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"Binary data" means, in actuality, data that are only expressed using two bits. In common parlance, this means 1 and 0, or presence and absence. Using anything
by uoaei 9y ago
"Binary data" means, in actuality, data that are only expressed using two bits. In common parlance, this means 1 and 0, or presence and absence. Using anything larger requires a different label to remain accurate.
- jacobolus 9y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_data#In_computer_science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_data#In_computer_scienc...
- marvin 9y agoIsn't this just arguing semantics? A byte written in hexadecimal notation is just a convenient human-readable(ish) way to represent a sequence of 8 bits of binary data.
- uoaei 9y agoInformation is about patterns in sequences of things. If you are displaying patterns in a sequence of 16 things (2 bytes), you are no longer in the realm of binary information. The information has a structure on top of it that makes patterns of 16 things meaningful, so that you can plot them on a 256-256-256 cube and retain or explore some of that structure. If I'm dealing with "binary data" (in a simple case, whether a light is on or off under certain other _binary_ conditions), I am not interested in patterns of 16 bits together since that constitutes some higher level of structure in the data that may or may not be important to me. At this time the indivisible atomic information bit becomes a pattern of 16 bits, not just 1, and we have left the realm of "binary."