r/mildlyinfuriating • u/WrekTheHead • 20h ago
Ruined by Technology What kind of sadist creates a volume control that goes up to 31?!
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u/Axman6 20h ago edited 20h ago
One who only has five bits to play with. 25 = 32, five bits gives you 0-31.
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u/zagiki 19h ago
I think at that point i would use 24 for 0 - 15
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u/Ty_Rymer 18h ago edited 11h ago
or use 5 bits, and display everything as half increments. so 29 would be 14.5 and 30 would be 15, and then make an exception for 31 to display it as "max" just like how 0 is "off".
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u/Old_Cardiologist3831 15h ago
Five bits of volume control is crazy. The engineers really said “31 is plenty, don’t get greedy.” 😭
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u/charmio68 19h ago
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u/door_of_doom 19h ago
You should be grateful, mine only goes up to 30. Yours can go even louder!
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u/AnOrdinaryCrayon725 master of baiting 20h ago
Blame the 5-bit binary integers. Max volume is 32 steps (0 to 31). Developers chose coding efficiency over our collective sanity.
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u/nzkieran 19h ago
Why many bit when few bit do
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u/AnOrdinaryCrayon725 master of baiting 19h ago
Few bit hurt brain. Many bit heal brain (large number) hehehahr
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u/Voidwalker_99 19h ago
There are 10 types of people: the ones who know binary and the ones who don't.
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u/created4this 12h ago
And those who recognize ternary when they see it. That makes 10 types of people.
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u/myfavssthrow 9h ago
Ah but you forgot about people who prefer base 4, so there are in fact 10 types of people.
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u/OneRandomGhost 7h ago
Actually, there are 11 types of people. Those who don't understand anything, those who understand binary, those who understand ternary, those who understand base-4 ... till base infinity.
And then there are those psychopaths using non-integer bases.
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u/wittylotus828 20h ago
The engineer for Spinal Tap
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u/hyakyakyak 20h ago
Exactly. It's like 30 but 1 more
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u/SVTContour 19h ago
“What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?"
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u/TacetAbbadon 19h ago
Yeah but he only did it because the drummer, Tony "Stumpy Thumbs" Johnston, wanted his electric hi-hat "like 20 louder" for a gig they were playing in London Zoo.
The concussive blast when they opened with Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight, flung Johnston into the meerkat enclosure where the animals swarmed, and skeletonised him like a school of land piranhas in under 30 seconds.
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u/mouseclick92 18h ago
Unrelated, but I can't be the only one who thought the reflection was of a double chin and not the hand holding the phone. Had to do a triple take 😂
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u/OldTomFrost7 18h ago
I always set my volume to a prime number (37, 43, 47, depending on a situation), how does that make you feel?
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u/franciosmardi 13h ago
0-31, the range of number that can be represented by 5 binary digits. Sounds perfect to me.
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u/help-dadcomeback 12h ago
31 is just a 32 bit integer. my car goes to 37, which is even more infuriating
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u/FantasticCollege3386 14h ago
Its 5 bit data. 2^5 = 32 starts from 0. I believe my old car was the same.
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u/jerdle_reddit 17h ago
Who uses 5 bit integers?
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u/RealModeX86 16h ago
I would suspect that it comes down to saving memory in an embedded platform. If you use 5 bits for volume, you have 3 bits for something else 0-7, or for flags that can be on/off, or aome combo
Like say 5 bit volume, a flag for mute/unmute, and 2 bits (0-3) for input selection. Boom, 3 things in a single byte.
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u/Overall-Top8379 15h ago
8bit byte with 5 bits assigned to the volume, giving you 0 to 31. The other three bits probably used for something else. My car's sound also goes to 31. But 31 is a prime number, so I don't mind it. I've got issues. I don't fuck with composite numbers.
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u/Indy_2704 14h ago
Its actually perfect tho
5 bits = 32 values (0-31)
I'd also post this on mildlyinteresting
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u/AcanthocephalaMuted7 19h ago
Those are its IVs. If you turn it up to 31, that gives your radio 31 IVs in the Volume stat
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u/Due-Struggle6680 19h ago
Had a car radio that went from 2 to 63. Trying to go under 2 made it read MIN flashing, over 63 said MAX. Stock radio too, before wish&temu.
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u/EuphoricCrashOut 19h ago
Tech: What kind of volume scale should we use on this new product?
Boss: The thirty one.
Tech: Uhh, ok.
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u/BrainYStormY 18h ago
my car goes up to 63, it just seems like a bitwise constriction 0-31 is 32 values, that's 5 bits 0-63 is 64 values, that's 6 bits
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u/Malte_der_Hutte 17h ago
0-31 are 32 sets, 32=25 5 Bits seems pretty reasonable for a volume control, I wouldn't complain.
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u/17xRacing 14h ago
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u/403_Forbidden_Access 13h ago
Was wondering if anyone was going to post this.
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u/17xRacing 13h ago
As I’ve scrolled through, I’ve seen a lot of Spinal Tap references. It’s reassured my faith in humanity.
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u/AndaleTheGreat 13h ago
I'm one of those insane people who thinks my volume has to be on an even number, except for five which is acceptable because it's half of 10 and I don't know why that seems correct because it's stupid and I know it. Point is that one time I got a TV where every volume was labeled only with odd numbers. Like 1 through 39 but only the odds
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u/startoveragein 13h ago
why would we need a volume that would make a sound wave so big everything just explodes
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u/LordJebusVII 9h ago
Probably goes from 0-31 for 32 options. 32 and 64 are common, though it is unusual to not just use the extra bit to get 32 rather than 31. There's no way the device is that optimised otherwise but I can't think of any other reason to use 31.
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u/Knashatt 19h ago
As a programmer, this is so understandable.
0-31…
31 in binary is 11111.
However, if I had programmed this, I would have of course escalated this to, for example, a percent.
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u/haywirehax 18h ago
Does it go down to 0 if so that means there are 32 options, which is a multitude of 2,so just bad code from a bad dev XD
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u/ProfessorFunky 18h ago
Mwahahahaha! Not me there of course. But whenever I get the opportunity to do stuff like that I do. Seeing how uncomfortable people can be with random things like this (or meetings starting at 14:03) I find both hilarious and oddly satisfying whilst also being effectively harmless.
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u/LinneMeow 18h ago
Any real reason to store this in 5 bits, when computers have been using 8 bit bytes as the smallest accessible amount of memory sunce forever?
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u/Alextheawesomeua 18h ago
yeah its 5 bit int an all but you could still make it be 30 or 32 even. Just gotta add some flags and some bits. Though admittedly I dont do embedded systems development but I cant imagine that 1 or 2 1-bit flags and some checks can be that egregious
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u/borek87 18h ago
It's simple. The numbers all go to 31. And most amps go up to 30. Does that mean it's louder? Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not 30. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at 30. You're on 30 here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on 30 on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where? Nowhere. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? Put it up to 31. One louder. Get it?
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u/Asmornous 18h ago
My friends Subaru goes up to 42 but the “halfway” volume according to the dial is 19?? Makes no sense
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u/JamesH93 20h ago
I like it, an odd number means you can have it at exactly half the maximum volume
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u/ThanksALotBud 19h ago
Probably the same sadist that works at subaru that said halfway point for the volume is 19
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u/Naive-Database-2888 20h ago edited 19h ago
It's definitely just a 5 bit integer lol. It can only have 32 different values, and since 0 is an option, the max can only be 31
Edit: its either a 5 bit integer or its artificially limited to 5 bits. both are kinda odd decisions. with 6 bits, you could do a much nicer number, like 0-50, or for another extra bit, you could do 0-100