two-way switch is in either one of only two possible positions. If a light bulb were the subject, we would understand that the two possible states of being would be on or off. If static electricity were the subject, we would understand that the two possible states of being would be positive or negative.

That said, static electricity has long been the busy little subject of all those one’s and zero’s that we see. Zero (0) equates to a negative charge or a light bulb being off or a punch card left unpunched. A one (1), of course, means the opposite. Each one and zero is a bit since it describes one little item of static that has only two possible states, positive or negative. In 1965, programmers agreed that when six bits were grouped to form a six-bit word, or symbol an alphabet was needed.

0 ……. 000000
1 ……. 000001
2 ……. 000010
3 ……. 000011
4 ……. 000100
5 ……. 000101
6 ……. 000110
7 ……. 000111
8 ……. 001000
9 ……. 001001
(space) . 010000
A ……. 010001
B ……. 010010
C ……. 010011
D ……. 010100
E ……. 010101
F ……. 010110
G ……. 010111
H ……. 011000
I ……. 011001
J ……. 100001
K ……. 100010
L ……. 100011
M ……. 100100
N ……. 100101
O ……. 100110
P ……. 100111
Q ……. 101000
R ……. 101001
S ……. 110010
T ……. 110011
U ……. 110100
V ……. 110101
W ……. 110110
X ……. 110111
Y ……. 111000
Z ……. 111001

To save someone’s little fingers from too much typing, the above list omits the special characters for which there are six-bit alphameric symbols: [, #, @, :, and so on.

It is a common mistake to think that the letter or number we understand (ABC 123) is faster for a computer to process than the binary symbol that equates to our symbol; afterall, what is “A”? It’s not a certain state of on or off, it’s a symbol that you and I understand. When six-bit alphameric (perhaps you prefer the term: Alphanumeric) symbols are generated, they are done so at a rate that is millions of times per second. So in fact, A is somewhat more complex when you think about it. Two diagonal segments connect at one point at the top and a horizontal segment connects the two somewhere down the middle. What the heck should a computer do with that?!? 010001 all at once is a lot faster. :)

011000 100110 110110 010000 010100 100110 010000 011001 010000 100011 100110 110101 010101 010000 110011 011000 010101 010101 001111 100011 010101 110011 010000 100100 010101 010000 010011 100110 110100 100101 110011 010000 110011 011000 010101 010000 110110 010001 111000 110010 011011 011001 010000 100011 100110 110101 010101 010000 110011 011000 010101 010000 110011 100110 010000 110011 011000 010101 010000 010100 010101 100111 110011 011000 010000 010001 100101 010100 010000 010010 101001 010101 010001 010100 110011 011000 010000 010001 100101 010100 010000 011000 010101 011001 010111 011000 110011 010000 100100 111000 010000 110010 100110 110100 100011 010000 010011 010001 100101 010000 101001 010101 010001 010011 011000 111011

010101 011011 010010 101001 100110 110110 100101 011001 100101 010111