• NeoMojo (unregistered) in reply to [twisti]
    [twisti]:
    The storage comments here are the true WTF of this article.

    I'll give you guys some hints:

    One binary digit stores 2 distinct states, 0 and 1.

    One hex digit stores 16 distinct states, 0 to F.

    Now, what does that mean ? Obviously, most posters seem convinced that this means that one hex digit stores 8 times more data (or 16, as one particular dense poster suggested) than one binary digit.

    Lets try another example:

    One byte (8 bits) stores 256 distinct states: 0-255.

    One word (16 bits) stores 65536 distinct states: 0-65535.

    Now, 65536 is 256 times as much as 256. Now, try to think REALLY hard: Does one 16 bit word REALLY store 256 times as much data as one 8 bit byte ?

    Solution: Of course not, it stores twice as much. Likewise, one hex digit is 4 bits, and hence stores 4 times as much as a single bit. You are confusing distinct states with storage capacity.

    Now I hope I didn't make a mistake in this arrogant post, because that would make me look really stupid.

    Really? I thought information theory disagreed with you. But my grasp of said theory is very loose.

    Anyway, the distinction is irrelevant, since the storage medium isn't a harddisk, it's a brain. The precise mechanism for how a brain stores information is not known, and so teaching the orphans hex could well increase the storage capacity by 16, or perhaps 27, or maybe 0.23.

    Of course if the scientologists are right, then the mind is like a film reel. But they're never right.

  • mav (unregistered) in reply to [twisti]
    [twisti]:
    The storage comments here are the true WTF of this article.

    I'll give you guys some hints:

    One binary digit stores 2 distinct states, 0 and 1.

    One hex digit stores 16 distinct states, 0 to F.

    Now, what does that mean ? Obviously, most posters seem convinced that this means that one hex digit stores 8 times more data (or 16, as one particular dense poster suggested) than one binary digit.

    Lets try another example:

    One byte (8 bits) stores 256 distinct states: 0-255.

    One word (16 bits) stores 65536 distinct states: 0-65535.

    Now, 65536 is 256 times as much as 256. Now, try to think REALLY hard: Does one 16 bit word REALLY store 256 times as much data as one 8 bit byte ?

    Solution: Of course not, it stores twice as much. Likewise, one hex digit is 4 bits, and hence stores 4 times as much as a single bit. You are confusing distinct states with storage capacity.

    Now I hope I didn't make a mistake in this arrogant post, because that would make me look really stupid.

    Sigh. Some people need to learn to take a joke. The correct response is, "haha, taking advantage of orphans is funny". Not to argue about what kind of increase orphans get by memorizing hex vs. binary.

  • (cs) in reply to z
    z:
    The real WTF is that his table is named "apa".
    apa is just an alias (for easy recalling the table which the field belongs to) if you notice before the group by there is a "Detail apd", a table named AsomethingPsomethingDetail, so the table name is AsomethingPsomethingAsomething
  • pepethecow (unregistered)

    I think this error could possibly be explained at the following url:

    http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2006/11/03/942851.aspx

    Toward the end, the text: "Sometimes, when I import data from a scanner, I get the error "The directory cannot be removed." What does this mean? "

    ...

  • levi_h (unregistered) in reply to mav
    mav:
    I don't even bother with disc OR paper. Instead of hard drives I just have large banks of chinese orphans memorizing numbers. Best part, when I taught them hex instead of binary my storage capacity went up by 16x!

    Haha, taking advantage of orphans is funny!

  • Someone (unregistered) in reply to Uberbandit
    Uberbandit:
    [twisti]:
    Crap like that is what drives people to Macs. The sentence doesn't even MEAN anything other than "Something went wrong!". It's not like it's cryptic because it gives a lot of important debug details.

    I've never developed in Mac (thank god) but I think that this is OS independent, every developer writes whatever he/she feels right for exceptions.

    The message is OS independent, but culture dependent. In the Mac culture, applications that produce such messages do not survive for long and hence programmers that produce such messages either adapt or leave the platform.

  • Nelle (unregistered) in reply to mav
    mav:
    [twisti]:
    The storage comments here are the true WTF of this article.

    I'll give you guys some hints:

    One binary digit stores 2 distinct states, 0 and 1.

    One hex digit stores 16 distinct states, 0 to F.

    Now, what does that mean ? Obviously, most posters seem convinced that this means that one hex digit stores 8 times more data (or 16, as one particular dense poster suggested) than one binary digit.

    Lets try another example:

    One byte (8 bits) stores 256 distinct states: 0-255.

    One word (16 bits) stores 65536 distinct states: 0-65535.

    Now, 65536 is 256 times as much as 256. Now, try to think REALLY hard: Does one 16 bit word REALLY store 256 times as much data as one 8 bit byte ?

    Solution: Of course not, it stores twice as much. Likewise, one hex digit is 4 bits, and hence stores 4 times as much as a single bit. You are confusing distinct states with storage capacity.

    Now I hope I didn't make a mistake in this arrogant post, because that would make me look really stupid.

    Sigh. Some people need to learn to take a joke. The correct response is, "haha, taking advantage of orphans is funny". Not to argue about what kind of increase orphans get by memorizing hex vs. binary.

    So we are geeks ... Sue us ...

  • mav (unregistered) in reply to Nelle
    Nelle:
    mav:
    [twisti]:
    The storage comments here are the true WTF of this article.

    I'll give you guys some hints:

    One binary digit stores 2 distinct states, 0 and 1.

    One hex digit stores 16 distinct states, 0 to F.

    Now, what does that mean ? Obviously, most posters seem convinced that this means that one hex digit stores 8 times more data (or 16, as one particular dense poster suggested) than one binary digit.

    Lets try another example:

    One byte (8 bits) stores 256 distinct states: 0-255.

    One word (16 bits) stores 65536 distinct states: 0-65535.

    Now, 65536 is 256 times as much as 256. Now, try to think REALLY hard: Does one 16 bit word REALLY store 256 times as much data as one 8 bit byte ?

    Solution: Of course not, it stores twice as much. Likewise, one hex digit is 4 bits, and hence stores 4 times as much as a single bit. You are confusing distinct states with storage capacity.

    Now I hope I didn't make a mistake in this arrogant post, because that would make me look really stupid.

    Sigh. Some people need to learn to take a joke. The correct response is, "haha, taking advantage of orphans is funny". Not to argue about what kind of increase orphans get by memorizing hex vs. binary.

    So we are geeks ... Sue us ...

    Don't worry. The real problem here is the orphans. I say we just withhold their food for a day or two, and everyone walks away from the topic. Secure in the knowledge that those at fault were adequately punished.

  • Hognoxious (unregistered) in reply to Maximilianop
    Maximilianop:
    "there was a failure" means the process itself failed, "something went wrong?" doesn't indicate what went wrong
    "There was a failure" could mean the handle fell off your coffee mug, as could "something went wrong". The two statements are more or less synonymous, the latter is just less formal.
  • Sarah (unregistered)

    Not the printer, too!

  • james (unregistered)

    Error: .... .... ps. Your dog was just hit by a car.

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