September 13th: Programmer's Day
9/13/21 11:21 AM
Some people may find it strange that some years Programmer's Day is celebrated on September 13 and in leap years it falls a day earlier. Why does this international day change its date?
The answer can be found in the particular proposal of Valentin Balt, who at the beginning of the millennium asked the Russian president to establish a date to commemorate the work of all professionals. But it was not until 2009 when the President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, designated the date as official.
The number 256 (28) was chosen because it is the number of numbers that can be represented by 8 bits (or 1 byte). On the other hand, the number 256 is the greatest power of 2 less than 365 (number of days in a year).