Distractions: 010000100110100101101110011000010111001001111001001000000111001001110101011011000110010101110011

Pub date February 9, 2009
SectionPixel Vision

By Molly Freedenberg

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Photo (and shirt) by www.thinkgeek.com.

Thanks to my geeky roommate, I’ve discovered my favorite new time-waster: the Binary-to-Text translator.

And yes, it’s just what it sounds like it is. Using the same format as classic online translators, which convert a block of text in one language into a block of text in another, Binary-to-Text converts words or phrases (in any language, it seems) into a series of 1s and 0s – and everyday people into super-nerds.