Geek Chic: To binary or not to binary?

So this week I've embarked on my journey to become a Cisco Certified Network Associate. I'm attending the "Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices Part 1" (ICND1) course in Wokingham, which is the building block for any budding CCNA. For those that don't know, the CCNA qualification is Cisco's first step on their staircase to the computer networking promised land.

In December, I'll have been working in IT for 7 years. There are a few skills that various exams and qualifications require you to know, but when it comes to the working world, you rarely use them either because its a method to help prove the theory behind something, or simply because there are calculators and tools that do it much quicker! An example of this is the ability to convert between the Decimal number system (the one you and I use to count the number of pints consumed at the weekend) and the Binary and Hexadecimal number systems.

This example in particular is one that I've had to revisit a few times over the past 7 years for exams, but can count the number of times I've needed to convert between the systems in real life on the fingers of Davos Seaworth's left hand. And guess what dominates chapter 2 of the book I'm reading on the ICND1 course? Buggering binary.

So what is Binary and Hexadecimal, and why do so many exams in IT touch on this? Well, the short answer is that the majority of the time, a computer's language of love is Binary. The decimal system we know and love (you certainly love it after a day of Binary and Hexadecimal conversions) is known as a base-10 numbering system. Put simply, when we write a number in decimal format, the value of each position is multiplied by 10 (which is convenient, as most of us have 10 fingers). Its probably easier if I show you:

Take the number 132. To prove our numbering system is base-10 we can write it like this:

100    10    1
---------------------
 1       3     2

As you can see, each position is worth 10x more than the previous.

Compare this to binary, which can be described as a base-2 numbering system, and you'll soon see why so many people panic when they are first asked to learn this (I did!):

The number 132 in binary format is 10000100. What the fluff?? That looks nothing like 132, what sort of numbering system is this I hear you ask? As I said, it is base-2, so like our example above, we can also write this as:

128     64     32     16     8     4     2     1
------------------------------------------------------------
  1        0       0       0      0     1     0     0


Is it starting to make more sense? Understanding that the basis of binary is that a value is either ON (1) or OFF (0) can help. Now take the values that are ON (have a value of 1), add them together and you'll have your decimal number. Simple when you put it like that right?

So computers talk in binary (as do lots of other digital electronic equipment) by sending combinations of its on-off signal. But for us humans, its a bit cumbersome for us to take a string of 1's and 0's and know what it means (though if we grew up learning the binary system in school, maybe not so much).

The binary numbers I've used so far all have something in common. They all have 8 digits, or 8 bits. And in computing terms, 8 bits make a byte. But, as humans, writing a byte takes 8 digits. You can guess that this could be painful if we are looking at A LOT of bytes. So, along came Hexadecimal (Hex = 6, decimal = base-10), a base-16 numbering system. Converting binary into hexadecimal allows us to display a byte in 2 characters rather than 8! But how does it work?

Hexadecimal, as I said, is base-16. It uses the normal decimal numbers 0-9, but then the values for 10-15 are substituted with the first 6 characters of the alphabet, A-F respectively.

So to convert a binary number to hex, firstly we split it in half, 8 bits into 4 bits which is called a 'nibble'.

11000100      would become:     1100     0100

We then find the value of those two nibbles using the first 4 values of the binary system:

8      4       2      1
---------------------------        =     12
1      1       0      0

Remember, hex only has numbers for 0-9. So when you get to 10, substitute in A and keep going through the alphabet. 12 =C, therefore, the first nibble is C in hex.

8      4       2      1
---------------------------        =     4
0      1       0      0

Therefore, the binary number 11000100 can be written more simply in hex as C4.

Excellent Alex. You've taught me how a normal every day number can be written in two other number systems. What's the point? Well, the point is, I've hijacked this blog post to help re-enforce my own knowledge in preparation for my exam. If you're interested, knowing binary is the first step to mastering an interesting procedure known as subnetting. Another topic that is required for many exams, but is rarely done manually in real life. And that is also a topic for another day.

