"Vestigiality"

[JR]

Came across this description of what a FITS file is

FITS was developed as a standard when astronomers at the Kitt Peak National Observatory began dealing with digital imaging data from several different sources, including the Very Large Array radio telescope and CCD cameras. It is designed to be very user friendly and consists of 3 parts; the file’s header, the image data itself and a tailer. The image data is binary data in precise binary formats and the tailer information is there to add extra bytes to pad the file to a standard length which is a multiple of 2,880 bytes. The reason for the tailer goes back to when computer file data was stored on magnetic tape and they had to contain an integral number of records; it’s now mandatory because all FITS files need to conform to the FITS standard.

https://telescope.live/blog/astro-image-file-formats?utm_campaign=newsletter_28_Apr&utm_medium=email&utm_source=intercom

It seems IT retains non functional echos of its prior evolution, just like the human coccyx is the vestige of a lost tail.

James

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[trevsie7]

That's the trouble with standards, they become all pervasive and difficult to change. I notice Pixinsight prefers the xism standard which I had never heard of, wonder if that has similar issues?

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[JR]

So true Trevor.  PS has its own format as well.  Maybe to lock you in, though I recall getting some message from Pixinsight saying .fits was a format it 'deprecated' for some reason. 

And then there's the State Pension, which to this day is paid on a 28 day cycle derived from when it was collected weekly from the local Post Office.  Payday with this 'lunar' 28 day cycle creeps forward by a couple of days each month, and even pays twice in one 31 day month each year.

The date from which SP is paid the very first time is also the relevant birthday for only 1 in 7 new recipients, other first payments being a variable few days later depending on the random allocation of the letter at the end of your NI number, A - D.  A hang over from the staggered quarterly manual handwritten renewal of physical national insurance Cards before computers.  I had a student temp job doing it.  It was good for the clarity of your handwriting.  

But, the few days delay is not a one off, but defers the regular payments for those few days for each future payment, for the rest of your life, and represents a stealth tax that adds up over the whole recipient population.  The opposite of being given permission randomly to permanently pay your monthly gas Direct Debit late.   Who knew?

James

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On 28 Apr 2022, at 23:16, trevsie7 <trevs...@gmail.com> wrote:



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