# What things would be designed differntly if they had to be made from scratch?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-would-be-designed-differntly-if-they-had-to-be-made-from-scratch/442833
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 26, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-would-be-designed-differntly-if-they-had-to-be-made-from-scratch/442833 "2008-03-26T20:47:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2008, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-would-be-designed-differntly-if-they-had-to-be-made-from-scratch/442833/81 "2008-03-29T00:31:34Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan]
As well as having the nutsack on the outside.
[/QUOTE]
That one I understand. Without major system changes, keeping the testes in the abdomen would make them too hot and cause infertility. Of course keeping them on the outside makes them vulnerable to harm and leaves a hernia-prone area in the abdominal wall.
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### Author:  [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2008, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-would-be-designed-differntly-if-they-had-to-be-made-from-scratch/442833/82 "2008-03-29T00:36:47Z")
[QUOTE=DocCathode]
That one I understand. Without major system changes, keeping the testes in the abdomen would make them too hot and cause infertility. Of course keeping them on the outside makes them vulnerable to harm and leaves a hernia-prone area in the abdominal wall.
[/QUOTE]
well, yeah, but that begs the question… why not have testes that can take the heat?
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2008, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-would-be-designed-differntly-if-they-had-to-be-made-from-scratch/442833/83 "2008-03-29T00:42:08Z")
On that question, I’m going to have to pass to a biologist. I know birds have internal testes but they also have a completely different heating system.
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### Author:  [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-would-be-designed-differntly-if-they-had-to-be-made-from-scratch/442833/84 "2008-03-29T04:26:02Z")
[QUOTE=DanBlather]
That wasn’t the issue on mainframes. Early code written for IBM mainframes used EBCDIC. Integer encoding in EBCDIC used 8 bits per decimal-integer digit as well as per alpha character. Back in the 60s and 70s memory and storage was tight and you didn’t “waste” two extra bytes to store the leading two digits. It was also hard to believe that code you were writing would last 30-40 years. I was a COBOL programmer in those days and am one of the clowns responsible for Y2K.
[/QUOTE]
Oops, “packed decimal” put two decimal digits per-byte.
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2008, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-would-be-designed-differntly-if-they-had-to-be-made-from-scratch/442833/85 "2008-03-29T04:30:58Z")
[QUOTE=DanBlather]
Oops, “packed decimal” put two decimal digits per-byte.
[/QUOTE]
:dubious: I think “decimal packing” is illegal in most states.
😉
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