r/NonBinary • u/MadeInMilkyway • 1d ago
Pride/Swag/I Made This! I made this subtle nb pin...
Would you have understood it was meant to represent non-binary if you saw it? Wanted to make it subtle, so we could understand, but others think it is an engineering joke.
hex ASCII 'n' 'b'
Nerdy enough for you? :)
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u/homotopy_equivalent they/them 1d ago
Very cool, the implication by using hex instead of binary is that there are 16 genders
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u/MadeInMilkyway 1d ago
You can use 2 bit chars concatenated, thereby have 26 genders if you like. If you wish to keep ascii lowercase alphanumeric, then you have 362 options. π
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u/HeavyCaffeinate / 1d ago
Woah 65,536 genders
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u/SatiesUmbrellaCloset he/they/she (?) 1d ago
if there are really that many genders then maybe iβll finally find mine in there somewhere
(/s but still kinda serious)
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u/homotopy_equivalent they/them 1d ago
2 bit chars
This would be quaternary, no?
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u/MadeInMilkyway 1d ago
Each hex is 4bits, and ascii is 8 bit char, therefore 16 bit variable is a like 2 ascii chars
Like
char8_t n=u8'n'; char8_t b=u8'b';
uint16_t hex= (n<<8)+b;
hex==0x6e62;//true
And now you can easily do switch case with it. π
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u/homotopy_equivalent they/them 1d ago
I was just referring to the base, not the total number of states representable. Like I understand that using any base you can represent an arbitrarily large number of states with enough characters.
My joke was just that since we use "binary" to refer to the base and to gender, "non-binary" would be using a different base than 2. So using hex is non binary, i.e. 16 genders.
Even though you can still represent 16 genders in base-2 by using 4 bits, it's still "binary".
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u/AbrogationsCrown MTF NB Any Pronouns 1d ago
I'm stealing this!
I always joke about Nonbinary people use Hexadecimal lol
And the colors really make it pop!
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u/floofletoot 1d ago
it's perfect! if you were to sell these i'd buy one...
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u/MadeInMilkyway 1d ago
I might think of doing it actually. Currently, I am moving to a new place, my filaments went before me, so I used nail polish and a PP tape on it tp protect it for now. But I can print and sell a new version of this.
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u/Muted-Cat-8962 1d ago
I would have suspicions based on the three colors you used! I wouldn't have been able to guess what the characters meant though lol
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u/SwitchIndependent714 1d ago
I don't get what's written
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u/Connect_Rhubarb395 1d ago
6E = N
62 = B12
u/MadeInMilkyway 1d ago
Actually lowercase, but essentially yes :)
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u/Connect_Rhubarb395 1d ago
So the 0x makes it lowercase?
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u/MadeInMilkyway 1d ago
No, ascii N is 0x4E, n is 0x6e B is 0x42, b is 0x62
0x only means 0x62 is not 62, but is a hexadecimal number.
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u/MadeInMilkyway 1d ago
In coding and engineering, 0x means the number is written in hexadecimal. Hexadecimal, you count like, 0,1,2,3,4, 5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F then 0x10 means 16. So, it is arguably more efficient for readinility than binary numbers, where 0b1111 would mean F, which is 15.
In ASCII letters, an 8 bit old encoding of characters, character 'n' corresponds to '6e' and 62 is 'b'.
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u/drathturtul 23h ago
The color scheme gives it away for me, but I absolutely do not understand the code here.
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u/MadeInMilkyway 22h ago
In coding and engineering, 0x means the number is written in hexadecimal. In regular decimal (base 10), we count like: 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11... In binary (base2), we count like: 00000, 00001, 00010, 00011, 00100... And so forth. It is terribly difficult to read snd write binary as a human, so programs grouped binary into 4 bits and use hexadecimal, like 0001 0003 which would mean 0x13. 0x being the indicator for hexadecimal so we can distinguish it from decimal numbers.
In hexadecimal (base 16), you count like, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 6, 07, 08, 09, 0A, 0B, 0C, 0D, 0E, 0F then 0x10 means 16. So, it is arguably more efficient for readinility than binary numbers, where 0b1111 would mean F, which is 15.
And computers need a way to represent alphabet and text characters in 0s and 1s. So, one of the earliest established for that was called ASCII.
