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/sci/ - Science & Math

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2284566 No.2284566 [Reply] [Original]

/sci/ I have a doubt and you are the only board that could help me to resolve it. It's also /g/ related but they would fail to answer it.

I don't really understand how is data saved in a storage device (hdd, usb flash, cd, etc), I understand the macroscopic explanation, but I don't imagine how a photo or song is preserved in the device. I mean, the most elemental particle that forms the file, what is it? how is it preserved in that state to define what it was intended to be?

I dont know if you understand, but all the explanations i have found I already know them, they are /g/ related, but dont satisfy my doubt.

>> No.2284580
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2284580

How can little bumps be a song, man? I just don't get it.

>> No.2284628
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2284628

i just want to know which particle and what kind of force are the ones that define the most elemental part of a file... anyone knows?

>> No.2284633
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2284633

Dem hips
It depends on the medium.
Hdd stores magnetic charge.
Cd is optic - bright/dark spots.
I don't know much about flash memory.
Is that what you want to know?

>> No.2284644

It depends entirely on the media. For flash and other RAM, it's electrons (a capacitor is charged or not). For hard drives, it's magnetic (direction of alignment of atoms). The point is that you're storing zeros and ones according to an established convention, and your program knows how to take zeros and ones and convert them into sound, video, or whatever.

>> No.2284646

>>2284633
no, I already know that. I cant really explain my doubt, it's about the most simple and elemental

>> No.2284650

>>2284644
>program knows how to take zeros and ones and convert them into sound, video, or whatever.

This is the part I can never understand.

>> No.2284655
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2284655

i tink dey got some magnets in der or some shit

>mfw I'm an EE major and people ask me shit but I haven't taken intro circuits or E&M yet

>> No.2284656

>>2284650
now someone is with me, it's really hard to explain and it's the most basic element of this subject

>> No.2284669

>>2284628
file can be any format, but what you really want to understand is encapsulation

>> No.2284678

>>2284650
Its called computer language, just a series of directions for a computer in order to obtain work.
Similar to the high and low tones of sounds coming from your bosses' mouth and you understanding that mean to "get your ass back to work".

>> No.2284679

what is your doubt..?

>> No.2284683

>>2284650
You know that .gif .mpg .mp3 tag at the end of files? When you tell your OS to open a file it uses that to tell which program to feed the 1's and 0's in the file to. The program then carries out some operation like converting the data into pixels, letters, audio frequencies or what not. You can place a .txt at the end of most files and see a bunch of gibberish in notepad if you like.

>> No.2284696
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2284696

>>2284650
Oh, it's this.
The program first reads few bytes of meta-information - how big is the image supposed to be, which method was used to encode the sound etc.
The rest is data.
Images are straightforward - you store a byte for each color (red, green, blue). Then you move a pixel to the right. After enough of those 3-byte-structures, you wrap around and move one pixel down.
With sounds you store the sound wave for each channel. As far as I recall, the wave is represented as change of position of the speaker.
Still not it?