More to the point, you're one step closer to being able to read The Matrix.

The Robins' Nest Re-Launch

Wow, I haven't blogged since June 2011. Over 3 years on and so much has changed. In short, I'm getting married, I've moved out of my parents' home, I'm looking at moving again and I'm in a new job.

I'm re-launching The Robins' Nest as I've recently had the urge to blog about a few things that I have going on. You'll notice that previously the theme was football, Swindon Town FC in particular. Going forward, I'm not going to be restricting myself to that, you will be seeing more about the other things in my life; technology, music, scuba-diving, wedding planning, house-buying and whatever else gets thrown into the mix.

So sit tight, as I my next post is work in progress.

Paolo Di Canio, Do Two Wrongs Make a Right?

If you haven't heard, you either don't follow football or you've been living under a rock for the last month. Paolo Di Canio has been appointed manager of my beloved Swindon Town FC.

If you don't know who Paolo Di Canio is, you don't follow football or you've been living under a rock for the last 13 or so years.

Di Canio made over 500 league appearances and scored over 100 league goals over a professional footballing career that spanned his home country of Italy, Scotland and England. Clubs he's served include Lazio, Juventus, AC Milan, Roma, Celtic, Sheffield Wednesday, West Ham and Charlton.

Despite an impressive career, Di Canio is shrouded in controversy. Following a successful 97-98 Premiership season with Sheffield Wednesday, which saw Di Canio as the club's leading goal scorer and a firm fan favourite, we of course had the infamous "Ref Push". Di Canio pushed referee Paul Alcock over after being red-carded in a match against Arsenal at Hillsborough. This act saw the Italian's name splashed across British tabloids, along with an 11 match ban and £10,000 fine.

Rumour has it that Di Canio was then forced out of the club in an attempt reduce the effect on their reputation. He made a knock-down £1.7m move to West Ham in the January transfer window, even though Wednesday had paid £4.2m just a couple of seasons earlier.

At West Ham, he was a part of the team that achieved an impressive 5th placed finish and qualification for the UEFA Cup via the Intertoto Cup. He was voted Player of the Season for the 98-99 season and his volley against Wimbledon in March 2000 is still noted as one of the best in Premier League history.

As if his achievements in our own top flight weren’t enough, 2001 saw Paolo pick up the FIFA Fair Play Award for what was described by FIFA as "a special act of good sportsmanship". During a game against Everton, despite being in a clear goal-scoring opportunity, Di Canio caught the ball from a cross rather than heading home as Everton 'keeper Paul Gerrard lay injured on the floor. (Though admittedly, anything slightly tied to FIFA these days has been tarnished).

However, Di Canio would soon be in the press once more, following his return to Italy to play for Lazio. Many pictures and videos exist of Paolo Di Canio performing the "Roman Salute" as a goal celebration (if it doesn't ring any bells, think Nazi Germany). This coupled with his self-proclamation of being of fascist belief and a keen admiration of Benito Mussolini, the former leader of the National Fascist Party, has English Football Fans split right down the middle on his return to the English game.

But why shouldn't Paolo Di Canio have a crack at football management in our beloved country? The man is one of a long list of great footballers to have graced our English Premiership, but is unfortunately remembered instead for a loss of temper here or a controversial interview there. Paolo has a raw passion for football and winning, and as an STFC supporter, I think this is just what we need following our disastrous last season.

No, this doesn't mean I have fascist beliefs, far from it. But apart from the saluting in Lazio, Di Canio's right-wing views haven't otherwise influenced his footballing game. I might add, Italian football has a huge right-wing following, including the infamous "Ultras". These top Italian clubs are not stopped from participating in European competitions and Italian footballers are not stopped from representing their nation at International tournaments, so why shouldn’t Paolo Di Canio manage Swindon?

Sure, the English game has long pushed the message of “Let’s kick racism out of Football”, but until Di Canio walks out of the Swindon boardroom, sacks everybody that doesn’t agree with his beliefs and turns Swindon Town Football Club into some sort of right-wing fascist movement or propaganda machine, English football has no right to kick him out. After all, we shouldn’t hate on others because of their race, belief or colour of their skin right? Or do two wrongs make a right now?

Let the man do his job, yeah there’ll be controversy along the way, the press will talk, but he may just be the man to get Swindon moving in the right direction and back to the Championship where we belong.

Forza STFC!

Expecting a call...

Waiting with baited breath for a phone call that you know will arrive is a bizarre feeling. This morning that is what I have been doing. I know Mark is doing all he can, and that by constantly checking my phone, if anything, I'm prolonging the process. That's how it feels anyway. Yet I still do it. I'm sure if I just got on as normal, the call would come.

It's not even a life or death situation. Simple Minds;

You only sing when you're winning...

I haven't blogged for 10 months. Go on say it: "You only sing when you're winning".

The last time I let my mind wander onto the World Wide Web was close season, during World Cup 2010. Oh how much has changed since then! And truth be told, I have been singing when we definitely haven't been winning! Luckily, I've managed to put a poor World Cup and even worse League 1 season to the bottom of my list of things to worry about and it's definitely for the best.

The 2009/2010 season was one I'll never forget, and the current season sits at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. I spent most of last year ranting and raving about how good Swindon are and will be this season, only to be completely humbled. Now, I've spent many an hour arguing about why I didn't just have to have a slice, but the whole damn humble pie chucked in my face. Whether it was the manager, a rift between the players or failing to replace the lads that last season's success has catapulted to new levels is a conversation that we could talk about for hours. Don't worry, that's not going to happen.

Instead, this post marks a change in direction for "The Robins' Nest". Though still massively football focused, its going to be more a Molotov Cocktail, an explosive mixture of the things that make me, me. Music, Technology, Film, Friends and Life. If you don't want to read, then don't, it's that simple. In all honesty, I've only ever used The Robins' Nest as a way of channelling everything that's floating around in my head into something logical. I think way too much, on and off, due to all sorts of different stimuli. And my ol' chap once told me "Don't go to bed worrying about something because you'll lose sleep. Instead, write it down and allow it to leave your head, then worry about it tomorrow".

Yes, this season hasn't been ideal for STFC, but if you can accept that without pain, we couldn't have pleasure, suddenly the pint becomes half-full. From a broader perspective, since June 2010 I've had my fair share of good and bad. Admittedly, when these things happen, its bloody difficult to keep this mind-set. But the way I see it you've got two options, sit and dwell or try what I've just said and the world becomes much brighter.

I've got to credit this blog post to the amazing new album "Punk and Poetry" by The King Blues. Since I got home from work at 17:30 this evening, I've been listening to every verb, adjective, simile and metaphor that Itch utilizes to explain what's floating around in his head. Check the album out on Spotify via the link at the end, I can guarantee you will find at least one song you can relate to on there. And remember:

"Time don't wait, like the changing of the season. Sometimes it makes no sense, but it happens for a reason. Everything happens for a reason".

http://open.spotify.com/album/2bLbzMRDHQsbicDwE6Oxy5

A summer of football!

We seldom get to see this much football throughout the year. It almost feels like it never ended! Just a week's break following our trip to Wembley and then it was time to don my 'other' football shirt, that one with 3 Lions upon the chest!

Last season, by the time the new season fixtures were released my mouth was drooling after what had seemed like a lifetime summer break. This summer is the opposite. My mouth is still drooling over the fact that new season fixtures are released tomorrow, but I've still got 3 weeks of International football to get my teeth into! We've done something a little bit special at my house to cheer on the lads out in South Africa. We've transformed the back garden into "Gig's Arms", THE venue to watch the World Cup in Hungerford. We've also created a prediction game called "The Beautiful Game" thanks to the great idea from Will Beattie. This drummed up amazing interest amongst friends and family, getting 34 entrants! And at a tenner an entry that's given us quite a hefty prize pool to play with. The idea is, you make your predictions, then throughout the World Cup, you get points for true predictions. For example, you choose Brazil as Top Goalscorers, each time they score a goal you will get 2 points.

