I had a techno-day, I felt like learning so I did. And I was examining integrated circuits, in particular the ones that input data in one form and export it in another. On the advice of Singapore, I’m testing the idea of using the Arduino to simulate input to these chips, which were often designed for other purposes. Here’s an interesting photo comparison. On the left is what some people think I’m studying, on the right is my not-yet-wired chip simulator.
Since most people, even electricians, have probably never seen such an arrangement, it invites all kinds of sarcastic comparisons. On the left is electricity, on the right is electronics. On the left is a lead player, on the left is a bass player. On the right is Patsie’s IQ, on the right is mine. Enough, but I will say I’ve always associated doing nothing with wasting time. I look forward to my daily learning new things. Why am I not rich? Because the world doesn’t need smart people and doesn’t pay them very well.
To do the input simulation, the Arduino has to be dumbed-down to the bit level, which involves programming so it won’t challenge me. But it has been decades since I used bits and I’m rusty on this material. You might say like my drill, my bits are rusty, but that’s such a bad joke I won’t use it.
And a morning-long rainstorm allowed me to re-study bit arithmetic. Sure I can explain that in layman’s terms, now that you ask. The computer in front of you works with bytes, and they taught you each byte is made up of 8 bits. Each of those bits is a voltage or a lack of voltage, conveniently labeled one or zero. 01000001 represents the letter “a”, because some person you never met decided that was a good idea God bless ‘im.
Most digital communication is serial, which means it is transmitted not as a byte, but as a stream of bits. That means each byte is taken apart, sent as bits, and reassembled at the receiving end as a byte again. In particular, I’m examining a bit register, the tiny chip that receives those incoming bits and reassembles them. See, when I explain it, even “bit register” makes sense. Hello, bit arithmetic.
Now don’t go off thinking things suddenly got complicated. Au contraire, in bit arithmetic, there are only two operations. You can multiply by 2 or divide by 2. All the rest involves looking at the result and noting whether that result is a one or a zero. That’s the part that requires brains, since the principles of decimal math go awry. But anyone can learn bit arithmetic and there are tables you can use to compare every possible result. See, you’re smarter already.
As ever, I can’t study for hours, never could. That’s why I can’t cram for exams. My method is to focus intensely twenty minutes, then up to an hour assimilating. So today I watched two DVD movies in that down time. Whenever Navy pilots land a Stealth fighter, notice they chirp the tires. A good pilot shouldn’t do that with a $2 billion airplane. The rain has lasted all day, so I’ve been cooped up. And you get all this trivia.
The Pareto Principle is better known as the 80/20 rule. He’s the Italian who noticed 20% of the pods in his garden held 80% of the peas. That was 106 years ago, but I still supress a smile when some middle management type brings it up as a business model. The premise is they think profits will increase if they tap into the 80%, but the ratio remains the same no matter what effort is wasted. You see, Pareto is only one of many statistical measures of inequality. But his adds up to exactly 100 (others don’t) so it makes his model easy for the uneducated to glom onto.
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