Talk:Hex

Re: REDO FROM START. I'm pretty sure the original was more accurate; the new version doesn't compute, anyway. But then, it's only annotation. --Old Dickens 21:39, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Re: GBL and FTB. In some data centers its typical to refer to the rebooting/starting up of a server by using the BRB or Big Red Button, as certain brands of equipment featured a physical Big Red Button on the front panel. - Normally noted down in the logs as something like "Serverxxxx crashed, BRB resolved". Apparently used to make the simple task of flipping a switch sound more technical when questioned by non-IT staff. FTB may also imply the roundworld FPU or floating-point unit, which back in late 80's was an extra chip that could be installed in certain computers to speed up certain types of operation.

The constant adding of new parts or upgrades could also be a not-so-veiled nod to Moore's law regarding the doubling of CPU performance every 18 months, and that it's common to upgrade PCs piecemeal, by adding or replacing new hardware - especially where IT geeks and gamers are concerned and the original PC started life as a bunch of components waiting to be assembled rather than a branded box from the local PC world.--Megahurts 11:10, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Name

i was just reading science of discworld and encountered High Energy Magic building being shortened to HEM and started wondering if HEX was a abbrivation too or just hex with uppercase letters.

Shades of HAL maybe? --Megahurts 10:08, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Also HEX as the common abbreviation for hexadecimal and HEX = spell or curse. No acronym. --Old Dickens 23:51, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Some facts, possibly annotation material

A self-aware ant colony appears in Douglas R. Hofstatter's book Gödel, Escher, Bach. This might have been one inspiration for the anthill in a self-aware computer.

"Redo from start" was an error given by early BASIC interpreters on the IBM PC (ROM basic, basica) if on an INPUT statement expecting a number one typed something which couldn't be parsed as numbers. --93.134.82.77 09:26, 9 February 2011 (CET)