WEBVTT - Mega Bits, Mega Bytes & Mega Hertz

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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<v Speaker 1>tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everybody,

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<v Speaker 1>and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette

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<v Speaker 1>and I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot Com,

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<v Speaker 1>sitting in crusted me as usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland.

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<v Speaker 1>Hey there, Crispy, How are you? I'm fine? Thanks, How

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<v Speaker 1>are you good? I have some listener mail? All right? Then,

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<v Speaker 1>this listener mail comes from Ja, and Jay says, Hey, guys,

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<v Speaker 1>I was listening to the USB versus FireWire episode and

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<v Speaker 1>thought of a great podcast idea. Will be the judge

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<v Speaker 1>of that, Jay, You guys should cover the data transfer

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<v Speaker 1>rates megabits, storage capacity gigabytes, and processor speeds giga hurts,

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<v Speaker 1>and naturally all the other variations of those instances. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>pretty computer savvy, and even I couldn't tell you the

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<v Speaker 1>differences on the fly, only that bigger is better. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>sure lots of listeners would appreciate this info. Keep up

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<v Speaker 1>the great work, Jay. Thanks Jay. We're calling this episode

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<v Speaker 1>mega mega Mega short, but it's actually megabits, megabytes and

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<v Speaker 1>mega hurts just because it was easy to do that terminology.

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<v Speaker 1>Then it sounds more fun. Yeah, it sounds kind of like,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, the Monster truck rallies Mega Mega Mega. So

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<v Speaker 1>let's start off by talking about bits. Yes, I thought

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<v Speaker 1>that was a good place to start at the beginning. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>and the start at the very beginning a very good

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<v Speaker 1>place to start. So a bit, yes, is it is

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<v Speaker 1>a very very tiny chunk of information. Yes, it's a

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<v Speaker 1>binary digit. Yes, that's what bit is short for. And uh.

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<v Speaker 1>Basically it is a one war zero or the memory

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<v Speaker 1>space used to store that one or zero um. And

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<v Speaker 1>you can think of it's sort of like a if

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<v Speaker 1>you will, a digital ad um. It's basically the smallest

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, there are pieces that are actually technically smaller

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<v Speaker 1>I think than a bit, but it's just like there's

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<v Speaker 1>just like that are pieces that are smaller than an ADAM.

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<v Speaker 1>But I think ADAM is the kind of a basic

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<v Speaker 1>building block for information. Yes, and uh. And you can

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<v Speaker 1>also think of them kind of as a switch as

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<v Speaker 1>either being on or off or a or b or

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<v Speaker 1>whatever two one, zero, one or zero. That would be

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<v Speaker 1>one or zero. That's the on or off. And so

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<v Speaker 1>eight of these bits packaged together have a special name. Steve. No,

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<v Speaker 1>that's the guy who runs Apple. Yeah, you're right, No,

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<v Speaker 1>it's bite, B Y T E can make up a byte.

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<v Speaker 1>So um uh. Depending on who you talked to, you

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<v Speaker 1>can find out different reasons for why eight bits are

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<v Speaker 1>a byte, but in general it represents the the maximum

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<v Speaker 1>amount of information that early early computers could send at

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<v Speaker 1>one time. Yeah, it's really the smallest amount of information

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<v Speaker 1>that is readable. Yeah, I mean a bit is readable,

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<v Speaker 1>but not a bite actually says something like I might

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<v Speaker 1>say a letter, or it could create a character exactly. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>So that's you know, it's big enough to you know,

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<v Speaker 1>have a range of values and you can use it for,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, to represent different things. Okay, so eight bits

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<v Speaker 1>equals one byte. We got that right, So let's move on.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's say that you have a kilo byte. The prefix

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<v Speaker 1>kilo usually means what, So a killer byte must be

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<v Speaker 1>a thousand bytes? Right, Um, not exactly? Shut your mouth. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>I'd like to take eight seconds here, maybe a bite

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<v Speaker 1>worth of seconds, and point out that this is not

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<v Speaker 1>very metric. If you're looking for nice even tens, you're

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<v Speaker 1>not going to get it here. It's because the entire

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<v Speaker 1>world of computer Uh, information really is based off of

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<v Speaker 1>a concept of twos, as in zero and one, So

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<v Speaker 1>you've got, you know, this whole binary mindset, same sort

