Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
Admitting my ignorance here: I have no idea what that means...
Admit your ignorance - things you've only just realised/learned
- Thread starter Blue Hills
- Start date
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Admitting my ignorance here: I have no idea what that means...
winjim
Smash the cistern
You can divide 12 in more ways than you can divide 10 which makes the maths easier and more flexible.
In my centrifuge example it has 24 spaces and needs to be balanced symmetrically which I can do with 2,3,4,6,8,9,10,12,14, 15,16,18,20,21,22 or 24 samples. A 20 space rotor can be balanced only with an even number and that's only by virtue of them being divisible by two, not the graceful patterns I can make in a 24 space rotor.
A lot of labware, racks etc is organised in 12s or 24s. Lots of ways to group things.
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Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
If I remember correctly, and I probably don't, the Babylonians worked in a strange combination of base 60 and base 10.
So 83 for example was one 60 and 23 (in base 10) ones.
I do have a book in which I could check, but it's upstairs and I can't be arsed.
So 83 for example was one 60 and 23 (in base 10) ones.
I do have a book in which I could check, but it's upstairs and I can't be arsed.
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
Therein lies the problem: I try to avoid dividing anything by anything.
I understood long division for my cabinet makers exam, so probably about three hours in total.
Chris S
Legendary Member
- Location
- Birmingham
Fresh fish in Lidl is now £1.50 cheaper than frozen. I'm better off buying fresh fish and freezing it.
Once a Wheeler
…always a wheeler
Good illustration and some interesting comments have followed from it.
I used to use a 4-digit number to indicate dates at the start of computer file names. I came towards 9999 and realized I really did not want to use up another digit for the date. So I looked around for information on the 60-base system of the Mesopotamians and found that normal desktop computers could not handle it in the way I needed. Curiously, the limitation is because A# (alphanumeric) numbering only allows 36 characters if, like the IT industry, you refuse to recognize upper- and lower-case letters as separate entities. So I moved forward on a 36-base system and found it was very effective. Dates run from 0001 (31 December 1899) to ZZZZ (16 August 6498). Today's date, 29 May 2023, is 0YS3. It references the standard date-generation system of domestic PCs and comfortably covers every date in my lifetime and the lifetime of my parents and children within the 4-character limit.
The technical term for the 36-base counting system is hexatridecimal. At first I was sceptical it would work; but now I am a year or more into it I find it unexpectedly useful and, of course, delightfully economic of space.
matticus
Guru
Hang on ... that's not true industry-wide, Shirley?
Chris S
Legendary Member
- Location
- Birmingham
ExBrit
Über Member
- Location
- Southern California
He's probably a Unix virgin. We Windows programmers tend to forget there are other O/S. Also, I would point out that Windows has allowed more than 8 characters in a file name since NT so there's no need to constrain yourself. Maybe earlier. If any of my employees tried this I would have a quiet word with them.
Or maybe he is working in some archaic O/S like MPE which never allowed more than 8 characters in a file name. But that hasn't been supported for about 20 years.
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
There are a very few programming languages or systems which are case-insensitive.
But very few. Windoze is NOT "the IT industry". It is a PC operating system, which is generally one of those few.
I have worked in the IT industry for over 40 years, and as I say, very few parts of it "refuse to recognise upper- and lower-case letters as separate entities". Even the things which are normally case-insensitive can usually be forced to recognise case just by putting quotes around the item.
TBH, the rest of what you say tends to suggest that your "normal desktop computer" is one from the 1980's, maybe early 90's. You should consider getting a slightly more modern one, which allows filenames as long as you like, and really has few issues with space. Converting dates into a 4 character string is needlessly complex and completely pointless with modern systems. In my current workplace, we prefix all our files with the date-time immediately before we load them, in the format yyyymmddhh24miss
ExBrit
Über Member
- Location
- Southern California
That's some smack talk there.
Once a Wheeler
…always a wheeler
My apologies if "refuse to recognize upper- and lower-case letters as separate entities" did not express my meaning very well. A 60-base system would need 60 different characters. Most spreadsheets accept a 36-character system: 0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ, but not a 60-based system such as 0123456789AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYy. All that is needed is 60 distinct symbols, not necessarily A#, and doubtless programs could be written for 60-base numbering using any symbol set. It is just that no-one seems to have got round to it.
It has occurred to me that the Cistercian numeral set:
presents a very promising basis for developing a computer-friendly 60-character set. Apparently the computers of the 13th century (who were all people) handled the system quite well. Another example of how forging the future forces us to discover our past.
Many thanks for the comments. All the best.
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Once a Wheeler
…always a wheeler
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Once a Wheeler
…always a wheeler
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Chris S
Legendary Member
- Location
- Birmingham
Bangers & Cash is just Antiques Roadshow for petrolheads.
