So the other night during D&D, I had the sudden thoughts that:
1) Binary files are 1s and 0s
2) Knitting has knit stitches and purl stitches
You could represent binary data in knitting, as a pattern of knits and purls…
You can knit Doom.
However, after crunching some more numbers:
The compressed Doom installer binary is 2.93 MB. Assuming you are using sock weight yarn, with 7 stitches per inch, results in knitted doom being…
3322 square feet
Factoring it out…302 people, each knitting a relatively reasonable 11 square feet, could knit Doom.
Hi fun fact!!
The idea of a “binary code” was originally developed in the textile industry in pretty much this exact form. Remember punch cards? Probably not! They were a precursor to the floppy disc, and were used to store information in the same sort of binary code that we still use:
Here’s Mary Jackson (c.late 1950s) at a computer. If you look closely in the yellow box, you’ll see a stack of blank punch cards that she will use to store her calculations.
This is what a card might look like once punched. Note that the written numbers on the card are for human reference, and not understood by the computer.
But what does it have to do with textiles? Almost exactly what OP suggested. Now even though machine knitting is old as balls, I feel that there are few people outside of the industry or craft communities who have ever seen a knitting machine.
Here’s a flatbed knitting machine (as opposed to a round or tube machine), which honestly looks pretty damn similar to the ones that were first invented in the sixteenth century, and here’s a nice little diagram explaining how it works:
But what if you don’t just want a plain stocking stitch sweater? What if you want a multi-color design, or lace, or the like? You can quite easily add in another color and integrate it into your design, but for, say, a consistent intarsia (two-color repeating pattern), human error is too likely. Plus, it takes too long for a knitter in an industrial setting. This is where the binary comes in!
Here’s an intarsia swatch I made in my knitwear class last year. As you can see, the front of the swatch is the inverse of the back. When knitting this, I put a punch card in the reader,
and as you can see, the holes (or 0′s) told the machine not to knit the ground color (1′s) and the machine was set up in such a way that the second color would come through when the first color was told not to knit.
tl;dr the textiles industry is more important than people give it credit for, and I would suggest using a machine if you were going to try to knit almost 3 megabytes of information.
It goes beyond this. Every computer out there has memory. The kind of memory you might call RAM. The earliest kind of memory was magnetic core memory. It looked like this:
Wires going through magnets. This is how all of the important early digital computers stored information temporarily. Each magnetic core could store a single bit – a 0 or a 1. Here’s a picture of a variation of this, called rope core memory, from one NASA’s Apollo guidance computers:
You may think this looks incredibly handmade, and that’s because it is. But these are also extreme close-ups. Here’s the scale of the individual cores:
The only people who had the skills necessary to thread all of these cores precisely enough were textile and garment workers. Little old ladies would literally thread the wires by hand.
And thanks to them, we were able to land on the moon. This is also why memory in early computers was so expensive. It had to be hand-crafted, and took a lot of time.
(little old ladies sewed the space suits, too)
Fun fact: one nickname for it was LOL Memory, for “little old lady memory.”
I mean let’s also touch on the Jacquard Loom, if you want to get all Textiles In Sciencey. It was officially created in 1801 or 1804 depending on who you ask (although you can see it in proto-form as early as 1725) and used a literal chain of punch cards to tell the loom which warps to raise on hooks before passing the weft through. It replaced the “weaver yelling at Draw Boy” technique, in which the weaver would call to the kid manning the heddles “raise these and these, lower these!” and hope that he got it right.
With a Jacquard loom instead of painstakingly picking up every little thread by hand to weave in a pattern, which is what folks used to do for brocades in Ye Olde Times, this basically automated that. Essentially all you have to do to weave here is advance the punch cards and throw the shuttle. SO EASY.
ALSO, it’s not just “little old ladies sewed the first spacesuits,” it’s “the women from the Playtex Corp were the only ones who could sew within the tolerances needed.” Yes, THAT Playtex Corp, the one who makes bras. Bra-makers sent us to the moon.
And the cool thing with them was that they did it all WITHOUT PINS, WITHOUT SEAM RIPPING and in ONE TRY. You couldn’t use pins or re-sew seams because the spacesuits had to be airtight, so any additional holes in them were NO GOOD. They were also sewing to some STUPID tight tolerances-in our costume shop if you’re within an eighth of an inch of being on the line, you’re usually good. The Playtex ladies were working on tolerances of 1/32nd of an inch. 1/32nd. AND IN 21 LAYERS OF FABRIC.