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<v Speaker 1>of thing here. Um, the kilobyte actually represents two to

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<v Speaker 1>the tenth power number of bites, which does not equal

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<v Speaker 1>one thousand. It equals one thousand. But because one twenty

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<v Speaker 1>four is awfully close to a thousand, computer engineer said, hey,

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<v Speaker 1>why don't we just call it killo. That's that's what

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<v Speaker 1>this number of bites represents. A kilo bite. It's thousand,

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<v Speaker 1>twenty four bytes, because that makes sense because computer engineers

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<v Speaker 1>are sadists. You know, there are other people who don't

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<v Speaker 1>agree with that. Should I take this opportunity to my

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<v Speaker 1>verbal sidebar? They call them kimi bytes k i b

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<v Speaker 1>I bites instead of kilo bites because kilo is misleading. Yes,

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<v Speaker 1>I had not heard of the kimbi byte faction. Yes

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<v Speaker 1>they're there. It goes all the way up. Do they

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<v Speaker 1>does bytes and and gimby bytes? And yes, I I'm

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<v Speaker 1>having trouble processing this information. Perhaps you need a faster processor. Okay, So,

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<v Speaker 1>uh so kilobyte is one thousand, twenty four bytes, so

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<v Speaker 1>a megabyte would be one thousand, twenty four kilobytes technically

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<v Speaker 1>one million, forty thousand, six bites. Oh wow, awesome, yes,

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<v Speaker 1>uh so how many bits would that be? Did you

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<v Speaker 1>work that out? Ha? Ha, eight million, three thousand, six

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<v Speaker 1>hundred eight bits. Suck it, pillette. Um. So yeah, So

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<v Speaker 1>you remember if you have if you have anything that's

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<v Speaker 1>in byte form, you have to multiply it by eight

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<v Speaker 1>in order to find out how many bits there are

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<v Speaker 1>that will become important in a little bit, so a

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<v Speaker 1>little bit, a little bit, so a gigabyte, gigabyte would

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<v Speaker 1>be one thousand, twenty four megabytes or I don't even know.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm not even gonna go there. I was gonna try

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<v Speaker 1>and say how many bites it is? But it's a lot.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a lot of bytes. Um and uh it's over

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<v Speaker 1>a billion obviously because it would have to be since

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<v Speaker 1>you're talking about thousand, twenty four times a thousand, twenty

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<v Speaker 1>four times a thousand. So that's where the you know,

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<v Speaker 1>if you're talking about bites, that's that's the numbers were

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<v Speaker 1>chatting about. That. It gets really confusing if you're talking

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<v Speaker 1>about I have a hundred twenty megabyte hard drive, Uh,

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<v Speaker 1>does that mean it has a hundred twenty million bites. No,

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<v Speaker 1>it doesn't because you have to multiply that thousand twenty

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<v Speaker 1>four in there. Plus hard drives are never exactly the

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<v Speaker 1>same size as as advertised on the right. That's also

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<v Speaker 1>another element is that you know you'll you'll get a

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<v Speaker 1>capacity that's listed on the box, but in reality there's, uh,

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<v Speaker 1>you're never gonna have that exact amount of space available.

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<v Speaker 1>You could not actually pack as many bites into it

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<v Speaker 1>as it says you can. Yeah. I love it when

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<v Speaker 1>you open the box that says gigabyte hard drive and

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<v Speaker 1>you put you know, attached at your computer and says, yes,

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<v Speaker 1>it's four gigabytes. You're okay, where's my other four gigs?

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<v Speaker 1>I want back? I guess that must have fallen out

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<v Speaker 1>in the box and shipping or something. I don't know.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a hole in the hard drive and they escaped

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<v Speaker 1>are leaking out. Damn it. Ah, there goes that screenplay.