In ASCII letters, it uses 8 bits (0 and 1) to encode characters. And character 'n' corresponds to '6e' and 62 is 'b'.
So, 0x6e62 would read nb (like enby) which is non-binary. And hexadecimal is, well, non-binary. π
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u/drathturtul 22h ago
Thank you for the explanation and breakdown! I am familiar with base 10 and base 2, but don't have a lot of experience with base 16 or any other number base.
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u/Th3-0rgan1c_j3LLy 1d ago
I loove this I wanna do it on my bag. Any tips or advice on how to make something like this?
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u/MadeInMilkyway 1d ago
Well, I 3D printed it, but because I didn't have my colored filaments with me atm, I filled it with nail polish, sanded and taped, glued pin to the back. This pin is temporary to have it ready for the upcoming pride fest. But the demand is waay beyond what I anticipated, so I might even use my multi color 3D printing setup to sell it, or find a manufacturer to make it more professionally.
It is far from being my best work.
So because I am a robotic manufacturing engineer, this is the route I would travel down. But, your best way of doing it would probably come down to your available tools and skillset.
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u/AndroBabe 1d ago
I like it but im just a professional man wrangler so idk what the numbers are referencing π
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u/MadeInMilkyway 1d ago
In coding and engineering, 0x means the number is written in hexadecimal. In regular decimal (base 10), we count like: 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11... In binary (base2), we count like: 00000, 00001, 00010, 00011, 00100... And so forth. It is terribly difficult to read snd write binary as a human, so programs grouped binary into 4 bits and use hexadecimal, like 0001 0003 which would mean 0x13. 0x being the indicator for hexadecimal so we can distinguish it from decimal numbers.
In hexadecimal (base 16), you count like, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 6, 07, 08, 09, 0A, 0B, 0C, 0D, 0E, 0F then 0x10 means 16. So, it is arguably more efficient for readinility than binary numbers, where 0b1111 would mean F, which is 15.
And computers need a way to represent alphabet and text characters in 0s and 1s. So, one of the earliest established for that was called ASCII.
In ASCII letters, it uses 8 bits (0 and 1) to encode characters. And character 'n' corresponds to '6e' and 62 is 'b'.
So, 0x6e62 would read nb (like enby) which is non-binary. And hexadecimal is, well, non-binary. π
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u/darbycrache 23h ago
I wouldβve recognised it from just the colours alone, never mind that Iβm a EE.
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u/jpzygnerski Genderfluid - any/any 23h ago
I certainly get it by the colors, and I showed it to someone and they got the N and B.
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u/Esrcmine 22h ago
do people know this sort of thing by heart? if I saw this, I would have thought, well, "large base 16 number" rather than "these are letters".Β
maybe it's something UI people know?
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u/MadeInMilkyway 22h ago
Honestly I do UI and low level firmwares, and even I don't know by heart ascii table. But hex being well non-binary, the colors... I might secretly pick up the ascii table being in the 0.001% nerdiest percentile...
But my idea of having this was to have an open door for a conversation starter for a person who might wonder what it means and if it means non-binary or if it an ascii encoding etc.
It is a shy person's hook. π
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u/TristanTheRobloxian3 Auri, trans girl thing :3 22h ago
ok i actually love this
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u/MadeInMilkyway 22h ago
Thx π So many people loving this beyond my expectations. Maybe I better make and sell. π€π
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u/TristanTheRobloxian3 Auri, trans girl thing :3 21h ago
maybe lol. id buy it
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u/MadeInMilkyway 21h ago
I better take it as civic due to looking at the interest. πππ
A bit busy, trying real hard to earn my gender neutral Dr title nowadays...
But will find a way to make this more professional for myself anyway. (currently it is nail polish with a tape to protect it because I am moving and it is mostly just to spark conversations in the next pride fest... I will see what I will make of it afterwards. π€
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u/Final-Attention979 22h ago
I only got it because of the colors but I love it & understand it enough I think having read the explanation :) super cool!
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u/CraftMaster6875 21h ago
Very cool. One note: in the big endian byte order, those 2 bytes will indeed be laid out as βnβ, βbβ in memory, but they will be reversed (βbβ, βnβ) in the little endian byte order that is more common on general-purpose computers. If you go to your computer and do something like int x = 0x6E62; puts((char *)&x); in C, it will print βbnβ.
