diff --git a/002/codex-002.tex b/002/codex-002.tex index 9c142d4..ecc407d 100644 --- a/002/codex-002.tex +++ b/002/codex-002.tex @@ -81,6 +81,8 @@ % \begin{Verbatim}...\end{Verbatim} <-- Note the capitalization! \usepackage{fancyvrb} +\raggedbottom + % Pictures! \usepackage{tikz} @@ -125,6 +127,77 @@ Boring, early life stuff when my world smelled like sweat and disinfectant and r \section{The Joy of Commodore 64} +The first computer I ever owned (and thus could use whenever I wanted to, provided it did not annoy the adults in the house) was a Commodore-64. (And yes, my use of this machine seemed to bug adults no end, and I have no idea why. I guess the same adults who thought it was a waste of time playing video games simply thought that a computer is another, more expensive type of video game. The lesson I learned here is to try to get some knowledge before you jump to criticism.) The ``64'' stood for 64 kilobytes, which was the amount of memory it had. If you've never heard of a kilobyte before, and are wondering how many megabytes that is, it's time for some math, and also introductory computer science. + +Hold on. You've never heard of a \textit{kilobyte}? Wow, either we've really moved along, or I'm old, or both. Probably both. My knees hurt in the morning. Yeah, probably both. + +Computers are just a series of switches. Each switch is a \textit{bit}. Eight bits make up a \textit{byte}, which is enough memory to remember a single character.\footnote{ See \href{https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs101/bits-bytes.html}{\texttt{https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs101/bits-bytes.html}} for more information.} Since each bit is just a one or a zero, there are 256 possible different characters you can record in a byte. (Mathematically, it works out to $ 2^n $ possible combinations. Since in this case $n=8$, then we have $2^8=256$ different combinations of ones and zeroes.\footnote{ To see the actual combinations, visit \href{https://user.eng.umd.edu/~nsw/chbe250/number.htm}{\texttt{https://user.eng.umd.edu/$\sim$nsw/chbe250/numbe \\ r.htm}}, and to see which characters those numbers translate to, see \href{https://www.rapidtables.com/code/text/ascii-table.html}{\texttt{https://www.rapidtables \\ .com/code/text/ascii-table.html}}.}) + +Time for some math, which looks like this: + +\begin{scriptsize} +\begin{tabular}{r c c c c c l} + & & & & & 1~byte &= 8~bits \\ + & & & 1 kb &=& 1,024 bytes &= 8,192 bits \\ + & 1 MB &=& 1,024 kb &=& 1,048,576 bytes &= 8,388,608 bits \\ + 1 GB =& 1,024 MB &=& 1,048,576 kb &=& 1,073,741,824 bytes &= 8,589,934,592 bits +\end{tabular} +\end{scriptsize} + +\bigskip + +If you don't trust my math, check out \href{https://www.matisse.net/bitcalc/}{\texttt{https://www.matisse.net/bit \\ calc/}}, which is where I did this math. It's actually kind of fun, and they get bonus points for including the source code for the perl script behind this sorcery. + +Anyway, I'm driving a laptop now that has 8 GB of memory in it. (And I've seriously considered upgrading it to 16 GB). A gigabyte is equal to 1,048,576 kilobytes. The math (and heck, let's use dimensional analysis because it's fun) looks like this: + +\[ +8\text{ GB} \times \frac{1,048,576 \text{ kb}}{1 \text{ GB}} \times \frac{1 \text{ Commodore 64}}{64 \text{ kb}} = 16,384 \text{ Commodore 64's} +\] + +So the computer I'm on now has as much memory as 16,384 of the computer I had when I was 13 years old. If that doesn't seem like a lot to you, I paid \$175 for this computer (used) in 2016, and paid \$200 (new) for a Commodore 64 in 1981. That's \$3,276,800 in 1981 dollars, which is the equivalent of \$8,651,869.50 in 2016 dollars. I didn't have three million dollars when I was thirteen, and I certainly don't have over eight million dollars now. Sadly.\footnote{Check out \href{https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1981}{\texttt{https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1981}} for the actual numbers.} + +\medskip + +\hrule + +\medskip + +\textbf{Oh look, it's a diversion} + +\begin{multicols}{2} +If you've studied the metric system, you know that \textit{kilo-} is a prefix that means a ``a thousand'' and \textit{mega-} is a prefix that means ``a million.'' + +Hold on. (Again.) + +1,024 is \textit{not} a thousand, and 1,048,576 is \textit{not} a million. For my entire life, we've just walked right past this and pretended that we didn't notice. Doing science stuff? \textit{kilo} is a 1,000 and \textit{mega} is a million. Doing computer stuff? Then \textit{kilo} means 1,000\textit{ish} and \textit{mega} means a million\textit{ish}. Move along now, nothing to see here. + +That discrepancy should bug you. It bugs me, but I also have bills to pay, so when someone asks ``\textit{how much} does it bug you?'' my honest answer is that I've worked hard to not let it bug me. + +But still. + +Fortunately, it also bugged the International Electrotechnical Commission (an international standards commission whose job it is to standardize things) enough so that they introduced a few new terms in 1998.\footnote{The standard is ISO/IEC 80000, section 13. This standard is all about the International System of Quantities, and if you're into that sort of thing, it is utterly \textit{fascinating} reading.