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Bits Need a Declared Type

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

A series of bits has no meaning by itself — reading it requires knowing the declared type, because the same string decodes differently as an unsigned or a signed integer.

Show

One four-bit string answers to several different numbers depending on the reading rules attached.

Watch for

The type travels with the data or the data is noise.