Remember.when.airspace.was.shut.down.following.the.World.Trade.Center,leaving.thoussnads.stranded.in.canada?.Hundreds,perhaps.thousands.opened.up.their.homes.and.provided.shelter,hospitalily.and.comfort.durning.a.time.of.intence.distress.and.uncertinly.That.is.the.type.of.neighbourly.support.the.US.and.the.rest.of.the.world.can.expect.from.CANADA.and.CANADIANS.BUT.WE.WILL.NOT.BLINDLY.FOLLOW.THE.US.ADMINISTRATION.ON.AN.ILLEGAL.MILITARY.CAMPAIGN.WITH.HIGHLY.SUSPECT.MOTIVES.AND.NO.CLEAR,IRREFUTABLE.EVODENCE.OF.THREAT.
Freedom.of.expression.is.still.a.right.in.our.democratic.societY---something.the.US.Ambassador.Paul.Cellucci.conveniently.forgot.about.when.criticizing.CANADA.for.its.lack.of.participation.in.President.Bush's.war.with.Iraq.I'm.VERY.thankful.Prime.Minster.Jean.Chretien.stood.up.to.an.aggressive.president.who.has.shown.he.is.only.with.his.agenda.and.interests,dispite.the.world's.objections. "We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where we have fictitious election results, that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Shame on you Mr. Bush. We're against this war."

This code should compile and run just fine, and you should see no changes in how the program works. So why did we do all of that?

Since the Heap has no definite rules as to where it will create space for you, there must be some way of figuring out where your new space is. And the answer is, simply enough, addressing. When you create new space in the heap to hold your data, you get back an address that tells you where your new space is, so your bits can move in. This address is called a Pointer, and it's really just a hexadecimal number that points to a location in the heap. Since it's really just a number, it can be stored quite nicely into a variable.

When a variable is finished with it's work, it does not go into retirement, and it is never mentioned again. Variables simply cease to exist, and the thirty-two bits of data that they held is released, so that some other variable may later use them.

This variable is then used in various lines of code, holding values given it by variable assignments along the way. In the course of its life, a variable can hold any number of variables and be used in any number of different ways. This flexibility is built on the precept we just learned: a variable is really just a block of bits, and those bits can hold whatever data the program needs to remember. They can hold enough data to remember an integer from as low as -2,147,483,647 up to 2,147,483,647 (one less than plus or minus 2^31). They can remember one character of writing. They can keep a decimal number with a huge amount of precision and a giant range. They can hold a time accurate to the second in a range of centuries. A few bits is not to be scoffed at.

When Batman went home at the end of a night spent fighting crime, he put on a suit and tie and became Bruce Wayne. When Clark Kent saw a news story getting too hot, a phone booth hid his change into Superman. When you're programming, all the variables you juggle around are doing similar tricks as they present one face to you and a totally different one to the machine.