Are there other rhythms that can convey the same or more information in fewer knocks?
Shave and a Haircut
21–30 of 155 posts
Re: Shave and a Haircut
#22> "Two bits" is a term in the United States and Canada for 25 cents I don't know about Canada, but the "is" should be a "was" unless there are contexts I don't know about. It did lead me down a little deeper the Wikipedia rabbit hole, and apparently: > The New York Stock Exchange continued to list stock prices in $1⁄8 until June 24, 1997, at which time it started listing in $1⁄16. It did not fully implement decimal l…
Eight bits in a (modern) byte, eight bits in a buck. I wonder if there was a conscious or subconscious correction by the team designing the IBM 360 to align with the existing “standard.”
seems hard to pin down exactly, but in this Computerphile interview the gist seems to be "if you get to the point where you want a distinct code for upper- and lowercase characters, digits, and a few punctuation symbols, you land a little north of six bits, an odd number of bits would be annoying to implement in hardware, so let's go for eight."
Re: Shave and a Haircut
#23Wow, so "two bits" is what Roger says in response to Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I can hear it now, but I never actually knew what was said.
I never understood that either. It only took me about 30 years to get the joke.
Re: Shave and a Haircut
#24> "Two bits" is a term in the United States and Canada for 25 cents I don't know about Canada, but the "is" should be a "was" unless there are contexts I don't know about. It did lead me down a little deeper the Wikipedia rabbit hole, and apparently: > The New York Stock Exchange continued to list stock prices in $1⁄8 until June 24, 1997, at which time it started listing in $1⁄16. It did not fully implement decimal l…
2 bit is still used in Canada as an indicator of something less than good, otherwise unused.
I've definitely heard expressions that go something like, "Why you no-good, two-bit etc etc!", and never connected that to this until now.
Re: Shave and a Haircut
#25> The former prisoner of war and U.S. Navy seaman Doug Hegdahl reports fellow U.S. captives in the Vietnam War would authenticate a new prisoner's U.S. identity by using "Shave and a Haircut" as a shibboleth, tapping the first five notes against a cell wall and waiting for the appropriate response. With the mass export of western culture, I wonder if there are any songs, tunes, or patterns like this that would still…
I imagine they would have to be hyper-local at this point. You could authenticate someone from a major metropolis, maybe, but not likely the whole of the US.
Re: Shave and a Haircut
#26Related: "na-na na-na na-na"
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/na-na_na-na_na-na
I always wondered if anyone else noticed, how the Jackson 5 smuggled it into ABC.
Re: Shave and a Haircut
#27> "Two bits" is a term in the United States and Canada for 25 cents I don't know about Canada, but the "is" should be a "was" unless there are contexts I don't know about. It did lead me down a little deeper the Wikipedia rabbit hole, and apparently: > The New York Stock Exchange continued to list stock prices in $1⁄8 until June 24, 1997, at which time it started listing in $1⁄16. It did not fully implement decimal l…
2 bit is still used in Canada as an indicator of something less than good, otherwise unused.
I grew up on the US hearing this usage, but it was primarily in Looney Tunes.
Re: Shave and a Haircut
#28> "Two bits" is a term in the United States and Canada for 25 cents I don't know about Canada, but the "is" should be a "was" unless there are contexts I don't know about. It did lead me down a little deeper the Wikipedia rabbit hole, and apparently: > The New York Stock Exchange continued to list stock prices in $1⁄8 until June 24, 1997, at which time it started listing in $1⁄16. It did not fully implement decimal l…
2 bit is still used in Canada as an indicator of something less than good, otherwise unused.
Same in the US, but I can't imagine anyone would be able to accurately pinpoint its etymology.
Re: Shave and a Haircut
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
2 bit is still used in Canada as an indicator of something less than good, otherwise unused.
I've definitely heard expressions that go something like, "Why you no-good, two-bit etc etc!", and never connected that to this until now.
Me neither! I always tentatively assumed it's about computer bits, where two bits would be "not much", and that somehow it entered into normie vernacular.
So, TIL that this is another case of society and culture in the 19th and 20th century US evolving primarily around the stock exchange :o.
Re: Shave and a Haircut
#30> The former prisoner of war and U.S. Navy seaman Doug Hegdahl reports fellow U.S. captives in the Vietnam War would authenticate a new prisoner's U.S. identity by using "Shave and a Haircut" as a shibboleth, tapping the first five notes against a cell wall and waiting for the appropriate response. With the mass export of western culture, I wonder if there are any songs, tunes, or patterns like this that would still…
I heard it in a jpop song, happy summer wedding by morning musume, about 20 years ago. They actually worked it into the melody of the song. I think they're well aware of it now in the East.