Talk:technology

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Contents 1 Has anyone tried... 2 Homestar Flying 3 The Amber Screen 4 Clarke's Third Law 5 Catacombs

Has anyone tried...

• To decode what Strong Bad was saying in binary?The Noid 15:29, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
  • You could. This is a handy web-based utility. Short of decoding it yourself. ;) —THE PAPER ^PREEEOW 15:31, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
    • Actually, that doesn't work because Strong Bad doesn't say a number of characters divisable by 8, so all the decoder is doing is adding 0's to make up for the lack of bits. And could whoever put the translation specify which coding you are using? eaglescout1984 30 Jan 2006 15:40 GMT
      • Well, I'm still trying to find out if he is saying anything. I get lost, though. I have this so far: 1001101 means...m.The Noid 15:44, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
        • I don't have time to try again but I got 9945
          
          1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1
          
          2¹³ + 2¹⁰ + 2⁹ + 2⁷ + 2⁶ 2⁴ + 2³ + 2⁰ =
          I R F 15:44, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
          • I don't think it adds up to anything now. I've used all of those programs, and they just come out with mainly this:�.The Noid 15:46, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
            • If you're using Windows, just open up Calculator, put it in Scientific mode, switch to Binary, enter 1001101101100, then switch it to Decimal mode again. It confirms that Strong Bad's binary translates to 9945 in decimal.
            • That said, I don't think his binary speak means anything in particular. —  KieferSkunk (talk) — 16:21, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
  • For that matter, has anyone decoded what Strong Bad said in Semaphore? Or was he even doing real semaphore? -Ed

Homestar Flying

• Why on earth does homestar fly up the left side of the screen? What's that all about? dayve_57
  • I'm not sure--it seemed to be more of a glitch than something done intentionally. Unless it was a callback to virus. TBC have a habit of referencing their older cartoons. Bruce

I'm pretty sure it was just a joke. The way Homestar Runner said "four" made it seem like it was done intentionally. - Joshua 18:47, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I think it was just a little addition to the ridicul-ous way he raised his pitch.--Robert Benedicio 20:52, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

The Amber Screen

The screen in whihc Strong Bad describes how to select an email address is coloured Amber. this is a reference to a time in the mid 80's when Amber replaced green as the principle colour for monochrome screens. It was supposed to reduce eye strain or something. --"Creepy Pants man"

Clarke's Third Law

It seems to me that Strongbad was referencing Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law with:

The word technology... means... magic. It's basically anything that's really cool that you don't know how it works. And if it breaks, you have to buy a new one. Why, I've got some technology beneath my pants right now! Whoo-ya!

'Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law:' Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke's Laws

--Kitsula

Oh. I just plain added the thing just now. Incidentally, although I didn't include it, it's even more similar to this corollary. - Octan Jan 30 2006, 3:44PM EST

Catacombs

When SB said "catacombs," the first thing I thought of was the second dungeon in the original Bard's Tale game, which used the first-person viewpoint as well. I'm sure other games had tombs/catacombs as well, since it's a standard RPG element. - Totoro 19:54, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I was instantly reminded of DungeonQuest, with the Catacombs expansion pack. The screen saver itself resembles a first-person perspective of an extremely boring game of DungeonQuest (no catacombs). -Ed

I remember having that screensaver when I was a kid.--Robert Benedicio 20:55, 30 January 2006 (UTC)