Geek T-Shirts Explained: And a Lesson in how Computers Work

OK, I've had a few people ask what the hell those shirts are about. So I will explain and add some geeky detail.

1: That is SQL Database query. Translated to English: Give me a list of users that have a clue: no entries found.

That one should have been easy.

2. 10 is the Binary representation of the decimal number 2.

Binary is the way computers represent numbers. Because a single bit in memory can only be in 2 states, on or off, There needed to be a way to represent decimal numbers in this fashion. One bit can only represent 0 or 1, two bits can represent 0-3, 3 0-7 4 0-15 and so on.

Example:
Decimal = (Binary)
0 = (0)
1 = (1)
2 = (10)
3 = (11)
4 = (100)
5 = (101)
6 = (110)
7 = (111)
8 = (1000)
9 = (1001)
10 = (1010)
15 = (1111)
16 = (10000)
128 = (10000000)
and so on.


3. #FF0000 is the Hexadecimal code for red in 24 bit color: #0000FF is Blue.

Hexadecimal is yet another way to count. It is based on 16 not 2 like binary and 10 like decimal.

Example:
Decimal = (Hex)
0 = (0)
1 = (1)
2 = (2)
3 = (3)
4 = (4)
5 = (5)
6 = (6)
7 = (7)
8 = (8)
9 = (9)
10 = (A)
11 = (B)
12 = (C)
13 = (D)
14 = (E)
15 = (F)
16 = (10)
17 = (11)
26 = (1A)
27 = (1B)
32 = (20)

Each digit in hex is 4 bits.

To represent colors on a screen you need a combination of red, green, and blue.

In a computer that is represented in by 24 bits 8 for red 8 for green and 8 for blue.
therefore because 8 bits can represent 256 different values you can have up to 256 X 256 X 256 or 16,777,216 different colors (modern systems add 8 more bits to represent transparency raising the total colors to roughly 4 trillion)

So in this example: (the # simply means this is a Hex number)
Red:
#FF0000 = FF(255)Red, 00(0) Green, and 00(0) Blue.

Blue:
#0000FF = 00(0)Red, 00(0) Green, and FF(255) Blue.

White: Essentially All colors Mixed
#FFFFFF

Black: The absence of color
#000000

The rest of the poem is a twist from geek culture. There was an old videogame called Zero Wing that when it was released in the US it was VERY poorly translated to English from Japanese. The line when the bad guys attack it "All Your Base are Belong to Us"

Here is a clip of the scene: