jarandhel

"There are 10 types of people in the world, Those who understand binary, and those who dont." -author unknown

This is especially funny to me because I've been learning about binary and hexadecimal in my computer classes. I even took the time to figure out the basis for the IP ranges that make up the different classes of networks is found in binary. For instance:

Class A Networks have IP addresses ranging from 0._._._ through 126._._._
Class B Networks have IP addresses ranging from 128.0._._ through 191.255._._
Class C Networks have IP addresses ranging from 192.0.0._ through 223.255.255._
And so on. Doesn't look like there's a real pattern there, does it? But there is.

Now, in binary:
0 would be written 00000000.
128 would be written 10000000.
192 would be written 11000000.
224 would be written 11100000.
And so on. See the pattern now?

The number ranges aren't arbitrary. They're based on the binary in a very orderly and logical way. They didn't teach us this in class, or in our textbooks, I figured it out on my own, but the fact that I'm the only one in my class to figure this out and the teacher himself didn't even mention it to us (though seemed or pretended to know it already when I mentioned it to him in class the next day) really does underscore that there's a fundamental difference between those who understand binary and those who don't. I don't claim to be great at binary, but I've at least grasped that much of it so far, and it's an amazing tool for helping you figure out what class a network is rather than trying to memorize an awkward series of number ranges in decimal form.