Kit's Blog

Hooray for new math and games

     I looked and found that song Eric was talking about. Pretty clever stuff. I'll post it here. Besides that I added two new games and a toon to scuzzstuff.org, and I've been working on homework and my assembly book. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I've been looking at what college classes I might take next year for programming and working on stuff (see above), I have yet to free up enough time to work on my blog as much as I should. Grump... I'll force myself to do more this week.

Base 2, 8, 10, and 16 (Also known as Binary, Octal, Decimal, and hexidecimal)

     We, as humans, are normally born with 10 fingers, and as such, we base our numbering system on groups of 10. This means that we have single digit representation of all numbers until 10. But imagine that we had 16 fingers. Then we would have a base 16 system meaning that there would be single digit representations of all digits before 16. Despite the fact that we don't have 16 fingers, a system involving 16 digits does exist. It's known as Hexidecimal.
     In hexidecimal you count as follows: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10. So in hexidecimal 10H = 16 (Note: The H is there to clarify that it is 10 in Hexidecimal). Confused? You should be, but despite the fact that it is confusing computers operate on a combination on hexidecimal and binary, so to stick with the rest of what I'm going to say, you'll have to muddle along this explaination. So, back to hexidecimal!
     So now that you know that 10H = 16, you can assume that anything in the second colum is multiplied by 16. So 20H = 32. Do you understand? Good. Now onto the more confusing part. It now stands to reason that instead of a "tens place", we have a "sixteens place". Well then what about the "hundreds place"? Since 100 is actually just 10 squared, the same rule applies for Hex. It is the "two-hundred-fifty-sixths place". So 100H = 256.
     So now that you have a general understanding of hex let's try a slightly harder conversion: What is 3C9H in regular base-10 decimal? Don't panic, I'll walk you through it:
     1) Here's a little chart to help you out with the hardest part:

256s place	16 place	1s place
3	C	9

So we start by multiplying the 3 by 256 because it is in the "256s place" Which gives us 768, write it down, you'll need to remember it.
      2) Next we multiply C by 16. Now if you remember, C is 12 (...9, A, B, C...), so we multiply 16 by 12, because C is in the "16s place". That gives 192, write that down.
      3) The last column is the easiest: the ones column. Simply multiply the value in the last column by 1: 1 times 9.
      4) Add them all together and we get our value: 768+192+9 = 969. Good Job! You just converted your First number from hex to decimal. Here's a chart that is easier to follow for how the places work:

16^3s place	16^2s place	16^1s place	16^0s place
0	3	C	9

Do you see the pattern? Good.

Want a harder problem? Try converting 6B2B3F9H.

     I'm not going to bother telling you how to convert in the other direction because that would take to long. Anyway, I'm learning assembly, and so I'm learning Hex and binary through and through. Sorry about the lack of updates, hope to get back on track this week.

Man I can't wait until I have more free time again!

     I've been really busy, tech is back on, and I still haven't really recovered from lack of sleep on the music trip. I'm really feeling bad about neglecting the blog for so long, but I just haven't had the time. I'll give you some links, and a piece of music, but I really need to go to bed...
     So recently I've discovered a new application called "notepad2". I think that it's probably the most useful tool that I have ever used. That is not an exaggeration. This is, simply put, the most perfect utility for webdesigners, programmers, and people who write for scripting applications that enjoy working in pure text. It has the ability to show things in plain black OR white and syntax highlight and brace matching. Why did I put that "or" there? Because it is something that has many extra features, but DOES NOT REQUIRE YOU TO USE THEM. It comes from a wonderously brilliant site devoted to simplicity called "flo's freeware". I highly reccomend replacing your "notepad.exe" file with "notepad2.exe" (but keep a back-up of each!).
     This is hilarious. But! That only applies for people with very dirty minds.

