How many bits are in a byte? What women think...

Drekce

Golden Member
Sep 29, 2000
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Last night my wife and I were playing the game "Cranium" with some friends. It was guys against girls...The women get the question "True or False, There are 8 bits in one byte?" They answered false because they for some unknown reason thought that a byte has 40 bits! I am a Computer Engineer and my wife thinks there are 40 bits in a byte, I am so ashamed.

 

GermyBoy

Banned
Jun 5, 2001
3,524
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Hope it wasn't the losing team gives head to the winning team! LOL.

Man it would suck if you guys lost.
 

CChaos

Golden Member
Mar 4, 2003
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Hurray for all the regular folks who don't know or care about computers and keep us geeks in business!! /cheer
 

WHipLAsh13

Golden Member
Jan 17, 2001
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Maybe she thought you meant how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll.
 

azazyel

Diamond Member
Oct 6, 2000
5,872
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Originally posted by: Quixfire
Who won the girls or the guys?

At my pad the girls usually win because the guys get drunk sooner. But when it comes to "25 words or less" we never lose.
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,756
600
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40 bits...where did that come from?

Saying there were 10bits I could understand...but 40? Thats just like a random number.
 

WobbleWobble

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2001
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From what I remember, there are not always 8 bits in a byte. Most of the time yeah, but there were exceptions.
 

Flyermax2k3

Diamond Member
Mar 1, 2003
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Originally posted by: PingSpike
40 bits...where did that come from?

Saying there were 10bits I could understand...but 40? Thats just like a random number.

Well... There have been x86 CPUs that have 40-bit memory addressing (Athlon 64, anyone?), but I don't think Drekce's wife knows that ;)
Edit: oh, and Drekce, you should know better than to think that bytes are *only* 8 bits. Bytes can be of any bit-length, as long as the platform (hardware & software) support it.
 

kt

Diamond Member
Apr 1, 2000
6,032
1,348
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Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
From what I remember, there are not always 8 bits in a byte. Most of the time yeah, but there were exceptions.

And what would the exception be?
 

Flyermax2k3

Diamond Member
Mar 1, 2003
3,204
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Originally posted by: kt
Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
From what I remember, there are not always 8 bits in a byte. Most of the time yeah, but there were exceptions.

And what would the exception be?

I quote myself: "Bytes can be of any bit-length as long as the platform (hardware & software) supports it." (emphasis added)