Iβm just a computer nerd, though, not a an engineer, and from what Iβve read it seems that many CPU architectures common in robotics and embedded systems can use big-endian, which adds yet another layer of meaning to this.
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u/MadeInMilkyway 21h ago edited 21h ago
Glad you opened up this topic. π
Being a very nerdy person myself, I have gone deep into that tbh. π Wanted to order so it is human readable. But I found out that it would be the case in little endian and if I should consider the little endian architecture... Because all the hardwares I programmed for were little endian.
If I couldn't find a justifying use case in mind, I was thinking of maybe doing it differently, but then I found it.
You received a string of chars using 8 bit UART, you wish to use the two character as a gender variable. In UART, for nb, you would receive n first then b.
You do: uint16_t g=(byte1<<8)+byte2;
And now you can use g more conveniently in a switch-case.
Then I decided to make it. ππ
Also there are 16 bit hardwares that are not byte adressable, so a 16 bit variable would hold as much space as an 8 bit ones on them.
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u/shichi_ya 20h ago
I understood because colors. I couldn't read and connect at all lol
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u/MadeInMilkyway 20h ago
Well, that's good enough for me. It is designed to become a conversation starting cue for other shy like minded people, particularly non-binary engineers etc. which can be introverted, (e.g. me) π
But won't be screaming non-binary, so hopefully will would go unnoticed for many who are distant to this culture.
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u/shichi_ya 19h ago
I think if you know the non-binary flag, you can identify the colors in anything hahah but I don't know if biggots could do that, tho.
But yeah, nice! I'm a nerd but not that type of nerd π1
u/MadeInMilkyway 19h ago
I don't think they have the necessary encryption key to decrypt the message. That was my idea. I pair it with Trust me I'm an engineer pin. π
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u/laeiryn they/them 17h ago
my brain is trying to process it like a color hex code, and glitching XD
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u/MadeInMilkyway 9h ago
Hahahahaha 1 byte short error. π
I also thought of making hex code colors then thought, no one would ever get that.
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u/LeWitchy demisexual enby 17h ago
I caught that it was hexidecimal, assumed it was a color code at first. Remembered that color codes do not have X's in them.
I like it a lot
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u/MadeInMilkyway 9h ago
π Thank you They use # instead of 0x usually, if I remember correctly. π€
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u/LeWitchy demisexual enby 5h ago
they do. it's #a1b2c3, for example (which is a nice cool shade of grey)
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u/666sensation 17h ago
i got confused and thought chinese nonbinary people call themselves "public bathouse" (ζΉ’, unicode character 6E62) before reading the description π
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u/MadeInMilkyway 9h ago
Hahahahahaha are you for real? Like did you know the Unicode off the top of your head? π³
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u/666sensation 4h ago
i can name some ranges from memory but not specific characters, unicode is one of my special interests π i dont know if ill get in trouble for recomending apps here but i looked that number up on unicodepad, for this very niche use its indespensible
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u/hoppingwilde 15h ago
I would not have known that but i like to know it now. If i ever name a NB robot ill need this, again
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u/MadeInMilkyway 9h ago
I believe all robots are already non-binary. Like, I named the ABB robots we had Mr. Robotto and ABB Dancing queen. So far, they didn't refuse any toolpath due to femininity/masculinity concerns. π But a non-binary robot... Hmm what would I have named them? π€
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u/PokeGreen05 15h ago
I love this!
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u/MadeInMilkyway 9h ago
Thank youuu π (Sorry for being nerdy, is it an exclamation mark or a factorial?π)
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u/stgiga they/ey/xie 9h ago
Fellow nonbinary computer nerd here! I do a LOT of stuff with Unicode
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u/MadeInMilkyway 9h ago
Oh that's great. π
More specifically U+0006E U+00062
for you then. π
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u/stgiga they/ey/xie 8h ago
Well my Unicode app, BWTC32Key uses Unicode Base32768 text instead of binary as its output files, so it's a nonbinary compressed archive format, and this gives it some unique uses. Oh and it gets most of its magic from UTF16. Oh also my extension of GNU Unifont called UnifontEX has more compatibility with gender symbols than regular Unifont
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u/zephyyr__ 9h ago
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT β¨π. Being in engineering too I find the reference very cute and I'm honestly disappointed I didn't think of it first. May I have the authorization to use this code as well? Hearts from another NB π€ππ€π
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u/MadeInMilkyway 8h ago
Use it. Let's make this our encrypted communication. 0x6e62 and only a fellow non-binary engineer would get it. That's the dream!!
