this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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Microblog Memes

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[–] tired_n_bored@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

As a software engineer: actually there is no need for a number of people as a power of 2 unless you need exactly 1 byte to store such information which sounds ridiculous for the size of Whatsapp

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

Or some binary search tree with an artificial height lol.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 3 points 21 hours ago

It’d make sense at protocol level. Otherwise, yeah, even bit-size database columns end up being stored as a word unless the engine compacts it.

[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

evenly specific

[–] prime_number_314159@lemmy.world 141 points 2 days ago (21 children)

Numbers guy here, I can confirm 256 is an evenly specific number, and not an oddly specific number.

[–] banazir@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

But is it Numberwang, Mr. Numbers Guy?

[–] BlackXanthus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

User name checks out

[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 19 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Oh you are the numbers guy ? Name every number

[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago (3 children)

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

What about -1 ?

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[–] jsomae@lemmy.ml 89 points 2 days ago (13 children)

Shout out to Castlevania II, where you can hold anywhere from 0 to 256 laurels. Yes, you read that right -- 256, not 255. I inspected RAM to double check. It's a 16-bit word on an 8-bit system with a maximum value of 0x100. They could have used 8 bits instead of 16. But no, they really did choose this arbitrary number.

[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 34 points 2 days ago

"I inspected RAM to double check."

That's an unhinged level of commitment. Respect — I dig it

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I hate this. I love this.

If I ever make a game I might put stuff like this in it.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 1 points 22 hours ago

Having made a few games back in the day, this isn't something you add on purpose, this is something that you screwed up, are going to "fix later", then realize it's too much hassle to rewrite 45% of your code and you just raise the minimum spec requirements a bit to compensate.

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[–] rarbg@lemmy.zip 57 points 2 days ago (4 children)

A previous version of this article said it was "not clear why WhatsApp settled on the oddly specific number." A number of readers have since noted that 256 is one of the most important numbers in computing, since it refers to the number of variations that can be represented by eight switches that have two positions - eight bits, or a byte.

Lol, weird way to say that 256 is a power of two, and computers operate in base two.

[–] Outbound7404@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 day ago

Their definition is a lot better.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 14 points 1 day ago

It's a pretty succinct explanation that links what it is to something most people have heard of (a byte).

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[–] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago (5 children)

I remember being puzzled by this and many other numbers that kept cropping up. 32, 64, 128, 256, 1024, 2048... Why do programmers and electronic engineers hate round numbers? The other set of numbers that was mysterious was timber and sheet materials. They cut them to 1220 x 2440mm and thicknesses of 18 and 25mm. Are programmers and the timber merchants part of some diabolical conspiracy?

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Powers of two are the roundest of numbers.

[–] cook_pass_babtridge@feddit.uk 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

They're not round, they're square!

[–] 007ace@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

Slow Clap Well done!

[–] Malfeasant@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Only every other one...

[–] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Much later in my career I came to appreciate the beauty of this system and the link with hexadecimal. I had to debug a network transmitted CRC that was endian flipped and in that process learned that in the Galois Field of two, 1+1=0 which feels delightfully nonsensical to a luddite.

[–] Worx@lemmynsfw.com 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

32, 64, 128 etc. are all round numbers, counting in binary. They are powers of two. Since computers work in binary, they make logical sense.

1220mm is 4ft, and 18 and 25mm are three-quarters of an inch, and an inch respectively.

[–] Scubus@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 days ago

They were making a joke. That being said, im not familiar with lumber or imperial<->metric conversions so their second point was lost on me, so thanks.

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[–] Chozo@fedia.io 158 points 2 days ago (12 children)

Source.

This isn't a "tech article", it's an article about tech. This is a normie article from a normie news outlet for normie readers.

Also from the article:

A previous version of this article said it was "not clear why WhatsApp settled on the oddly specific number." A number of readers have since noted that 256 is one of the most important numbers in computing, since it refers to the number of variations that can be represented by eight switches that have two positions - eight bits, or a byte. This has now been changed. Thanks for the tweets. DB

[–] markz@suppo.fi 87 points 2 days ago (3 children)

That weird ass explanation with switches and "one of the most important numbers" still sounds absolutely clueless.

[–] Malfeasant@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Still, it works well for "normies"...

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[–] wuzzlewoggle@feddit.org 53 points 2 days ago (3 children)

One of the most important numbers? I'd argue the most important number in computing is either 1 or 0...

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 71 points 2 days ago (4 children)

What the fuck is a power of 2??? I’m vibe coding python AI.

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[–] phantomwise@lemmy.ml 51 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yep very weird, should have been 255.

[–] deltapi@lemmy.world 56 points 2 days ago (11 children)

No, you can't have a group of zero, so the counter doesn't need to waste a position counting zero.

[–] 10OhmResistor@aussie.zone 39 points 2 days ago (3 children)

0 is reserved for the FBI agent listening in.

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[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 105 points 2 days ago (8 children)

If it's engagement bait, it's working.

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[–] 18107@aussie.zone 51 points 2 days ago (1 children)

In this case the limit was entirely arbitrary.

The programmers were told to pick a limit and they liked 256. There are issues with having a large number of people in a group, but it wasn't a hardware limit for this particular case.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 31 points 2 days ago

But it's still not oddly specific, they picked a nice round number

[–] xeekei@lemmy.zip 76 points 2 days ago (12 children)

You know you're a tech nerd when 256 sounds more even than 250 or 300. 😅

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