Converting from Binary to Decimal

In order to convert the binary number 110010101 to decimal you must first start with the very last number (1). You then multiply this number by two to the power of 0, which is 1. You then continue to work your way from right to left and multiply by two, but increase the power from 0 to 1 and then 1 to 2, etc. Once you have done this for all of the numbers, you then add all of your answers together. So the answer for the binary number 110010101 would be 405 in decimal.

In order to convert the decimal number 529 to binary you must first divide that number by 2. Since 529 is indivisible we get a 1 for the first answer. We then subtract 1 from 529 to get 528. You then divide 528 by 2 to get 264. Since it was divisible by 2 you mark down a 0. Divide 264 by 2 and get 132, so we write another 0. You continue this process until you cannot divide or subtract anymore. The decimal number 529 in binary is 10001000011.

The difference between positional and non-positional number systems is the bases are different.

Chapter 6 Response

I think that it is interesting to read about how companies such as Amazon.com "stalk" us, in a way, through our purchases and also things that we search for on the internet (i.e electronic trails). It is a great advantage for them because they can target certain types of people in order to make a greater profit. For example, when looking at one item, most websites will also refer you to other objects that may interest you based on what you went there to search for in the first place. I think that search engines can also be connected to this idea as well. It is really prevalent with the search engine Ask.com because when you search for one thing, it also suggests other topics that are similar to what you were originally there searching for. These types of websites also rank their results by which websites are visited most by those using the internet.

Unix Commands I learned in Lab 5

Two very important Unix commands that I learned in doing Lab 5 are the ls-a and ls-l commands. These are very usefull becaue they list all of the dot files and also gives you information on the permissions of the files. I think that ls is also a DOS counterpart. Another important command that I learned is the man command because it gives you a manual of all of the different Unix commands. The final two commands that are useful in Unix are the mkdir command, which allows you to make a directory, and also the rmdir command which empties your directory.

Modeling the World Response

I think that it is interesting to read about how we can look at a symbol and manipulate it, so that it relates to reality. We then take what we know about one symbol and connect it to others, and find the relationship between them. It was also interesting to read about how to build models for basically any object. For example, what we did in class with the tree branch. In doing models you can interpret and understand certain things that you may not have understood before.