Unlocking the Potential of Bits and Bytes by Frank Delporte

In the age of unlimited storage space, we forget to consider the financial and ecological costs. Transmitting and storing data in XML, JSON, or (if you want to hurt people) YAML makes data human-readable, which is great for debugging and testing but is a very inefficient, heavy, and expensive way of handling data. We can learn from projects with electronic components. The protocols used in the communication with displays, sensors, and LED strips are all based on the magic ones and zeros. Many years ago, I switched jobs from web development to a company building electronic devices for the rail industry. Suddenly I needed to understand the power of the smallest data unit we can use in software: bits. Yes, pure ones and zeros! We all know that #FF0000 will make the text red on a web page. But I never realized that the hex value #CB would mean that a train has two toilets, of which the first one is broken, and the second is wheel-chair friendly and occupied. All that info is presented with "1100 1011" in one byte! In this presentation, we will dive deep into the bits of our computer and experiment together. Let's find out why our alarm clock wakes us up at 06:15 with #007D066D and reveal the meaning behind #3C42A581A599423C, to put a smiley face on a LED matrix. With Spring, Vaadin, and Pi4J on a Raspberry Pi - and some help from the "conference-wifi-gods" - we'll discover the magic behind bits and bytes and control electronic components with HEX values. FRANK DELPORTE Frank Delporte is a Java Champion, developer, and technical writer working at Azul, blogger on webtechie.be and Foojay.io, author of "Getting Started with Java on the Raspberry Pi", and contributor to Pi4J. He blogs about his experiments with Java, sometimes combined with electronic components, on the Raspberry Pi.