Technology: The Digital Information Age 1

The Digital Paradigm Convergence Solid State Electronics Human-Machine Interface Paul E. Ceruzzi

Extend Ceruzzi’s discussion about the “digital information age” (xvi) 3 Weave in what you learned about Rushkoff’s notion of taking control over your life

4 “Do we construct machines that do what is technically feasible and adapt the human to their capabilities, or do we consider what humans cannot do well and try to construct machines that address those deficiencies? The answer is to do both, or a little of each, within the constraints of the existing technological base” (42-43)

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Bit: “the measure of information” (3); a binary signal; the smallest unit that “splits all signals [going into a computer] into two classes” (flowing and not flowing) (10) Logic Blocks: And, Or, Inversion are “connected in order to create other functions” [taking place on a computer] (11); adapted from Boolean logic by Claude Shannon (3) Byte: The smallest unit of storage that can be accessed in a computer's memory (RAM or ROM) holding 8 bits 7

Eight bits grouped together form a byte KB = kilobyte = about 1,000 (one thousand) bytes MB = megabyte = about 1,000,000 (one million) bytes GB= gigabyte = about 1,000,000,000 (one billion) bytes 8

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Machin e Generations of Programming Languages Machine Code Independent Ada, Pascal Newer Generations LISP, JAVA Binary (0, 1) Symbolic Assembler 13

Program Working/a Programming Language > Machine-Language Instructions, via Operating System Stored in the computer’s Memory Represented by patterns of Bits based on Logic Blocks (AND, OR, INVERT) Implemented by Switches, in Parallel or in a Series Controlling a physical substance like electricity or water, sending one of two Signals: 1 and 0 14

Rushkoff’s Notion of Taking Control over Your Life 15

8 bits (1 byte) x 32 bit computer = 256 Numbers range from 0 to 255 for each of the three colors with 0, 0, 0 = Black; and 255, 255, 255 = White 16

Hexa- (Greek for “6”) + Decimal (Latin for “10th”) = 16* Base 16 Number System The first six letters of the Latin alphabet (A - F) + numbers 0-9 *Note: The pure Latin form would be "sexadecimal", but it was believed that computer hackers would shorten the word to "sex". The etymologically correct Greek term would be hexadecadic (Modern Greek deca-hexadic (δεκαεξαδικός) is more commonly used). 17

“Hex” “Decimal System” 0=0 1=1 2=2 3=3 4=4 5=5 6=6 7=7 8=8 9=9 A=10 B=11 C=12 D=13 E=14 F=15 18

Expressed in binary code: Expressed in “hex”: 4F, or (4 = 0100, F = 1111) 19

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“Hex” “Decimal System” 0=0 1=1 2=2 3=3 4=4 5=5 6=6 7=7 8=8 9=9 A=10 B=11 C=12 D=13 E=14 F=15 “B60023” B & 6 = Red 0 & 0 = Green 2 & 3 = Blue B6: Multiply B, or 11, by 16 to get 176, then add 6 to give you : Divide by 16 gives 0. So, no green 23: Multiply 2 by 16 to get 32, then add 3 to give you 35 21

Knowing how computers work allows you to expand your use of color in your design work. 22 “Approach to Provincetown” (1948), by De Hirsh Margules, Heckscher Museum of Art