Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks
Come for the quick hacks, stay for the epiphanies.
 
PerlMonks  

Re^2: Music is the most fun when stored via... (clarifications)

by tye (Sage)
on May 23, 2003 at 23:17 UTC ( [id://260497]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Re: Music is the most fun when stored via...
in thread Music is the most fun when stored via...

I think I can weasel out of this one. If you've been working with computers as long as I have, then you've probably heard a disk drive (not called a "hard disk" because there were no floppies back then) referred to as a "memory device". If you aren't horribly young, then you've probably heard a hard disk referred to as a "random-access device"1. So, in a situation like this (where we are discussing such old technology), it isn't inappropriate to refer to a hard disk as a "random-access memory" device.

So, for the purposes of this poll, just think of "RAM" as "data storage I can carry around in my pocket" and "harddisk" as "persistant storage inside my PC". I usually like to keep the poll choices short so they fit in the nodelet better.

And I didn't mean "Digital Network Architecture" for "DNA". I meant "deoxyribonucleic acid". Each poll needs at least one or two "creative" choices. I doubt anyone here has music stored in a holographic cube either. "DNA" was the second-to-last choice I came up with. I wondered if it would cause confusion and considered spelling it out or using "RNA" instead. A little confusion never killed anyone.2 By the popularity of that choice, I suspect most understood what I meant. (:

1 Well, a hard disk drive isn't really a random-access device. It isn't a sequential-access device like a 1-track tape. An 8-track tape is mostly a sequential-access device except that it has, well, 8 tracks, that you can switch between (gee, you've probably never seen an 8-track player much less used one; just trust me) without having to seek the tape. A hard disk is an awful lot like a random-access device because you can switch heads almost instantly and the time to seek the heads to a different cylinder and the time to wait for the platter to spin over the desired sector are not huge orders of magnitude longer than the time it takes to actually read/write the data.

2 I'm pretty certain that statement is false. Tough beans.

                - tye

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re^2: Music is the most fun when stored via... (clarifications)
by tune (Curate) on May 25, 2003 at 01:12 UTC
    The techno project called The Shamen produced a song which is translated from a kind of DNA chain. It is called "S2 Translation" and can be found on their LP titled "Axis Mutatis". Good stuff.

    Quote: "S2 Translation" is probably the most interesting piece on the album because of the way it was constructed. The MIDI sequence was created by the use of data from "the amino acid characteristics and the DNA coding for protein S2, a receptor for serotonin and other tryptamines." This incredible feat was accomplished through the use of a computer program devised by Colin. Edit: I have found a snippet from the song. Enjoy!

    --
    tune

Log In?
Username:
Password:

What's my password?
Create A New User
Domain Nodelet?
Node Status?
node history
Node Type: note [id://260497]
help
Chatterbox?
and the web crawler heard nothing...

How do I use this?Last hourOther CB clients
Other Users?
Others lurking in the Monastery: (7)
As of 2024-03-28 12:31 GMT
Sections?
Information?
Find Nodes?
Leftovers?
    Voting Booth?

    No recent polls found