TECHNOLOGY MUSINGS

If someone would invent a way so that messages could be represented in 7-bit ASCII encoding, it would sure cut down on my e-mail volume.

FILED UNDER: Science & Technology
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Ian S. says:

    Nice, although I’ll bet not many get the joke 🙂

  2. James Joyner says:

    Such is my sense of humor, unfortunately. Having taught for a number of years, though, I’m used to people not thinking my jokes are funny.

  3. Dave says:

    Heh. Good one… at least for geeks like me.

  4. melvin toast says:

    Actually right now you’re email is being represented in an 8 bit ascii encoding. So 7 bits would only save you 16 percent in volume.

    Of course those ASCII encodings are being extended to represent binary data but if you use an old fashioned email reader, you’ll see ASCII text. It won’t be coherent but it will be ASCII.

  5. Well, if we were using the IBM 14xx series (all the rage about the time I was born), we COULD have all our data in 7 bits (6 bit characters + 1 bit word mark).