Computer memory saves all data in digital form. There is no way to store characters directly. Each character has its digital code equivalent: ASCII code (for American Standard Code for Information ...

There's an old engineering joke that says: “Standards are great … everyone should have one!” The problem is that – very often – everyone does. Consider the case of storing textual data inside a ...

This article was taken from the February 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands ...