OfB.biz: Basic Lesson #4: Can You See It?
Feb 06, 2004, 10:00 (0 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Ed Hurst)
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"In this lesson, we discuss more about stability issues. A
popular buzzword these days is 'interface.' That's just a fancy
word implying that two or more people are face to face. In actual
practice, it usually means anything but face to face. It's a means
of interacting with another. You are said to 'interface' by some
means. So it is with computers.
"Way back when the personal computer was first introduced, there
was a machine called the 'Altair.' It was a big box with some
switches and lights. You were supposed to know what the switches
did, and what the lights told you. It was basically a fancy number
cruncher. Except, the numbers were in binary, and up to 8 places.
Eight switches could be up or down, representing the eight digits
allowed in a binary number. Think back to your school math days,
and you may recall that binary means 1s and 0s only. That's because
the electronic computer was based on--surprise!--electricity. With
electricity, it's a simple matter of on or off. If you couldn't
think in binary numbers, the Altair was pretty hard to use..."
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