} \textbf{Kibibyte} means \textit{exactly} 1,024 bytes, and not one byte more, not one byte less. \textbf{Mebibyte} is exactly 1,048,576 bytes. And so on with gibibytes, tebibytes, and pebibytes. They are all some form of $2^n$, which means they \textit{accurately} describe just how many bytes we're talking about here. + +The following table is filled with so much beauty: + +\begin{small} +\begin{align*} + 1~kibibyte~(ki) &= 1,024~bytes \\ + 1~mebibyte~(Mi) &= 1,024^2~bytes \\ + 1~gibibyte~(Gi) &= 1,024^3~bytes \\ + 1~tebibyte~(Ti) &= 1,024^4~bytes \\ + 1~pebibyte~(Pi) &= 1,024^5~bytes +\end{align*} +\end{small} + +I can at last sleep soundly. +\end{multicols} + +\medskip + +\hrule + +\medskip + \section{High School Computer Class} \chapter{A Scanner Clearly, or More Thoughts on Being an Archivist} @@ -341,11 +414,17 @@ Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone t As a big part of the reason I created this was to learn more about LaTeX, I'm keeping up with this running list. \begin{enumerate} - \item Need a little horizontal space? Use \verb|\hphantom{}| where \texttt{} is any standard unit. (I use this down below to separate the two images with borders when they are on the same line.)\footnote{There is more information on spacing at \href{https://latexref.xyz/Spaces.html}{\texttt{https://latexref.xyz/Spaces.html}}.} + + \item Need a little horizontal space? Use \verb|\hphantom{}| where \texttt{} is any standard unit. (I use this down below to separate the two images with borders when they are on the same line.)\footnote{There is more information on spacing at \href{https://latexref.xyz/Spaces.html}{\texttt{https://latexref.xyz/Spaces.html}} and also at \href{https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/74353/what-commands-are-there-for-horizontal-spacing/74354}{\texttt{https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/74353/what-commands-are-there-for-horizontal-spacing/74354}}.} + \item Need a box around an \verb|\includegraphics[scale=•]{•}| item? Just wrap it in \verb|\frame{}|. (Ditto.) - \item Want a blockquote? Use the \texttt{quote} environment. (I wrapped mine in a \texttt{small} environment to help set it off, as most blockquotes or indented quotations use a slightly smaller font.\footnote{Yes, it bugs me when people use the word \textit{quote} as a noun, but the usage is here to stay, so I shall learn to live (somewhat begrudgingly) with it.}) + + \item Want a blockquote? Use the \texttt{quote} environment. (I wrapped mine in a \texttt{small} environment to help set it off, as most blockquotes or indented quotations use a slightly smaller font in traditional printed material.\footnote{Yes, it bugs me when people use the word \textit{quote} as a noun, but the usage is here to stay, so I shall learn to live (somewhat begrudgingly) with it.}) + \item You can draw with the \texttt{tikz} package. You can also draw chemical structures with the \texttt{chemdraw} package. I have no idea how to write about those things on paper in an interesting way, so it may be some time (or never---never is always an option) before I get around to that. But there's an example at the end. + \item You can also draw just using the \texttt{picture} environment. \footnote{There is a good tutorial at \href{https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Picture_environment}{\texttt{https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Picture\_environ \\ ment}}.} + \item As with most things that *nix-based, there is usually more than one way to get to where you are going. Often, there are many ways, and they lead you down paths you hadn't even imagined. A little research goes a long way. (See the next two sections as examples of this. I had not even thought about this before I sat down to write this.) \end{enumerate} @@ -508,7 +587,7 @@ I didn't draw this. It's an example I got from \href{https://texample.net//tikz/ \node [font=\Large] {\LaTeX}; \end{tikzpicture} -I am very comfortable living in the center of that Venn diagram. +I am very comfortable living in the center of that Venn diagram. \\ (And yes, I played around with that code to make it a bit \\ smaller---as one does.) \end{center} \bigskip @@ -530,12 +609,12 @@ Yeah, I've got a ways to go. (If you couldn't tell, it's a house with a floating Now that I look at my code, I realize why my roof is floating. Here's my original code: \begin{Verbatim}[numbers=left,numbersep=-2pt] - \begin{tikzpicture} - \draw (0,0) rectangle (1.8cm, 1.8cm); - \draw (1.6,0) rectangle (1.1cm, 1.3cm); - \draw (0.8,1) rectangle (0.3cm, 0.6cm); - \draw (2,2) node{} -- (1,2.5) node{} -- (0,2); - \end{tikzpicture} + \begin{tikzpicture} + \draw (0,0) rectangle (1.8cm, 1.8cm); + \draw (1.6,0) rectangle (1.1cm, 1.3cm); + \draw (0.8,1) rectangle (0.3cm, 0.6cm); + \draw (2,2) node{} -- (1,2.5) node{} -- (0,2); + \end{tikzpicture} \end{Verbatim} Lines 2-3 draw the rectangle, and line 4 draws the triangle. Apparently, I resized the house and forgot to resize the roof. If I change line four to this: @@ -555,7 +634,7 @@ Lines 2-3 draw the rectangle, and line 4 draws the triangle. Apparently, I resiz \end{tikzpicture} \end{center} -\noindent Well, time to stop playing and get back to work. +\noindent Word of advice: only change one variable at a time. Anyway, time to stop playing and get back to work. \end{document} \ No newline at end of file