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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
August 27, 2006
Q. What is a “hex” number?
A.
If you recall from previous columns, the
computer is a binary apparatus, meaning that
it only knows two numbers and they are 0 and
1. This means that everything it uses for
calculations and operations must be a power
of or base 2. (0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64,
128, etc.)
Binary numbers composed of 0’s and 1’s, are
difficult for humans to use. e.g.: Adding 50
+ 50 = 100 in binary (21) looks like this: 110010
+ 110010 = 1100100. Before hexadecimal
numbers, some computers used a base 8 (23)
system called octal. In the octal systems,
the count would go like this;
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10,11. In Octal counting, 50
+ 50 = 120. Both of these systems
are very confusing to us humans, as we are
used to using the decimal system, or a base
10.
(Old Programmer's saying, "There are
only 10 types of people in the world,
those that understand binary and those
that don't." One must understand
binary to understand this saying)
But, 10 is not an even power of 2 , and the
octal, base 8, had other shortcomings, so a
base 16 system (24), called
hexadecimal was first introduced to the
computing world in 1963 by IBM. Now, since
there are only 10 numerical digits, 0-9, the
letters A-F are used in the base 16 system.
With the Hex system, 50 + 50 = A0.
In hexadecimal, we count like this.
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F,10,11. So, the
hexadecimal number 10 is equal to the
decimal number 16. This still looks somewhat
confusing to humans at first glance, but
much easier to use in computer programming
than the decimal system once become familiar
with it.
This
system was originally called sexadecimal,
for the Latin prefix of "sexa". (sexa for 6,
and decimal for 10).
It was IBM that decided on the prefix of "hexa"
(hexa = 6) rather than the proper Latin
prefix of "sexa" because the term
sexadecimal was often accidentally, or
possibly deliberately, mispronounced as “sexidecimal".
IBM changed it to hexadecimal because some
people thought sexadecimal was just too
risqué. Remember, this naming occurred back
in the early 60’s, when just saying the work
“sex” in public was severely frowned upon.
Since "hexadecimal" is a rather long word,
it is usually just abbreviated as "hex".
Q. On my desktop there are many shortcuts.
How can I find the actual program that a
short cut is linked to?
A.
Right click on the shortcut icon, and choose
Properties from the menu. Click the Shortcut
Tab if not already selected. Click the "Find
Target" button. This will open the folder
where the program that the shortcut points
to located. It will normally be a executable
file that starts the program that is the
"target" of the shortcut.
Q. I
have some very nice pictures that I use for
my desktop, but the many icons there
distract from it. How can I turn off all
these icons without actually deleting them
all?
A. Right click on a blank space on the
desktop, and choose "Arrange Icons By". Then
uncheck the item "Show Desktop Icons". This
will cause the desktop icons to not be
displayed. To get them back, simply repeat
the process, and check "Show Desktop Icons".
To go a little further and you can have
shortcuts other than on the desktop and
still have them accessible. Put them on the
Quick Launch Taskbar.
Then
if you choose to "Auto Hide the Taskbar",
(Right click the taskbar, and choose
Properties) your screen will contain only
the picture.
Q. What is the Quick Launch Toolbar, and how
do I activate it?
A.
You can put any shortcut on your Quick
Launch tool bar and then be able to launch
programs without using the icon on the
desktop. They are always readily available
here and can be accessed without minimizing
the all running programs to get to your
desktop.
The
Quick Launch tool bar, when activated, is
located in the taskbar at the bottom of the
screen just to the right of the Start
button. First, you will have to turn on
(activate) the Quick Launch tool bar as it
is not on by default when XP is installed.
To
do this, right click on a blank spot on the
tray at the bottom of the desktop, and
choose Toolbars. Click on Quick Launch to
check it. This Quick Launch tool bar is in
reality, just another folder that is pretty
well hidden in the C:\Documents and
Settings\yourusername\Application
Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer folder.
Thankfully, it is easily accessed direct
from the desktop.
Since this Quick Launch tool bar is a
folder, you can cut and paste or drag and
drop any shortcut into it that you want
there. Once it is there, you can access the
program it targets directly. You can put
your frequently used programs here, and
leave the desktop uncluttered with the icons
turned off. |