The women who made the spacesuits were BADASSES. (and yes, I’ve tried to get Space-X to hire me more than once. They don’t seem interested these days)
Aspartame is one of my worst triggers too. Haven’t touched it in over a decade because the migraines I get are so horrific from it. Glad you figured it out 💖
There are so many people who talk about how aspartame fucks up their bodies, it’s common knowledge it fucks up the stomach after a while… But the doctors here INSIST that all the diabetics are wrong and imagine it bc they haven’t heard of any side-effects, side-effects that weren’t screened for to begin with. The food safety authorities said it was fine when it was launched so nothing new need to be known apparently.
I fucking hate hate HATE aspartame. It ruins what it touches.
I tend to regard it as the current nicotine blunder of the medical world, in that doctors used to prescribe smoking as a treatment for tuberculosis and asthma, and now with hindsight that knowledge makes our hair stand on end at how emphatically wrong and harmful that is.
I saw an article a while ago that showed a link between aspartame in hot beverages being a possible seizure trigger, and about lost my mind cause my brother who has epilepsy puts it in his coffee all the time. He’s had a substantial decrease in headaches, tremors and other seizure related problems since he switched back to sugar and started avoiding it as much as possible in readymade foods.
It’s also off the top of my head, not recommended for people taking medication for schizophrenia for the same reason, because the phenylalanine in the aspartame can worsen some side effects of neuroleptic drugs. But a lot of people don’t seem to realize or have been told this by their doctors, and only find out once they’ve got down the rabbit hole of research on their own. And that is profoundly shit.
Anyway, yes. Hating aspartame being a common ingredient is a hill I’m ready to die on.
You know, asparatame has always just absolutely wrecked my GI tract, even if it’s just a tiny bit. Just, sent me into full on ‘curl up and whimper and drink Pepto Bismol right out of the bottle’ cramps and also, yes, sometimes triggered headaches.
I found out after I was diagnosed with Crohn’s that this is pretty common for people with Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis, and it can worsen damage in IBD patients systems. One of the things the doc told me is “No asparatame for you ever.”
Which was fine, because I already avoided it like the plague, but yeah. Asparatame is the Devil.
It all starts in the mid 1960’s with a company called G.D. Searle. One of their chemists accidentally creates aspartame while trying to create a cure for stomach ulcers. Searle decides to put aspartame through a testing process which eventually leads to its approval by the FDA. Not long after, serious health effects begin to arise and G.D. Searle comes under fire for their testing practices. It is revealed that the testing process of Aspartame was among the worst the investigators had ever seen and that in fact the product was unsafe for use. Aspartame triggers the first criminal investigation of a manufacturer put into place by the FDA in 1977. By 1980 the FDA bans aspartame from use after having 3 independent scientists study the sweetener. It was determined that one main health effects was that it had a high chance of inducing brain tumors. At this point it was clear that aspartame was not fit to be used in foods and banned is where it stayed, but not for long.
Early in 1981 Searle Chairman Donald Rumsfeld (who is a former Secretary of Defense.. surprise surprise) vowed to “call in his markers,” to get it approved. January 21, 1981, the day after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, Searle took the steps to re-apply aspartame’s approval for use by the FDA. Ronald Reagans’ new FDA commissioner Arthur Hayes Hull, Jr., appointed a 5-person Scientific Commission to review the board of inquiry’s decision. It did not take long for the panel to decide 3-2 in favor of maintaining the ban of aspartame. Hull then decided to appoint a 6th member to the board, which created a tie in the voting, 3-3. Hull then decided to personally break the tie and approve aspartame for use. Hull later left the FDA under allegations of impropriety, served briefly as Provost at New York Medical College, and then took a position with Burston-Marsteller. Burstone-Marstella is the chief public relations firm for both Monsanto and GD Searle. Since that time he has never spoken publicly about aspartame.
It is clear to this point that if anything the safety of aspartame is incredibly shaky. It has already been through a process of being banned and without the illegitimate un-banning of the product, it would not be being used today. Makes you wonder how much corruption and money was involved with names like Rumsfeld, Reagan and Hull involved so heavily. In 1985, Monsanto decides to purchase the aspartame patent from G.D. Searle. Remember that Arthur Hull now had the connection to Monsanto. Monsanto did not seem too concerned with the past challenges and ugly image aspartame had based on its past. I personally find this comical as Monsanto’s products are banned in many countries and of all companies to buy the product they seem to fit best as they are champions of producing incredibly unsafe and untested products and making sure they stay in the market place.
Thank you for taking the time to type this up and post a link @heyheyvey I knew some of this but not the how and the why it got out back on the market. And now I’m even angrier haha.
