876
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by bricked@feddit.org to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev

A photo of a cake with 8 candles in a row. The first and fifth candle from the right are lit. The caption reads "Happy 17th Birthday"

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] raman_klogius@ani.social 107 points 3 months ago

Very optimistic to have an 8th candle

[-] bricked@feddit.org 162 points 3 months ago

The candles are only available in packs of 8. It's the smallest addressable unit of wax in many cake architectures

[-] humanamerican@lemmy.zip 37 points 3 months ago

Last birthday party I was at I just wanted a nibble of cake but they told me I had to take one or more bites.

[-] tetris11@feddit.uk 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I'd have a few words with them, kick them right up their rear endian

[-] ITGuyLevi@programming.dev 5 points 3 months ago

I usually just gather a nibble by picking up a couple crumbs... I'll see myself out.

[-] raman_klogius@ani.social 22 points 3 months ago

Maybe this is a signed cake, so one can celebrate negative birthdays of people who aren't born yet. 🤔

[-] Iron_Lynx@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

Light all the candles as an announcement that you're gonna start having kids and hope she'll get pregnant in exactly three months. Not in 2, not in 4, but in 3 precisely.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] palordrolap@fedia.io 2 points 3 months ago

Although a processor might be nominally capable of accessing a bus of a certain width, it does not mean that all address or data lines need be connected.

[-] glibg10b@lemmy.zip 10 points 3 months ago

That's the sign bit. The cake is in two's complement

[-] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 74 points 3 months ago

Old man's last words on his 256th birthday: "Unhandled IntegerU8OverflowException, terminating application."

[-] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 31 points 3 months ago

33 was a special year for me because it's the same forwards and backwards both in decimal and binary

[-] meow@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 3 months ago
[-] Zier@fedia.io 16 points 3 months ago

If 1 is asswell, then 2 is assgood, and 3 is the beginning of an orgy.

[-] HairyHarry@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

00100001

Am I being dumb? How ist that the same forward and backwards?

[-] wieson@feddit.org 23 points 3 months ago

If you drop leading zeros as you would in decimal

[-] HairyHarry@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

Damn. I AM dumb.

[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 21 points 3 months ago

I'd actually quite like an overflowing cake thank you very much

[-] xyx@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 months ago

thinking of getting older than 255?

[-] PartyAt15thAndSummit@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 months ago
[-] xyx@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

with 8 bit? true, with 32 bit you might have a chance to see the sun die, but.... there are just 8 candles

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 3 months ago

64 bits and you get to watch heat death slowly set in. (Or, y'know, cosmological catastrophe depending on the full physics)

[-] itkovian@lemmy.world 18 points 3 months ago

I will grow older than 255 because then it will overflow and I become 0 years old.

[-] galacticbackhoe@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago

I only buy ipv6 cakes, so I'm good.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 3 months ago

You probably know, but someone is going to point out an ipv4 address is four bytes.

[-] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 16 points 3 months ago

Heh I've been making my wife do this since my 32nd birthday.

She still doesn't understand binary and thinks I'm a nerd when I try to explain it to her.

Maybe this year, when it's 1+8+32, things will click.

[-] regdog@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

Who counts from right to left?

Is this image mirrored?

[-] bricked@feddit.org 58 points 3 months ago

You will be surprised to hear that this is how we read decimal numbers too

[-] ArrowMax@feddit.org 27 points 3 months ago

Even in decimal, the most-significant digit is to the left. Binary in text form is no exception to this.

Unless we are talking little-endian, which would start with the least-significant bit.

[-] sfbing@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Anyone who opens their egg on the small end deserves to be removed from our society.

[-] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 months ago

Now that you mention it it is pretty fucky, but in every textbook thats tried to teach me counting in binary its gone from right to left.

[-] illpillow@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 months ago

Same here. University told me the lowest bit is on the right, the highest on the left. Never questioned it.

[-] RustySharp@programming.dev 12 points 3 months ago

In kindergarten I was taught when reading the number 123, the lowest digit is on the right, and the highest on the left. Never questioned it either.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] SethranKada@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 months ago

Binary is always right to left? I've never seen it written left to right at least.

[-] adb@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Binary exists in both ~~big-endian~~LSb or ~~little-endian~~MSb. In other words, both directions can be valid.

As explained below: Endianness is specifically the order of bytes. I was under the impression that it also implied a specific order of bits but anyways, the correct terms for this discussion is Least/Most Significant bit order.

[-] CannonFodder@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Ya, but we pretty much always write it with most significant on the left. The endianness is more to do with the order transmitted when serialized. Or are there cases where people actually write it backwards?

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] glibg10b@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 months ago

This is a single byte, so it's represented the same in big-endian vs little-endian. Endianness defines the order of bytes, not individual bits

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] humanamerican@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 months ago

There are 3 leading "zeros"

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] BlackVenom@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

The people saying right to left is normal are either Australian or mirror universe folks.

At least I thought that until I looked up ascii conversations and then just random converters .... How have I forgotten this? The pic is right...

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] regdog@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago
[-] ITGuyLevi@programming.dev 3 points 3 months ago

Little-endian for the win!

load more comments (8 replies)
[-] ratatouille@feddit.org 7 points 3 months ago
[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Look, an OpenRISC user.

[-] MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

Because of the Hayflick limit, 7 candles should be enough... but only for now, hopefully.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

That's because humanity dates back to the teletype era, before bytes. It was decided that saving candles was more important than having the extra century of lifespan.

Now, by convention, the leftmost candle being unlit indicates it's a standard human and not a member of another species-alphabet, possibly requiring multiple cakes.

(On a serious note, aging is not necessarily thought to be as simple as just the Hayflick limit)

[-] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 months ago

I did this once, but just had holes instead of unlit candles. I only had like 3 or 4 of them, and nobody's got time to go buy candles when everyone's about to sing happy birthday.

[-] dr_robotBones@reddthat.com 4 points 3 months ago

We're low on candles, great idea!

[-] banazir@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 months ago

Oh, I like this. Nice.

[-] psud@aussie.zone 3 points 3 months ago

I use that style of birthday candle, but I only place as many bits as needed.

The year before adding a bit then has all candles lit, the next has only one lit

Though the new bits don't come very often. My last was 31 to 32, my next will be 63 to 64, I don't like my chances to see one after that

[-] Iron_Lynx@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Related: I once got onto my feed a post of a tale of someone who had a child on his 19th birthday, so for his 20th birthday, and the child's 1st, they had two balloons celebrating their 2^0^th birthdays.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
876 points (100.0% liked)

Programmer Humor

31632 readers
1275 users here now

Welcome to Programmer Humor!

This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!

For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.

Rules

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS