“A non-programmer thinks there are 1000 bytes in a kilobyte. A programmer is convinced that there are 1024 meters in a kilometer.”
“If God had intended man to have computers, he would have given him 16 fingers.”
I hate decimal numeral system!!
First, because it does not allows proper splitting or multiplying by 2.
10 – 20/25? – 50 – 100 or 10 – 5 – 2.5?, every more splitting add a decimal.
Hexadecimal numeral system, as well as all numeral systems based on powers of 2, allows properly splitting by 2.
Most people thinks that using hexadecimal system is hardly, just because they use decimal system. But, from a NEUTRAL point of view, hexadecimal system makes a lot of things easier!
More than numeral system, in 2001 I decided to make a own measuring system.
The metre was initially defined to be 1:40000 part of the length of an Earth meridian (why not 1:100000 or other number?), but with new technology the earth size was recalculated and the definition not works anymore.
My idea for linear measurement was to use as the base unit was to be the size of pixels on a 100% zoom. One inch is equal to 6 picas, 72 points, or 96 pixels. For area or volume measurement I would use square pixel and cubic pixel too.
The 360 degrees angle system was chosen because is near the numbers of days in a year, and is a highly composite number.
For angle measurements, my idea is to split a circle into 256 degrees.
Today, for most of my projects in AutoCAD and not only, including the houses and apartments, as well the furniture that I design, I use a binary metric system. The base unit is the meter, but then is divided and multiplied via binary system. Walls thickness is 12.5 cm (1/8 meters) rather than 10 cm. Neighborhood have sizes like 384 and 512 meters rather than 400 and 500 meters. Same for the maps.
Teoalida’s Palace remains on the real metric system, because is not designed in AutoCAD from my imagination but is a reconstruction of a REAL building which was built one century ago according metric system.
Teoalida’s Cars are not related in any way with the metric system, are designed based on pixel system and binary divisions.
I love all powers of 2, but most frequent used are 8, 16 and 256. 8 is the luckiest number in chinese culture and I am the lucky owner of a 8-letter long name. I can apply vertical labels “DESIGNED BY TEOALIDA” on my 8-storey blocks.
For counted numbers (not measurement numbers) I have a habit to add one more, as symbol of overproduction “I always can do more!“, for example somebody requested one dollar, but I paid $1.01. Designing duplex penthouses at top of 16-storey tower blocks makes an appearance of a 17-storey block.
A lot of important events and coincidences happened on 17 or were related with number 17, including my birthday, so this became my favorite number and most frequent used number which is not a power of 2.
Other numbers important in my life are 12 and 24 which again had a lot of coincidences. I use them too but less often.