Why do cars have such vast wiring looms...? [more inside]
posted by twine42 on Apr 29, 2009 - 14 answers

How do I look at each byte of a file in binary in XP? [more inside]
posted by amsterdam63 on Sep 12, 2008 - 7 answers

How is data on my hard drive retrievable even after it is written over? [more inside]
posted by pixlboi on Jul 18, 2008 - 16 answers

Why is Excel Solver not using the binary constraints I've set? [more inside]
posted by mtstover on Jun 19, 2008 - 12 answers

I'm trying to disassemble an undocumented, proprietary binary image format. I'm looking for the best tools and tutorials available. [more inside]
posted by fake on Jun 17, 2008 - 14 answers

Did anyone ever crack the Negroponte Code? [more inside]
posted by roger ackroyd on Nov 14, 2007 - 8 answers

Best usenet binary newsgroup reader? [more inside]
posted by porpoise on Nov 3, 2006 - 13 answers

I have a string of binary data that's well under 1k in length (so fairly short) from a proprietary source that has no documented information on its particular format. I have a general idea of what it might contain (like a month, day, year and unique id, maybe more) but no idea where to start if I wanted to discern the format and other contents of this data. I've tried googling around but I just can't come up with the right description of my task to find anything useful. Where do I start?
posted by authenticgeek on Oct 3, 2006 - 16 answers

Using SVN for mostly binary stuff - is it a good idea? [more inside]
posted by sycophant on Aug 29, 2006 - 7 answers

Is there a way to put more than eight distinctive states in an 8-bit byte? [more inside]
posted by ostranenie on Aug 18, 2006 - 20 answers

Are there any good tools out there for analyzing binary sensor data? I would like to create something like a timeline of data. [more inside]
posted by b1tr0t on Apr 24, 2006 - 7 answers

How did the Special-Use IPv4 Addresses get to be that way? In the relevant IRCs it says what the special address ranges are, but I can't find anywhere how, say, 192.168.0.0/16 ended up reserved for private networks. Were there just a bunch of nerds sitting around one day who were like, "193...no, no, that's no good. How about 192?"
posted by jeb on Jan 15, 2005 - 18 answers

When downloading multi-part binary posts from the VCD/SVCD groups on Usenet, there's always a zillion of them labelled only with gibberish like: "vcd-gnd1.r01" or "ctk-2.part01.rar" I know how to join and decode rar files. I just don't know what the heck's been posted, and don't want to blow 100s of megs of bandwidth to find out. I'm sure these are codes for something. Posting "clans" perhaps? Do I have to lurk on some 12-year old's IRC channel to figure out what these are? [more inside]
posted by scarabic on Apr 28, 2004 - 16 answers

Why (in general) do you need source files? Why can't applications manipulate binary files directly? [more inside.] [more inside]
posted by grumblebee on Jan 15, 2004 - 10 answers