Binary decoder. In digital electronics, a binary decoder is a combinational logic circuit that converts a binary integer value to an associated pattern of output bits. They are used in a wide variety of applications, including data demultiplexing, seven segment displays, and memory address decoding.
When the Indian Ocean tsunami struck on Dec. 26, 2004, no one saw the massive waves coming. Authorities in Indonesia, where a 9.1 magnitude quake sparked the tsunami, weren't able to send out an alert because the country's sensor system had been hit by lightning. Thai officials did send a warning, but only after the first deadly wave hit. And in India, word of the disaster went to the wrong official.
Ardito Kodijat, the director of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Center in Jakarta, says Banda Aceh and other coastal cities in Indonesia need to establish well-marked evacuation routes and conduct regular tsunami drills. Many people in Banda Aceh, he says, didn't know that evacuation centers had been built. Others, having witnessed the ferocity of the 2004 tsunami, thought the structures would be unsafe, and tried to escape inland instead.