Computing

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The ideas inside the machines we use all day.

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How a computer finds one flipped bit and fixes it: Hamming's code A bit can flip in memory, on a disk or in a radio signal, and nothing tells you which one went wrong. In 1950 Richard Hamming published a code that finds the… Computing4 min read Why 0.1 + 0.2 isn't 0.3: flip the 64 bits a computer uses for decimals Type 0.1 + 0.2 into almost any programming language and you get 0.30000000000000004. Nothing is broken. Computers count in powers of two, and a tenth is an… Computing3 min read How a Bloom filter says "definitely not" using just a few bits How can a computer check whether a word is on a huge list using only a few bits per entry? A Bloom filter flips a handful of switches for every word you add… Computing3 min read How a computer adds 7 + 1 using nothing but switches A computer chip has no idea what numbers are. It only has switches: billions of transistors that are either on or off. Yet wire a few of those switches into… Computing5 min read