Digital Media Rules!

101010  Digital Media Rules!
Many are alive today who can remember back to the dim times before 1981 when the IBM 5051 computer with the 8088 CPU was introduced.  The “typewriter” or at best “word processor” were the state of the art in compilation tools, and the television was king of up to the minute news.  True, there was the Apple, the Commodore and the TRS80, but in those dim times the act of media creation was accompanied by the harsh blows of a metal head against fragile white paper, instead of the gentle taps of the keyboard.  The brute impressions of ink on paper have given way to the digital world, base 2, ones and zeros.  Today, 101010, is the perfect day to celebrate this new age in pulpless news.


Binary digits; courtesy of ehow 

According to Chinese divination, the number “10” is perfect.  However, in base 2 “101010” is 42, and not three tens.  In binary, 2010 is 1111101101.  It only gets worse from there, but that doesn’t matter to computers who have huge space available for series of “yes and no” or 1s and 0s.  They are able to convert just two possible states into instructions of all kinds to respond to the mouse, interpret a keyboard action, create an image.

Indeed, computers have been used to generate graphics of things we’ve never seen before, like CAT scans, and they present visions which are not natural, but which mimic the mathematics of nature.  


Brain Scan; Berkley.edu

Fractals  are images made by iterating a mathematical formula.  From this kind of computer generated image the math of natural growth and structure can be revealed.
The fractal images below are from Soler







 




Fractal growth in broccoli, courtesy Wiki

Think of everything the computer and the internet give us, instant location, instant communication, and best of all, an inexpensive way for everyone to enjoy the news.

Hail the age of digital news!


Stuck between worlds: Don Russell of the
Mountain Messenger Newspaper and his
Mac/Underwood typeputer.  The Messenger
Is only found scribbled on the flesh of dead trees.  

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