And now, from the "Greek to Me" department...

I'm currently taking what I consider to be the first "hardcore" computer science class I've taken since I started working on my Technology Management degree. (I took a database class and a networking class, but I don't consider those to be hardcore since I already knew a lot about those topics.) So in this accelerated summer session, I'm getting to read scintillating material like:

Each check bit operates on every data bit whose position number contains a 1 in the same bit position as the position number of that check bit. Thus, data bit positions 3,5,7,9 and 11 (D1, D2, D4,D5,D7) all contain a 1 in the least significant bit of their position number as does C1; bit positions 3,6,7,10, and 11 all contain a 1 in the second but position, as does C2, and so on. Looked at another way, bit position n is checked by those bits S_i such that Σi = n. For example, position is checked by bits in position 4,2, and 1; and 7=4+2+1.

Riveting stuff, no? I can't wait until Hollywood gets ahold of it.

I'm starting to remember why I majored in English.