12 September 2009

Russia's New Holiday: Programmer's Day

Russia's President Medvedev has decreed a new holiday for the country:

Президент России Дмитрий Медведев своим указом установил профессиональный праздник - День программиста, который отмечается 13 сентября, если год високосный - 12 сентября, сообщает пресс-служба главы государства.

Неофициально День программиста отмечается в мире уже много лет на 256-й день каждого года. Число 256 выбрано потому, что это количество целых чисел, которое можно выразить с помощью одного восьмиразрядного байта и также это максимальная степень числа 2, которая меньше 365.

13 сентября уже давно стало неофициальной праздничной датой для программистов, напомнили в министерстве. Указ об официальном утверждении праздника был подготовлен Минкомсвязи после консультаций с профсоюзами и отраслевыми ассоциациями и внесен в правительство в июле 2009 года.

[Via Google Translate: Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev issued a decree established a professional holiday - Day of the programmer, which is celebrated on Sept. 13 if a leap year - September 12, the press office of head of state.

Unofficially Programmer's Day celebrated in the world for many years at the 256 th day of each year. The number 256 is chosen because it is the number of integers that can be expressed using a single eight-byte, and also is the maximum degree of 2, which is less than 365.

September 13 has long been an informal celebratory date for programmers, recalled in the ministry. Ordinance approval Minkomsvyazi feast was prepared after consultation with trade unions and industry associations and submitted to the Government in July 2009.]

Russia leads the way again....

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12 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:15 am

    Obviously the author isn't a programmer ... I think you me a bit (i.e. 2^8)

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  2. Actually, it seems to be Google Translate's fault: восьмиразрядного means "eight-bit", and eight-bit byte is correct. Thanks for pointing it out.

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  3. Anonymous1:08 pm

    omgzors batman, bout freakin time people recognize!
    733tn355, that's what this is about

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  4. I do you think you're right, old chap.

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  5. Actually, for programmers, there are only 364 days in a year, because Jan 1 is day 0.

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  6. Anonymous9:38 pm

    C Den Programmista!
    (Happy programmer's day!)

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  7. @foggybog: true, but there's still 365 of them in total...

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  8. foogybog, there are still 365 days a year. You are confusing count (quantity) with the index (position in array) LOL.

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  9. If they had C programmers a couple of millennia ago it would be 2008, but then by now we'd probably be on a different planet, in which case it wouldn't be 2008 either.

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  10. Anonymous3:31 pm

    If they coded in Assebly, they would have had this holiday done many years ago.

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  11. Sera que vao dar feriado no Brasil?

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  12. Anonymous3:56 pm

    "If they had C programmers a couple of millennia ago it would be 2008"

    Nah, if they had C programmers a couple of millennia ago, it would now be around 63,100,000,000. :)

    (Unless they were still stuck with 32-bit arithmetic.)

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