Blame the Fishmonger!!

Don Madden · Post by **Don Madden** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 3:15 am

0000100 10000010 01010001 11001010

I speak hexadecimal, too.

Cheers, Don.

fishsponge · Post by **fishsponge** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 11:57 am

what you actually said there, Don, was:

quote: £J

That's when translating to ASCII text, anyway... in numbers, it's:

quote: 9 4 163 74

OK, i admit, the text translation was done automatically, but i can do the number translation (slowly!)

There's a classic IT-related joke... a bit crap and a bit geeky, but funny in my opinion...

There are only 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't!

Oh dear... perhaps i really should get out more...

Don Madden · Post by **Don Madden** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 8:50 pm

There was a day long ago when I would program computers in machine language with a row of toggle switches. Incredably slow & laborous.

When dynamic memory chips first became available the classified lab I worked in, (AWACS project), was one of first customers. We had problems & contacted the maker. They told us they knew about the problems & thought we had the power to sort them out. We did.

In the same lab, in the mid 70s I designed what I believe to be the first plasma display & demod it to the National Military Intellegence Center in D.C. Wish I held the patent, it was more than a decade before IBM shipped that type.

Now I struggle to get my neolithic two wheeled toys to run.

Cheers, Don.

deshollier · Post by **deshollier** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 10:32 pm

When I started working on civil aircraft as an Electrician (after a couple of years on RAF aircraft) - in the fullness of time becoming an Avionics Engineer, the only way to sort out systems problems was the good old fashioned method of a thorough knowledge of the system, a good set of drawings and painstaking checking. Eventually the modern era dawned with the early jets, things changed slowly and systems checking did not change much. With the 747 computerisation crept in and it was felt necessary to teach us low life all about transistors and the like, later integrated circuits, plus the full understanding of how they worked internally including all the various digital coding that they used. Very interesting - and I can still visualise the electron flow as it changes for each switching state of an individual device! The main point of all this was soon made entirely pointless as modern components are now gathered together in boxes or even completely solid state units and now tell you whether to replace them or not just by pressing a button or two on the front. Aircraft maintenance is now a doddle - why even a competent bike restorer could handle it!! Edited by - deshollier on 30 Aug 2008 9:34:36 PM

mick williams · Post by **mick williams** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 4:16 pm

Oh my Gawd!! This thread is turning into a Computer Geek's forum!!!!

why even a competent bike restorer could handle it!!

Not this one Des!!

Fishy, you do need to get out more!! Great to here about your section ride out on the other thread!

How about an "I'm addicted to riding my Matchless" group on Facebook

Oh and not to forget a similar group for the lesser marque!