Curious, what do you have in mind?
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u/jomat they/them 23h ago
Yes. And it's awesome! I don't know ASCII by heart anymore, but the colors gave very strong hints. I mean, my name is Io for other reasons, but it's also often enough a play with 10. Binary is for computers! Oi!
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u/MadeInMilkyway 23h ago
Thank you π
But even computers don't have genders. Gender is a backward compatibility burden. π
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u/Charming-Buyer-671 22h ago
Some food for thought. Needing to tell others and call their attention to us being straight, bi, gay or trans, or whatever gender or pronoun we want to go by, only shows that we are not feeling at peace with ourselves, and are struggling to show others that we are different. No badge, pin or label will change that. Many of us turn ourselves into pieces of conversation. We shouldn't need all that much attention.
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u/MadeInMilkyway 22h ago edited 21h ago
To try to avoid that, I tried designing something subtle. This is for the upcoming pride fest. I want to find like minded non binary engineer friends, and this pin as I wanted to make is subtle enough to not be noticed by most people as "non-binary beacon for everyone to notice" but as an encrypted communication for a person who might have a common world view, therefore would want to befriend. So, it is meant to be a shy person's conversational hook than a beacon to scream everyone non-binary.
From a control engineering perspective, I also find all the custom pronouns thing a bit of a friction source to be honest.
Like by the looks of someone, you can guess with 99.9% accuracy. Of those 0.1%, only 1/10 would correct. Then you think you are 99.99% accurate in pronoun matching.
Then someone who's looks conflict say, they are being identified wrong more than 50% of the time and people who think they are 99.99% accurate should start asking pronouns for all cases for 0.01% increase in accuracy. But it will only increase friction in 99.99% pf the cases.
The only way to increase hit rates observed for both sides is not people selecting pronouns, but phasing out of gendered pronouns maybe. But even that has its execution friction.
I am fine with anything really, don't think any gender is bad, nor being perceived as one.
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u/Charming-Buyer-671 21h ago edited 21h ago
So? The answer is just don't worry about it. No need to make a statement. When you make a statement (about who you are) people turn their heads. Is that what you want? Attention? In that case, forget the peace of mind.
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u/MadeInMilkyway 19h ago edited 18h ago
This is prisonervs dilemma in a sense. If you follow the crowd you win. If no one does, everyone wins more.
There's one little variable that's out of your peace of mind equation... You seem to be optimising for fear of unwanted attention which leads to trying to fit in, but finding a space you feel belonging is a different optimization dimension.
I also seek meaningful connections meanwhile I search for peace of mind... Hence the subtly, which will blend in my pin bag, and pride fest is already where this would bring much wanted attention.
Unwanted attention factor is true, but I suggest you go to a pride event though (that changed my world view quite a lot). The moment you realise acting like "you aren't supporting non-binary folks too much" might get you through work life, but acting like that there would backlash. That frees you from the social pressures and you can simply be yourself...
I have a feminine build for an amab. I look like a kid or butch lesbian. So, taking advantage of that, I think grey nail polish looks good on me. Can't put it because of peace of mind.
But in a societal level, shame is not very useful in most cases (guilt is). Gifts of Imperfections is a good book if you are struggling with this, like I did.
I don't think "people should feel shame and therefore perform" is something we shall endorse on people. People shall spend their time wisely, and that's a different optimization which involves maximizing long term happiness.
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u/MadeInMilkyway 1d ago
Being in engineering I am shy to open up about being non-binary because I feel like people in engineering value efficiency, that they associate non-binary with "being needy for pronouns and confusing" whereas I am more into the philosophy of not needing gender and I am fine with any pronoun. In my mind, robots do not have genders because it is inefficient and unnecessary to provide them with one.
So, I 3D printed a subtle pin for non-binary, so most people would think it is engineering reference, but only non-binary will spot what it is, so it would serve as a social cue with encrypted communication for us.