Back with some shoes

     So I know that I haven't been updating, but I forewarned you that I wouldn't be. Anyway, now that I'm back I'm very tired and homework filled. Since I happened to have some backup material on-hand, you get to see it.
     Recently I've noticed one of the very few commercials I enjoy now days for an odd product... shoes. But these are no ordinary shoes! Oh no! These are "smart" shoes. Yes, smart shoes. They have a microprocesor which, based on some obviously extravagant calculation, actually changes the hardness/softness of your heel. According to one site:
     "The microprocessor is located in the arch of the shoe, and drives a tiny screw and cable system that adjusts the heel cushion depending on the signals sent back by an electric sensor coupled to a magnet."
     Sound nifty? With a $250 price tag it better. My questions? How long does the battery last? And can you recharge it? And why, WHY in gods name would you ever need a shoe this crazy? Seriously! Like, unless your job is to run around 24/7 over continually more uncomfortable terrain... Either way, that doesn't change the awesomeness of the commercial. Both original and with good music. I'll give you both the commercial and the music because I'm just that cool.

Don't do uggs. They'll ruin your life.

     When you read the first two lines of this poster and look at the picture, what do you think they're talking about?

     That's right kids! "It looks cool" is not a good enough of a reason to wear uggs! Don't do it! You'll end up killing babies and giving head to old men to get your "fix!" This is an example of when graphic design goes horribly wrong. If you read the whole thing you get that it's an anti-smoking campaign, but seriously! Put "KICK BUTTS DAY" at the top. As a side note I had no idea what the hell uggs were until someone I showed this poster to told me, but then I was just saying "Don't do boots!" Anyway, the choral trip is this week, so once again there is no guarantee about updates. This was just something that confused me.

Shakespeare Festival is absorbing time

I have been neglecting to post regularly, but this is due to extraneous factors. We'll be back on schedual within the next two weeks... I hope...

Internet economic trouble and more google paranoia.

     While I support Firefox full heartedly I've come up with a conundrum: Most websites rely on some form of advertising to maintain themselves (normally pop-ups or baner ads) so while the switch to firefox may be a good thing for users of the net it will probably be a bad thing for many (if not all) websites with advertising. Now I'm sure you may argue that free forms of pop-up blocking have been around for years and firefox should be the same way. Why would it be a problem? The difference is this: Most forms of pop-up blocking come with some general downside which most people aren't willing to deal with, and normally most people don't know enough to find out about or take the time to get pop-up or banner blocks. Even then it probably costs mosts websites quite a lot of revenue with all the IE users who get pop-up blockers. Even more for those who get banner blockers.
     So why does this bother me? Well most websites actually subsist on these ads (meaning that the only reason they're on the web is because of the omney produced by people clicking ads), and so if we got something along the lines of 40-50% of the net (hell, even as little as 30% would probably do it) using firefox with the ad-block plugin I could very easily foresee another "great depression" for the net where lots of websites go broke and call it quits due to a lack of revenue from their web ads. Most people don't actually click on ads with any intent of buying (normally it's just to see if the game is really a game) but that still gets the person displaying the ad some money. So with the movement towards firefox also comes the move towards text ads. And who is the only company offering text ads?
     Google! Once again google seems to be moving into a market that will grow explosively over the next few years and I imagine even as other companies move towards text advertising google will remain the trusted "brand" of advertising that webhosts will look to in order to produce good revenues. So as we move towards a more advertising free society on the net will also move towards a more google filled one. The only reasons this bothers me? I imagine it will take a lot of time for other advertising companies to move into the field of text advertising because it is much less "yeilding" of customers because it doesn't draw their attention as effectively and it wouldn't be until they stopped making money and their customers started leaving that'd they'd find the switch nessecary, but by then people would only know google as a source of revenue for text ads and google will, in a matter of months grow and expand explosively. Google will really be a world power by then, because not only will they be trusted, but they'll be pulling in HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY. I don't know, google is going to take over the world isn't it?

Happy April fools day everybody

If by some miracle you managed to bypass the joke, check it out here.
The bummer is that all the funny responses that people sent me on AIM were lost when my comp crashed. The only one that I really got to read was Alex's and Ben's. Either way it was funny.

--UPDATE--
Site is now back to normal. If you still see the joke page please try REFRESHING defore emailing me and telling me microsoft really has taken over my site. Thanks, and happy april fools.