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<v Speaker 1>So so that's going over to two megabits as in

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<v Speaker 1>as in, uh, what you had a little more about bites,

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<v Speaker 1>I had a little bit more for a lot bit

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<v Speaker 1>more if you will, yes, um, you know actually you

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<v Speaker 1>go past gigabytes, yes, that's true. Yes, you can go

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<v Speaker 1>further just because it's it's cool and and you never

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<v Speaker 1>hear about it. But it's the kind of thing that

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<v Speaker 1>you will hear about because hard drive is nothing. Now

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<v Speaker 1>you can get a terabyte hard drive for a reasonable price. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>Producer Tyler was just talking about that's the only kind

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<v Speaker 1>of drive he'll he'll buy because you know, screw those

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<v Speaker 1>smaller drives. Um, he's snorting at us right now, he's

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<v Speaker 1>gonna spit in our in our audio. Now you sound

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<v Speaker 1>like chipmunks. Um, totally from you. Okay, So, so terabyte

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<v Speaker 1>is next bite or tippy bite if you will. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>it's the next step up from from gigabytes. But you know,

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<v Speaker 1>this is where they start to become vague because people

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<v Speaker 1>just don't talk about these petta bytes or pivvy bites.

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<v Speaker 1>And then you lost YadA bites YadA, that's right, YadA, YadA,

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<v Speaker 1>YadA yea y O t t A bites. And if

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<v Speaker 1>you really want to know, YadA bites are two to

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<v Speaker 1>the power bits or one million trillion megabytes, which is

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<v Speaker 1>in my terms a lot. My wife picks on me

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<v Speaker 1>because she asked me what kind of dog we just

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<v Speaker 1>saw it? And go, yeah, it's medium. Right, so you

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<v Speaker 1>know in my in my terms, that is a lot.

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<v Speaker 1>That's a lot of bites. Okay, So that's that's what

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<v Speaker 1>I have for bites. That covers the bites. So when

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<v Speaker 1>we're talking about bites, we're really talking about you know,

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<v Speaker 1>either storage space or file size, that kind of thing.

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<v Speaker 1>We're talking about space. So the final frontier, if we're

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<v Speaker 1>talking about megabits or even gigabits or whatever, you're talking

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<v Speaker 1>more about transfer speed, data transfer speed. Yes, so uh like, uh,

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<v Speaker 1>let's say that you have an Internet connection and it's

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<v Speaker 1>a five megabit per second connection. Okay, so that means

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<v Speaker 1>you can get in one second you can transfer five

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<v Speaker 1>megabits worth of information. Now this is megabits, not megabytes.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a thousand four bits. No, no, no megabits, it's

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<v Speaker 1>five megabits. Would be five million bits, five million, yes,

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<v Speaker 1>I can't believe I had that so terribly terribly kill

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<v Speaker 1>a five kill a bits would be five thousand, Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>but you don't do the twenty four that thousand, twenty four.

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<v Speaker 1>You're not talking about bytes, you're just talking about bits.

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<v Speaker 1>So now the mega means what it normally means. I

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<v Speaker 1>was trying to go metric there. That's the thing is

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<v Speaker 1>that it gets confusing because megabyte megabyte you have to

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<v Speaker 1>multiply the one thousand, twenty four times the kilobytes are

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<v Speaker 1>you know, but megabit is totally different. So five million

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<v Speaker 1>that means you could do five million bits in a

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<v Speaker 1>second um And then you start to think, okay, well

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<v Speaker 1>what does this mean in practical terms? Like if I

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<v Speaker 1>wanted to download a large file, how long would it

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<v Speaker 1>take me using that speed? And of course we're just

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<v Speaker 1>using five megabits as an example. That's not too uncommon,

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<v Speaker 1>I guess, and cable connections, connections. But assuming that you

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<v Speaker 1>are getting the advertised download speed, which very much like

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<v Speaker 1>hard drive capacity, is very rarely what they claim it

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<v Speaker 1>to be. But let's say you're getting a five megabits

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<v Speaker 1>down connection, so you're able to download it five megabits

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<v Speaker 1>per second. Uh, And let's say that you want to

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<v Speaker 1>download a file that's a hundred and twenty megabytes in size. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>how would you figure out how long that's gonna take

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<v Speaker 1>you to download? Besides the fact of just sitting download

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<v Speaker 1>and watching, because that's how I do it. Yeah, that's

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<v Speaker 1>how any normal six seven minutes. What is it going up?

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<v Speaker 1>Moving on, let me get this back under control, pie um.

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<v Speaker 1>So you multiply that by the radius that they bandwidth, Yes, exactly,

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<v Speaker 1>so a hundred twenty megabytes. First you have to figure out,

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<v Speaker 1>all right, well, how many bytes is a hundred twenty megabytes?