RULES: List the first lines of the last ten stories you published. Look to see if there are any patterns that you notice yourself, and see if anyone else notices any! Then tag some friends.
ah geez I knew I hadn’t been writing much but this list goes back to 2016; not going to do the prompts because they are legion
“For your situational awareness,” Phil says, a three-dollar Long Island in each hand, “these are mine. Go get your own goddamn drinks.” | Cinderella Story | MCU | Coulson/Clint
“God,” Sam says, dropping to his knees, “oh, my God, Cas—” | Things to Come | SPN | Dean/Cas
There’s a man named Jesse who spends most of morning rush hour on the grassy peninsula between two pieces of Constitution Avenue, right where it hits 23rd Street and splits to ramp up or down from the Roosevelt Bridge. | Not Just Anybody (Help) | MCU | Steve/Sam
“I’m sorry, Dean,” Sam says through the cracked door, “but no. No way in hell.” | A Little Less Conversation | SPN | Dean/Cas
The third and final game of the day is Steelers versus the Colts, eight-thirty eastern time. | Lights So Bright | SPN | Dean/Cas
Labor Day was big in Riverside. | September | Star Trek / Kirk/Spock
It’s one of those days the sun barely touches, the sky grey, the grass all hoarfrost. | Maleficarum | Hannibal | Gen
“This,” Sam says, hands braced on the dash, “this is why—” | Dollar in the Jukebox | SPN | Dean/Cas
“They’ll get more real,” Dean says, looking down at the small, translucent robin that’s hopped onto the toe of his boot. | Boy with the Skeleton Hand | SPN | Dean/Cas
I LIKE DIALOGUE! I also apparently like Sam Winchester but that shouldn’t be news for anyone
One ‘’’‘writing rule’’’’’ (they are all just guidelines, there should never be actual rules for writing that’s so rigid and b o r i n g) that I really love and try to keep in mind is from chuck palahniuk or some other post-postmodern fuck, who once told a journalist he tries to start all his stories as close to the end as possible. How cool is that? No need to be out there all like, “There was Buttface, the One, who in Crapland is called Asshat; and he made first the Assholes, the Holy Ones.” Nope, you can cut right to the action and not miss anything and not have your story weighed down by extraneous exposition
Harry isn’t quite out of his teens when it fully hits him—the war, the blood and the guts spread across the corridors of Hogwarts, the screams and sobs, the nightmares, the shadows that never seem to leave him.
It’s too much.
He gets a flat in London—Muggle London. Hermione and the Weasleys give him space. Kingsley ensures the wizarding world gives him privacy. Not that some aren’t reluctant. Rita Skeeter releases articles every day, wondering when their Boy Who Lived will return.
But Harry doesn’t see those articles.
He tries to forget who he is for awhile.
His flat is cozy. He stuffs it with plants and paintings and books. He has a cat (or three). He wears sweaters and blazers with corduroy pants. He goes to the market every morning to buy fruits and vegetables. That’s where he meets the kindly old woman who lives down the street.
She lived through World War II and so many other wars, wars that Harry has never experienced but can only imagine.
She goes to his house and she goes to hers. There’s always tea and small cakes and dinners and cocoa—apparently she believes that a teenager needs cocoa—and baking and reading and knitting.
Harry uses magic to brew the cocoa one day, not realizing that she’s standing in the doorway. She calms him by telling him that she knows all about magic.
Their conversations shift after that. They talk about their favorite creatures and how hard it was to watch them perish before their eyes. They talk about the wall that seemingly gave way to let them enter the magical world. They talk about lions and friends and family and love and betrayals and life and death.
“When did you leave?” Harry asks one day.
She pauses, a hand resting on his cat’s head. After a moment, she looks up with a heaviness in her eyes, a heaviness that Harry sees when he looks in the mirror everyday.
“I was young,” she says. “Younger than you are now. But I had already grown up. I didn’t want to leave, not really, but it became too much.”
“Do you regret it?”
“Some days I do, some days I don’t.”
“Yeah…”
It’s a few months later, when he’s helping her shovel the first snow from her walkway, that he asks, “Did you ever try going back?”
“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t,” she says, shoving a cup of cocoa into his hands. “I was shut out as soon as I hesitated.”
He pauses, nearly dropping the cocoa, before whispering, “That’s horrible.”
“What about you?” She escorts him inside, her cane tapping against the floor that he’s magically heated to warm her feet. “Would you be welcomed back?”
“Oh, yeah,” Harry says. “Til they turn on me because they don’t like the color of my shirt or because I sneezed the wrong way or because—you name it.”
She laughs and he smiles.
“Imagine that,” she softly says. “Rulers of our worlds and we’re not even allowed in them.”
“Imagine that.”
He does go back to the wizarding world, of course, but he never forgets his London flat. He visits the street from time to time, knowing that Susan Pevensie will be there, ready to push a cup of cocoa into his hands.
kototyph 