Zero and One: The Fundamentals of Computer Systems

Discover how computer storage is measured from bits to bytes, why eight bits form a byte, and how binary units like kilobytes, megabytes, and petabytes are defined and used.

Explore teraflops as a speed measure, defined as one trillion floating point operations per second, with examples from MacBook Pro 56 teraflops and supercomputers like Gurko used in covid-19 research.

Explore how computers use the ASCII table to represent characters with numbers, totaling 256 characters stored as eight bits per character, enabling binary encoding.

Explore how ASCII maps letters to numbers, then represent those numbers in binary using eight bits, and extend to two-byte representations for larger values.

Learn how RGB uses eight bits per color channel to form 24 bits for red, green, and blue, and how bit versus byte distinctions affect speeds and IP addresses.

Explore how the hexadecimal system uses base sixteen and groups eight bits into four-bit blocks. Represented by digits 0–9 and A–F, hex enables binary and decimal conversions with the hash.

Explore hexadecimals by applying hex color values to red, green, and blue, showing how hex simplifies color representation and replaces binary in some tasks.

Explore encryption fundamentals, including private key and public key cryptography, symmetric vs asymmetric schemes, and algorithms like AES and RSA, plus diffie-hellman key exchange.

Explore how encryption protects web traffic with https and ssl handshakes. Explain applications like email encryption (openpgp, s/mime), pay TV scrambling, and whatsapp end-to-end encryption.

Explore how hash functions map data to hash values, a one-way method to verify data integrity and authenticity. See 128- and 256-bit hashes and MD4, MD5, MD6 used in SSL/TLS.

Explore how hash functions secure passwords by storing and comparing password hashes, enable one-time email verification tokens, and verify downloaded files with MD5 checksums to detect tampering.