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<v Speaker 1>So remember a megabyte is one million, forty eight thousand,

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<v Speaker 1>five d six bites. So you multiply that by a

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and twenty and you come up with a hundred

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<v Speaker 1>five million, eight hundred nine thousand, one twenty bytes. Now

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<v Speaker 1>you need to figure out how many bits that is?

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<v Speaker 1>So how many bits to a bite? Eight? That means

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<v Speaker 1>you have to multiply a hundred million, hundred twenty nine thousand,

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<v Speaker 1>one d twenty bytes times eight, which comes out to

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<v Speaker 1>one billion, six million, six thirty two thousand, nine hundred

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<v Speaker 1>sixty bits. Okay, so you have a five megabit per

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<v Speaker 1>second connection. That means you download at five million bits

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<v Speaker 1>per second. So you divide the one billion, six million,

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<v Speaker 1>six hundred nine hundred sixty bits by five million, and

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<v Speaker 1>you come up with two hundred and one point three.

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<v Speaker 1>With some other numbers that I dropped off, that's how

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<v Speaker 1>many seconds it takes to download a hundred twenty megabyte

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<v Speaker 1>file with a five megabit per second connection two hundred

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<v Speaker 1>and one seconds or three point three six minutes, so

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<v Speaker 1>just under three and a half minutes. Your mileage may vary.

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<v Speaker 1>Some restrictions apply, but that's if you ever wanted to

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<v Speaker 1>figure it out. That's how you do it. Now, if

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<v Speaker 1>it's a gigabyte, well that just means you gotta multiply

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<v Speaker 1>by bigger numbers. Gonna need a bigger calculator. Yeah, So

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<v Speaker 1>remember megabytes, we're talking about file sizes, hard drive space.

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<v Speaker 1>We're talking about space, megabits, we're talking about speeds. So

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<v Speaker 1>mega hurts it's speed, but of a different variety. Yep.

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<v Speaker 1>And again mega hurts that's just the term we picked.

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<v Speaker 1>But I mean, processors now are out in the giga

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<v Speaker 1>hurts range, so we're really mega hurts. Were is a

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<v Speaker 1>throwback to old school? Really at this point, well depends

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<v Speaker 1>on what you're talking about, right, I guess it does. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>because there are some processors and you know, all kinds

0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:32.760
<v Speaker 1>of things. Actually, there are processors in virtually everything, that's true,

0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:35.240
<v Speaker 1>and some of them don't require giga hurts. And you're

0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.679
<v Speaker 1>in your average computer that you would purchase today we're

0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:43.439
<v Speaker 1>talking about giga hurts easily. So now we're talking about cycles,

0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:47.880
<v Speaker 1>all right, so cc yes, clock cycles, clock ticks or

0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:52.319
<v Speaker 1>clock cycles. Now, this can be a little tricky to

0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:54.840
<v Speaker 1>get your mind around if you're if you're not familiar

0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:56.920
<v Speaker 1>with the way computers work. But the cycle is a

0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:01.480
<v Speaker 1>very is the basic unit of computational time, all right,

0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.719
<v Speaker 1>And it's uh essentially how much time it takes to

0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:09.960
<v Speaker 1>perform a single instruction. And you can have multiple cycles

0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.760
<v Speaker 1>per second. Um, so it's really you're telling. It's telling

0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:15.560
<v Speaker 1>about how long it takes you to do a certain

0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:19.800
<v Speaker 1>task to perform a very basic instruction. Um, it doesn't

0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:22.640
<v Speaker 1>and so it's variable. A cycle is not like you

0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.360
<v Speaker 1>can't say a cycle is one one thousandth of a

0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:27.720
<v Speaker 1>second or something like that, because depending on the speed

0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:31.680
<v Speaker 1>of your of your processor, you can fit in more

0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:34.480
<v Speaker 1>in the same amount of time. So it's a variable

0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.240
<v Speaker 1>time things. You can also fool your computer into more,

0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:41.480
<v Speaker 1>you can over clock, but we'll get into that. So

0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.960
<v Speaker 1>we're talking about hurts. Hurts is the cycle per second,

0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:49.240
<v Speaker 1>So one hurts would be one cycle per second, which

0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:54.840
<v Speaker 1>would be a monumentally slow computer. Um. If you're talking

0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.240
<v Speaker 1>about mega hurts. You're talking about millions of cycles per second.

