It bothers me it’s not in 4 bit “bytes” even though I know it’s just a convention for computers
You can do all of math in binary, it isn’t just for computers. In fact, the proof for “Russian Peasant Multiplication” was written in binary.
So you can do all mathematical operations in binary, but you can’t represent all numbers in binary like 0.3, which is a repeating number, and had the same issues as a number like 1/3 in decimal where you can’t avoid rounding errors
It’s worth noting that 1/3 is also a repeating number in binary. 0.01010101…
While 0.3 is in binary 0.0100110011001100…
I’m not sure what sort of point you think you’re making but 0.0100110011 in binary is only 0.065% off from 0.3, but how often would you organically encounter 0.3?
Many fractions in decimal are also repeating numbers or very long trailing numbers, I especially encounter a lot when working with time which is base 60.
A byte is eight bits.
4 bits is a nybble
That’s a matter of convention, not technical definition. A byte can be any number of bits, depending on hardware. For a while 6 bit bytes were common. RFC 791 refers to an 8 bit byte as an octet
RFC 791 refers to an 8 bit byte as an octet
French-speaking people do too it seems. On second hand websites in Switzerland you always see that some disks are listed for e.g. 250 Go and others for 250 GB, depending on the first language of the seller.
Yes. I am dumb.
The four bit sections of eight bit bytes are called nibbles, you know because nibbles are small bites
Ugh jeez… right. I literally always mess that up
For anyone who doesn’t want to do the conversion, that’s 17 days.
I did and I regret it
Or 11 in hexadecimal
B is 11 in hex though?
As in, 0x11 is 17 in decimal.
Or -15 days
what’s the general rule for translating negatives from binary? did you just do like 17 - 2 • (-1) or something?
I used what known as 2’s compliment. Take the complement (flip all the bits - here that would give you
01110which is 14) then add 1.thanks for the explanation! could you express it as a NOT operation plus one? like is that how it would be processed at a low level?
My low level is a tad rusty from when I learned the C side in school, but if I recall the not operator resolves as a single Boolean (0 or 1 in true C), whereas compliment comes back as however many bits you put in - a not operation per bit.
In C, the not operator is
!and the compliment operator is~
Ominous
Mmm yes. 5 bit two’s complement.
I shouldn’t make fun of it we’ve definitly made some ISA that weird.
It also has a max of 31 days possible. Which has… implications.
🤔 … What implications? ಠ_ಠ
They must sacrifice an undergrad on the 32nd day
This is actually how chromatography works. The mobile phase is 0.1% formic acid and 0.3% blood of the innocent.
blood of the innocent
Well, We work with what we have.
Among many other duties I manage the safety and claims database for an outsourced industrial cleaning company and let me tell you, some of the plants my company works struggle to make it a week without an accident, meanwhile some will go years without an accident. We also have one plant which had its last accident during the Bush Administration. Its absolutely wild how much safety can vary from one industrial facility to another
Unless it’s a signed integer, then it’s -1 and they’re expecting something…
Only if you’re using a sign bit rather than two’s compliment (a sign bit allows for two representations of 0)
A 5 bit long signed integer? What kind of weird system you using ? :p
Two’s complement
I totally got that without the text bubble.
-1 days? (or 17, without the overflow)
Twos complement (invert the bits then add one), so its -15 days.
Otherwise 00000 and 10000 would paradoxically both equal 0 and make bitwise equality checks very difficult.
Good point!
It’s telling that their counter only goes up to a month
They’ve never gone more than a month without an accident? Find a new work place immediately!
With a large enough workplace in the wrong industries it’s really easy to have something that could count against it.
I work in the LTL freight industry, we get quite a few.
It’s even worse considering that they only have five boards. They expect at least one accident every month
I work in the LTL freight industry, if we go 30 days without an accident or an injury we get a free BBQ day with unlimited food for everyone. We’re talking burgers, hotdogs, chilli, chowder, chips, drinks, etc. Sometimes they even do catering. Our last one they did Hawaiian Food for 2 days (they got too much) which definitely made everyone happy.
I’ve been there for almost 10 years, we average about 2 per year.
Edit to clarify: 2 BBQs per year. We’re really good as getting hurt.
I wonder if that’s still cheaper, because it makes people value safety of others but also because it raises the burden to report smaller accidents and workmans comp fraud because of peer pressure.
The cost is in the lost productivity from having someone off work with injuries. A barbecue every 6 months seems like a bargain.
It really is, the average time loss injury in our company is usually upwards of 30k down the drain. And just an accident can be catastrophic in terms of cost as well.
A BBQ compared to that is nothing.
What does LTL stand for ?
Less than truckload
Less than Truck Load
Basically if a company want to ship pallets of crap but they don’t have enough to justify using their own truck
Think TForce, YRC, Oak Harbor, FedEx Freight, etc.
Right. I’m not American though, so I don’t recognise any of those companies except for FedEx.
Ah gotcha
It’s a great way to save on number boards
Not so much on board space
You can save if your lab is unsafe enough!
Perverse incentives
I love the leak in the other room. Get ready to reset the counter folks!
And the fumes being vented inside that room.
The author of this comic has a number of excellent coffee table compilations: https://www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2 (unaffiliated – I just like them :))
i like their style, very pleasant and original
