Friday, January 11, 2008

Geek Love



Here's the other Valentine's Day pendant I made earlier this week. I'm sort of an armchair computer lover. I have a background in philosophy (my undergraduate degree) with some deductive logic and philosophy of math (I once spent an entire semester trying to prove that 1+1=2 - it was rough going), but I don't really have any programming knowledge beyond the BASIC I learned as a teenager. I've always found computer programming kind of interesting, though, and the Husband is quite computer literate. Anyway, I've been wanting to do something in binary code for a while, but I didn't know how to spell anything in binary. However, I did a search a few days ago and came up with a site that will translate ASCII into binary (and hex), for those of us who want to spend our recreation time translating random words into binary. So, here's my pendant - it spells "love", of course, with a heart in the middle replacing one of the zeros. I added a little red resin to the heart to give the pendant some color.

To be perfectly honest, I'm a little on the fence about this one. As I'm sure you can tell, I carved these numbers freehand. In the beginning, I thought rough-cut numbers would make a nice contrast to the somewhat sterile nature of the code. However, as with the maze pendant, I'm wondering if this would look better if I used the computer and had a rubber stamp cut to specifications. I may try it in the future. I'm also thinking of making one in hex (hex is so much shorter). Maybe next week.

Here's the other pendant I completed this week:



Yep, another amethyst pendant. This one is getting shipped off to California tomorrow to its new home. I have to say, I still really like these pendants - each one seems different to me, because the crystal structure in each of the tops is quite different. I wish I'd bought more of them, now...

I hope everyone has a great weekend! See you on Monday.

3 comments:

melanie brooks said...

I love this binary code one! Its funny I was just thinking about language spawned from the internets yesterday, and I see that your OT piece is about language too.

I was reading about this history and growth of the LOLcat language on I can haz cheezeburger. Do you know that site? I don't know why I find it SO hilarious to read very poorly spelled and grammatically incorrect captions on cute animal photos, but it is the funniest thing in the world to me right now. And it has become part of our language at home, saying things like "hm, what can I has for dinner tonight?"

Michelle McGee said...

I think the handwritten numbers are exactly what it needed... I love the contrast!!

Melissa J. Lee said...

Melanie, Ooh, I don't know I can haz cheezeburger - I'll have to check it out.

Thanks, Michelle! After looking at if for a few weeks, I think I like the handwritten numbers, too...