Trigital technology

Last night GG and I were talking about the idea of basing digital technology on trigital, rather than digital, states. (That is, instead of two-state, on/off, zero/one, having a three-state, high/low/off.)

This might take a little more power than current, binary-based digital technology, as there would have to be sufficieinet range between the ''high'' and ''low'' states to leave room for a ''low'' state. But, you could arguably fit 50% more data onto the same amount of physical space.

I am not sure how charges or states are currently stored. Conceptually, however, if magnetized particles are currently oriented either towards or away from a reference point, a third, ''in-between'' state could be oriented tangental to the reference point.

Or, if they are currently in line versus across, the third ''in-between'' state could be at an angle: as in ''_'' versus ''|'', and the new state would be ''\''.

The new terminology would be ''trinary'' rather than ''binary'', and ''trigital'' rather than ''digital''. In addition, instead of ''bits'' and ''bytes'', they could be ''trits'' and ''trytes''.


Remember: You heard it here first! :)


--TG

Gentle Ralphie

We are very lucky to have such a gentle dog in the house -- particularly as there is a young child who lives here. Over the last week or two, The Kid has taken a particular interest in helping to feed Ralphie.

For her age, she is remarkably strong. She can lift the nearly-full plastic tub of dog food, which is as large as her torso. GG removes the lid for her, and she now can almost scoop the food into Ralphie's dog bowl by herself.

Last night, she was squatting next to Ralphie's dog food bowl as he was eating. She would reach in, next to his frantically-eating mouth, and pull out a piece of dog food. She would show it to us, say something in Baby, then replace it -- then remove another piece of food. Some dogs might have growled, or nipped; Ralphie just kept eating.

He has a few faults -- including the destroying of ''used'' socks that fall on the floor and left unattended. But at least he is very good with The Kid.


--TG

News unreality

During a commercial break during a television show tonight, a news announcer came on with a brief news update. He noted several things of importance, with one sentence each. His last sentence was that some rookie racecar driver had been killed that day. Then he said -- with a smile -- ''Enjoy the rest of your night.''

That just seemed wrong to say that.

I'll bet that guy's parents won't be enjoying the rest of their night.


--TG

I still exist

I apologize for not having posted any blog entries as of late. Unfortunately, I have not done much of interest.

GG and The Lady are still waiting for news on their house plans; construction being completed by July or August is appearing less likely.

And, the weather is definitely cooling down: both GG and myself have worn long pants, not shorts, for the past three(?) days. :)


--TG