Computer monitors can operate in many different video modes. In most cases, the decision about how many pixels and colors to display is yours - but not always.

Programming in machine code is like eating with a toothpick.

Code is not like other how-computers-work books. It doesn't have big color illustrations of disk drives with arrows showing how the data sweeps into the computer. Code has no drawings of trains carrying a cargo of zeros and ones. Metaphors and similes are wonderful literary devices but they do nothing but obscure the beauty of technology.

Many MIDI files contain entire musical compositions. Because MIDI supports only 16 channels, however, no more than 16 different instruments can play at any time, and one of those is the key-based percussion instrument.

Some programs - especially games - require that your system be set to a particular color depth and resolution. Often such special settings are different from your usual mode, though.

I felt more like a scientist exploring nature, and Windows was my environment. You don't pass judgment on nature; you just explain how it works.