0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:04.080
<v Speaker 1>So your your process is able to perform um millions

0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:08.320
<v Speaker 1>of sets of instructions per second that passes um. Some

0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:13.480
<v Speaker 1>commands requires several cycles to complete. It's not necessarily a

0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:17.120
<v Speaker 1>one it's not one command per cycle. That's not the

0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:21.440
<v Speaker 1>way it necessarily breaks out. But in general, the more

0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.080
<v Speaker 1>mega hurts or giga hurts, your processor has, the more

0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:29.200
<v Speaker 1>information that can it can process within a second. Now

0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:33.360
<v Speaker 1>that's only half of the equation. Because if you're computer

0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:37.440
<v Speaker 1>processor is able to to uh handle all these instructions,

0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:40.480
<v Speaker 1>that's great, but it also has to pull data to

0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.960
<v Speaker 1>perform instructions upon. Now, in that case, it needs to

0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.880
<v Speaker 1>have a pretty wide uh essentially like a data avenue.

0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:49.960
<v Speaker 1>It's gonna be able to pull on as enough data.

0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:52.200
<v Speaker 1>Because the way I think of it is that imagine

0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:56.600
<v Speaker 1>that you are capable of, say wrapping a box. Um,

0:15:57.480 --> 0:15:59.600
<v Speaker 1>you could you could do maybe five a minute. Let's say,

0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:04.120
<v Speaker 1>all right, so you're standing at a conveyor Seriously, it's

0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:06.600
<v Speaker 1>a little little box. Are you doing this twisting a

0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:09.360
<v Speaker 1>little thing? You can do five a minute, but the

0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:12.200
<v Speaker 1>conveyor belt that you're working on is only spitting out

0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:17.960
<v Speaker 1>boxes like, you know, one a minute, so you're able

0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:20.480
<v Speaker 1>to do five a minute, but you're only getting one box,

0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:23.680
<v Speaker 1>so you're you're you've got all this power that's going

0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.240
<v Speaker 1>to waste. The same thing would happen if you had

0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:31.680
<v Speaker 1>a processor that had a monumentally high giga hurts capacity,

0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:34.480
<v Speaker 1>but you didn't have a very wide avenue for data

0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:36.760
<v Speaker 1>to get in. Uh, it would have be able to

0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:38.840
<v Speaker 1>perform lots and lots of instructions, but it wouldn't have

0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:42.640
<v Speaker 1>enough information to really be a great processor. So you've

0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:44.240
<v Speaker 1>got to have that second half in there, which is

0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.040
<v Speaker 1>really going back to the whole megabits gigabits thing. How

0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:50.360
<v Speaker 1>much data can you pull through transfer into the processor

0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:52.800
<v Speaker 1>so that you can run these instructions that that it's

0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.560
<v Speaker 1>capable of doing. So when we're talking about the mega

0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:58.880
<v Speaker 1>hurts or giga hurts or whatever, we're talking about the

0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:03.600
<v Speaker 1>speed at which you're microprocessor can perform calculations. And the

0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.520
<v Speaker 1>microprocessor could be a CPU, it could be a graphics

0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:08.520
<v Speaker 1>processing unit. There are a lot of different things, and

0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:10.159
<v Speaker 1>of course it doesn't even have to be in a computer,

0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.200
<v Speaker 1>as you were pointing out, true, true, And then there's

0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:16.920
<v Speaker 1>another measurement of computing power that I just thought of,

0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:19.159
<v Speaker 1>and I looked up to make sure I could actually

0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:25.600
<v Speaker 1>talk about it. FLOPSY, which is short for floating point operations,

0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:30.960
<v Speaker 1>also describes some actors. I know, yes, that's true, that's true,

0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:35.200
<v Speaker 1>but you would explain the flop sweat um. But it

0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.119
<v Speaker 1>was a floating point operation, a floating point operations basically

0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:42.760
<v Speaker 1>a mathematical calculation and operation UM that that a processor

0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.399
<v Speaker 1>can run. And you know, you hear people talk in

0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:51.800
<v Speaker 1>this it's they're using the same the same prefixes mega, giga, terra, peter,

0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:56.359
<v Speaker 1>And basically a mega flop is, according to what is

0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:00.720
<v Speaker 1>dot com, a million floating point operations per second UM.

