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HOW TO READ BINARY MESSAGES

Hey there all you gamers out there! Have you ever seen a bunch of ones and zeroes in a television show and wondered "Huh. I wonder if this binary here is some sort of Secret Code?" and instead of googling it, you wanted to try to figure it out yourself? Well I know how to do that, and people always go "WHOA" when I tell them that, and I figured I would teach you all as well!

Now just a warning ahead of time, translating binary yourself will take some time and require a little bit of math, so don't say I didn't warn you.

So let's take a binary string like this frame from the Gravity Falls episode "Soos and The Real Girl" (which, spoilers, IS a secret message)

So the first thing you're gonna want to do is divide the binary into groups of 8. If it is a secret message, then each group of 8 bits will represent as ASCII value (or, for the sake of this explanation, letters). So let's divide them up.

That gives us: 01010011, 01010000, 01000001, 01000011, 01000101, 01001010, 01000001, 01001101, 01010100, 01010111, and 01001111. Now, you might have noticed that all of these binary strings have something in common. They all start with "010"! That's gonna be your first tell that you've got a secret message on your hands. Every letter in ASCII starts with either 010 or 011 for lowercase letters. So if you see the groups don't start with either of those, then it's just random gibberish binary that someone just keysmashed 1 and 0 for. So now we know we have a message, so we can begin translating. And to show off how that works, we're going to translate the first set together!

The way binary works is that each digit from the right to the left represents a power of 2. The farthest right digit represents 1. The second to last digit represents 2. The third to last digit is 4. Then 8. Then 16. When reading more complex binary stuff, you go further than that, but for reading ASCII letters, we only use 5 digits. For each of those digits, if the digit is 1, then you add the value that the digit represents. If it's 0, then you don't. From there, you add up the numbers you've got, and then run the sum through the handy dandy a1z26 cipher (A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, and so on)

So again, let's have a look at that first string: 01010011

And there you go! Now you just need to repeat this for every letter! It sounds harrowing at first, but over time you get the hang of it to the point where you can do it in your head. Feel free to give is a shot yourself and decode the rest of the message from the Gravity Falls episode

Now obviously there are a few exceptions. For example if you have a number or punctuation it will start with "001", and from there translating a number from 0 to 9 is easy since it's the same thing but without the A1Z26 cipher, but with punctuation you have to remember specific values, which is a pain in the ass, but if you're translating a decoded message, you don't really need to know the punctuation.

And that should do it! Hope you enjoyed this little explanation.

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Knife Mirror with Blood Carpet by Drought

[ambitious-tea]

House not only going against a DNR but then getting charged with assault for intubating. Y’all did not exaggerate this show omg he’s living his best malpractice life

[ambitious-tea]

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[ambitious-tea]

Hi so I’m watching House MD. Y’all did NOT let me down this show is as insane if not MORE insane than anticipated. I’m obsessed. If anything it was undersold.

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Vean_ima

[ambitious-tea]

When the Harry Potter HBO series comes out, I better not be seeing any of the bullshit justifications that you guys used to justify your Hogwarts Legacy purchases.

"Oh, she won't be making any money from it!" She's the executive producer.

"There's no ethical consumption under capitalism anyway!" That excuse applies when you're talking about things that humans actually need, like food. That excuse does not apply when you're talking about a TV show.

"I have to support the creators!" No you don't. No you fucking don't. If that excuse was true, you'd have to consume every piece of media that was ever created. Besides, Warner Brothers is a billion-dollar corporation. You won't hurt their feelings if you boycott one TV show.

"But it was my childhood!" I don't care. I legitimately do not care.

I don't wanna go through this bullshit again. Just don't fucking watch the series. It's that simple.

[ambitious-tea]

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I just read a book by one of my favorite authors whose plots are essentially airtight, but the MC was walking on a country road on a cold winter night and she was knocked down and fell into a drainage ditch covered in ice, broke through and got covered in icy mud and water.

Then she had a “miserable” 3 more miles to walk to the inn.

Babes she would not MAKE it to that inn.

[ambitious-tea]

b plot of all fucking time.

[ambitious-tea]

People I met for a few moments that live in my head forever.

[ambitious-tea]

monoculture forests are deeply unsettling in a way that is hard to explain to people who do not spend a lot of time looking at forests

[ambitious-tea]

Watching the new live action ATLA. Why are we pausing every few moments to monologue exposition.

[ambitious-tea]

I ADOPTED A CAT!!! She’s black and white with little white boots on her back legs. She’s super sweet and playful and also gets me up at 7 every morning to play. I would love name suggestions!!!

[ambitious-tea]

[ambitious-tea]

i wouldn’t say the era of binge tv is the sole reason why right now, a lot of people seem to have issues with growth arcs and general patience re: letting a narrative unfold at its own pace, but i do think it’s a big piece of the puzzle

anyway i am lowkey constantly begging people to understand that a character undergoing a growth arc has to start from a place of needing that growth, which necessitates that their starting point is not Already Awesome In All The Ways, No Complaints Here.

[ambitious-tea]

I thought my car had a serious exhaust leak problem but no! Turns out it’s just rodents in the engine 💖 I know nothing about cars