OK dad, noted. Thanks for the update. -----Original Message----- From: Dr. Hawkins [mailto:doch...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 11:06 AM To: vintage-macs@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: kibimebigibi and Original Mac/UBUNTU
On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 3:27 AM, Gregg Eshelman <g_ala...@yahoo.com> wrote: > --- On Thu, 12/3/09, J. Alexander Jacocks <jjaco...@gmail.com> wrote: > A system that almost made it out of the lab was a successor to the Atari 2600 which used 10 bit words. Was that with a 6502 variant? > If it's not 8 bits, it's not a byte, it's a "word". 4 bits is a nybble. 8 bits can also be called a word, which happens to be the same length as a byte. You're getting modern :) "Byte" was in established usage by some manufacturers long before it settled on 8 bits. See this hashed out at length by those who were there on a.f.c. > That's why the BinHex encoding for Macintosh files exists, because in the early years of the Internet, some routers and gateways only passed 7 bits of each byte, which seriously FUBARed any files that were full 8 bit. That problem *should* no longer exist, but you can still find some sites offering Macintosh files in both MacBinary (encoded with 8 bit extended ASCII character set) and BinHex (encoded with "low" 7 bit ASCII character set) which are always larger than MacBinary files. I suspect that what became the internet was more the exception than the rule at that time. More company dial-in servers, bulletin boards, and fidonet. hawk -- These opinions are mine. Noone else may have them without paying my retainer. -- ----- You received this message because you are a member of the Vintage Macs group. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to vintage-macs@googlegroups.com To leave this group, send email to vintage-macs+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/ -- ----- You received this message because you are a member of the Vintage Macs group. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to vintage-macs@googlegroups.com To leave this group, send email to vintage-macs+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/