0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:03.720
<v Speaker 1>So that's you know, a fair number of of operations,

0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:06.160
<v Speaker 1>certainly more than I can do per second. It's definitely

0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:10.560
<v Speaker 1>tiny compared to what you see supercomputers capable of doing,

0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.919
<v Speaker 1>since those are all on the pida or higher range UM.

0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:19.119
<v Speaker 1>We're talking about operations, you know, really complex operations that

0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:23.719
<v Speaker 1>are designed for things like like cerns large Hadron Collider

0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:25.680
<v Speaker 1>if it ever goes online, it's going to need those

0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.040
<v Speaker 1>kind of computers to to process the data that comes

0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:32.480
<v Speaker 1>out of those experiments. Yeah, because those can turn out

0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:34.760
<v Speaker 1>quite a bit of information in a very short time, right,

0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:36.200
<v Speaker 1>but if you need it to you know, you don't

0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:39.240
<v Speaker 1>need necessarily a computer that has that capability if you

0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.520
<v Speaker 1>want to run Doom, because I can run Doom on

0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:44.440
<v Speaker 1>my Android phone, I'm pretty sure it doesn't have the

0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:49.720
<v Speaker 1>pedophal up, not at all. Well, uh, I think that's

0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:53.359
<v Speaker 1>a good roundup of bits, bites, hurts. I mean I

0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:56.399
<v Speaker 1>hurt my all my bits and bites are hurting right now.

0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:00.679
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, hopefully that clears that up or anyone who

0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.840
<v Speaker 1>was unfamiliar with those terms or in a well, there

0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:07.440
<v Speaker 1>there were points where I mean I fall victim to

0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:10.400
<v Speaker 1>it all the time when I'm thinking, oh, five megabits

0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.560
<v Speaker 1>for a second, that means it's gonna take me blah

0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:17.240
<v Speaker 1>blah blah to download this file. And then I remember, ah, wait, no,

0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:19.960
<v Speaker 1>that's bits, not bites. And you know, you have you

0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:23.040
<v Speaker 1>have a whole you have to I forget the multiply

0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:25.360
<v Speaker 1>by eight um. And then of course, if you forget

0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:27.640
<v Speaker 1>the whole one thousand four thing, that means that you're

0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.359
<v Speaker 1>not really thinking accurately about the size of a file,

0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.840
<v Speaker 1>and it just gets really kind of complicated. If you

0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:37.520
<v Speaker 1>are not of the computer science world, and since I'm

0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:41.000
<v Speaker 1>of the liberal arts arts world, Yeah, I get confused

0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:45.040
<v Speaker 1>pretty quickly. But uh, I guess does that do you

0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:48.480
<v Speaker 1>have anything to add? Well, then I suppose that brings

0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:56.480
<v Speaker 1>us to a listener mail, And this listener mail comes

0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:59.879
<v Speaker 1>from Josh. Hey, guys, I was just wondering if Lennox

0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.800
<v Speaker 1>has a vulnerability to viruses. I know that one of

0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.479
<v Speaker 1>the reasons Mac is mostly virus free is because there

0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:09.600
<v Speaker 1>is a much smaller population relatively speaking of Mac os users.

0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.800
<v Speaker 1>Does this mean that Linux users also do not need

0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:17.920
<v Speaker 1>to fear viral attacks from a oil listener Josh, Josh, Uh, yeah,

0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:22.000
<v Speaker 1>we're telling you about the whole security through obscurity concept

0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.959
<v Speaker 1>here about. You know, if you're if not a lot

0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:26.760
<v Speaker 1>of people are using it, then there's not a big

0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:31.320
<v Speaker 1>target and therefore there it's not worth writing any uh,

0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:35.320
<v Speaker 1>any kind of mount malicious software for people who use

0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:37.200
<v Speaker 1>that just because you're not gonna hit that many people.

0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:44.680
<v Speaker 1>Uh No, No, Linux is not automatically immune to viruses. Um.

0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.159
<v Speaker 1>In fact, the day that we're recording this podcast, there

0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:51.520
<v Speaker 1>was a critical vulnerability found in the Linux kernel dating

0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:56.000
<v Speaker 1>back several years, which has since been patched. But the uh,

0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:58.760
<v Speaker 1>you know, that's the thing is that any kind of software,

0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:01.760
<v Speaker 1>there are chances for her abilities to exist, and if

0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:04.159
<v Speaker 1>a vulnerability exists, you can bet someone out there is

0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:07.120
<v Speaker 1>trying to figure out a way to exploit it. UM. Now,

0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:10.000
<v Speaker 1>does this mean that Linux users are likely to encounter

0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:13.000
<v Speaker 1>a virus? Probably not, But that doesn't mean that they

0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:17.880
<v Speaker 1>can just assume that they are, you know, untouchable. Yeah,

0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:22.720
<v Speaker 1>it's um. UM. I booted up my Linux system yesterday

0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:27.080
<v Speaker 1>and it was offering me some patches for critical updates. UM.

0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:29.639
<v Speaker 1>So you can bet that the Linux community is already

0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.480
<v Speaker 1>on top of it. Um. You know, as soon as

0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.560
<v Speaker 1>they figure out that there's something going on. UM. The

0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:39.639
<v Speaker 1>thing is, you know, security through obscurity. There are so

0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:43.399
<v Speaker 1>many fewer people using the Linux operating system than there

0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:46.399
<v Speaker 1>are Windows that you know people are. It's sort of

0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:51.200
<v Speaker 1>like other criminals. I mean basically, Uh, somebody who's looking

0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:54.400
<v Speaker 1>to mug somebody for their wallet isn't gonna hang out,

0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:56.240
<v Speaker 1>you know, in a place where no one is. They're

0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:57.720
<v Speaker 1>not gonna hang out in the middle of a pasture

0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:00.760
<v Speaker 1>because you know, unless they want to. Good cow. So

0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:05.520
<v Speaker 1>this explains why my misspent youth wasn't that misspent exactly?

0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:07.440
<v Speaker 1>They're hanging out in the pasture waiting for somebody to

0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:09.240
<v Speaker 1>combined around. There are a lot of cows who want

0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:13.879
<v Speaker 1>to have some words with me. Yeah, okay, you actually

0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:18.119
<v Speaker 1>that's not true. I grew up in chicken country. Anyway,

0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:22.440
<v Speaker 1>this is great, Um, but yeah, I mean it's it's

0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:25.159
<v Speaker 1>a case of I mean, just because you use you know,

0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:27.960
<v Speaker 1>any particular operating system or other programs. I mean there

0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:31.560
<v Speaker 1>there have been some things going on for Adobe Acrobat

0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:35.119
<v Speaker 1>in the not too distant past, um where or you know,

0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:37.800
<v Speaker 1>some of the web browsers, and those things are cross

0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:41.480
<v Speaker 1>platform vulnerabilities. UM. So you know, you just need to

0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:43.800
<v Speaker 1>make sure that you keep everything patched up and and

0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:46.879
<v Speaker 1>you know, an eye on what's going on, just to

0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:51.000
<v Speaker 1>make sure that you are, um, you know, keeping yourself safe.

0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:54.800
<v Speaker 1>And it's always good to practice uh safe interneting skills.

0:22:55.200 --> 0:22:58.240
<v Speaker 1>You're watching where you're getting, watching with which links you

0:22:58.320 --> 0:23:00.679
<v Speaker 1>click on and uh you and keeping an eye out

0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:03.439
<v Speaker 1>for fishing. You know, fishing doesn't require an operating system,

0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:07.480
<v Speaker 1>that's true, um, and that is certainly a vulnerability. So well,

0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:09.679
<v Speaker 1>thanks a lot for writing in, Josh, Hope that answered

0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:11.680
<v Speaker 1>your question. If any of you have any questions you'd

0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:13.560
<v Speaker 1>like to ask us, you can write us our email

0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:17.320
<v Speaker 1>addresses tech stuff at how stuff works dot com. And

0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:19.400
<v Speaker 1>of course we've got tons of articles on the site

0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:22.280
<v Speaker 1>all about computers and processing and all that sort of

0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:25.399
<v Speaker 1>fun stuff that's at how stuff works dot com. Crispy

0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:30.440
<v Speaker 1>and I will talk to you again really soon for

0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:33.399
<v Speaker 1>moralness and thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff

0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:35.600
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0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:38.400
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0:23:43.400 --> 0:23:45.960
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