So far I haven't missed a World Cup game. It hasn't been the most thrilling start ever to a World Cup but I just can't get enough of it! This is the first World Cup of the Social Networking age as well, and Twitter has been overhauled with "football twits"! There has been some great discussion, from everything to jokes about Rob Green's gaff, to the Vuvuzela debate! I've been using Twitter for Blackberry away from my computer, Seesmic Web whilst at work and Tweetdeck at home on my PC to stay involved all the time in between my work responsibilities.

At work, I've been used our independent BT Broadband link (so as not to disrupt our network and keep senior management happy!) to watch the games streamed live on the broadcaster's respective websites www.bbc.co.uk/worldcup and www.itv.com/worldcup. This has been a godsend! Though the big names have thus far failed to light up the tournament (bar Germany), I'd have been livid at the prospect of missing games such as Ivory Coast vs. Portugal, which on paper should have been an encounter for the ages.

I think the above have helped let everyone get involved in the World Cup if they want to, wherever they are, for the first time ever. Its a true signal of what is to come - watching games wherever you might be, sharing banter with fellow supporters halfway across the world, or at the games in South Africa themselves. However, all good things must come to an end. The World Cup will be won and lost and life will be back to normal.But until then, keep hash tagging #worldcup and get involved in the first major footballing tournament of the digital age!

Moving on from Wembley...

I've finally had time to sit back and mull over the past week and a half. I'm not going to match report the Wembley encounter or anything like that, rather chat shit sitting at the war table.

As I stood at The Valley following Stephen Darby's penalty kick, I felt pure exultation of the highest form; how I imagine one would feel upon receipt of your first-born or landing that dream job. This is no exaggeration. For me, getting the opportunity to watch my beloved Swindon at Wembley for the first time caused this, and you may or may not be able to relate. If you're unable to, try to find your purest passage of joy; how would it feel to top that? In light of this, perhaps I was not ready for a Swindon victory at Wembley just yet.

Regardless, the 11 days between the thrilling 2nd leg encounter with Charlton and our big day out at New Wembley saw me on top of the world. No cheap-shot, sucker-punch, slobber-knocker or crippler-crossface could knock me down. Even with such anticipation, those 264 hours felt more like a mere 24. In hindsight, I wish it had been the opposite. To have been able to bask in the glory of the evening of Monday 17th May for longer would have been nice, and our Wembley defeat brought myself and I expect many a Town fan back down to earth, too hard and too soon. Alas, the organisation of transport to Wembley and the purchase of tickets consumed many of these hours and before I knew it, it was squeaky bum time and Destination Wembley Stadium. A huge thanks must go to Trevor Wainwright, Gig Talmage and Wayne Talmage who gave up a huge amount of their own time and money to make our Wembley trip possible.

Final day was an absolute stonker. I had an absolutely amazing time journeying and whilst at Wembley, and I'm sure many others will agree. The only thing left was Town being en route to the Championship, but this was not to be. For days I thought about what could have been, and in my head what should have been, but finally my pint is once again half full.

A long and fruitful season has left me with much to be grateful for; the unearthing of starlet Charlie Austin, some of the best football I've seen grace the County Ground, unbeatable away days, back to back victories over both Leeds and Southampton and of course the privilege of watching the mighty reds grace Wembley's hallowed turf.

This was my third visit to New Wembley, after previously watching Exeter's rise to League 2 and an England friendly. On my 2nd visit I stopped off at the statue of Bobby Moore for a quick prayer to the footballing gods. As my father and I turned to leave I said "The next time we see this statue we will be here to watch Swindon in the playoff finals". If only I'd have added "winning" to my statement...