I like to blog today about the word: "IDEA". Sit back relax and think about that word. I believe that most things on this planet started with an idea. Some ideas were terrific and a boon to mankind, some not so swell. Without going through a list of everything that started with an idea, like the airplane, the automobile, electricity, etc., I like to concentrate on the device I am using to write this, the computer.
Actually the computer idea started in prehistoric times but forget this for now. I like to think about the idea from the Eniac time forward. I learned in school, in Berkeley, machine code,the language that almost every computer understands, it uses binary code, a series of either zeroes or ones. If you had a box on your bedside table with 8 switches, you could actually control 64 functions in your house. This is the 8 bit chip, many modern computers started with, every setting in the switch was a "byte".
Here is the basic binary code for Numbers 1-9. Imagine if we were born with just 2 fingers instead of 10, we might have a binary system instead of a decimal. 0 in binary =0, 1=1, 10=2, the first 1 would be the the same as 10 in our decimal system, 11=3, 2+1, 110=4, 111=5,1110=6, 1111=8, in other words, 2 raised to the 4th power. Are you getting a headache. It becomes more complicate with 16 bit chips, let alone 32 bits and 64 bits. ROM, or read only memory is the code your programs are written in, RAM or random access memory is accessible, you can change add or detract numbers and with the ASCII code you can use words. Think of RAM as a giant letter box in a giant post office, each little cubbyhole has an address. Binary code, by the way, was use in China in BC, think Abacus.In binary, 0=off, 1=on, depending how the settings of the switches, the computer execute a command. Unlike my kids when they were small, or for that matter my wife, then and now, they do not always follow instructions. No problem with the computer, it does immediately what you want it to do. I type these letters and they are stored in this blog. Somebody first had to have the idea of computer then others elaborated on it and voila, we are in 2014. What it will be in 2020, I can only fantasize. Now back to my book, it is written in machine language, 1's and 0's and you can read it without giving this a iota of thought. Just go to Kindle, Nook, Kobo, WaveCloud, Google Book and type in Polynesian Dreams, and you can read it on your desktop, laptop, tablet, smart phone everywhere you are connected to WiFi. Neat, you bet. I have bored you long enough, just musing today about the word, IDEA. I had an idea to write another book, that idea came first. Next, okay, Johan, neat idea but what is the book about, another idea, and another, and the book came about. Now I am looking for ideas on how to sell my book. I would like help with that. I have no clue on the number of books in the world, but it is a bunch. How do I get folks to read the book I have written. HELP!
I love the computer age, with all its warts and think we have only scratched the surface, just a little scratch. You can help my charities by buying my book, you might help yourself or somebody with an upside down life by reading Polynesian Dreams, You can do nothing and miss out on an opportunity, at least that is what I think. Happy reading and expanding your mind. Good idea, I think. Johan Below, I am young and filled with ideas, mostly about girls.