What is 0xFFFFFFFF? In my system of values, which is the system of values of a 34-year old computer programmer and administrator with strong telecom engineering background, it is the most complete 32-bit integer. For me the etymology of the expression comes from the C programming language. I don’t want to get any deeper in the etymology, it is possible that the C programming language has leased the word from somewhere else, but that was the place where I first encountered the 0x hexadecimal representation. There is a good article about the term ‘hexadecimal’ in Wikipedia [1].
Why I registered this domain? I just felt internal urge to register it. Can you imagine yourself showing off your e-mail address 0x00000001@0xFFFFFFFF.com or 0x00000001@0xFFFFFFFF.info 😉 Our lives depend so much on the hexadecimal representation and 32-bit integers that persons who know about that it worths having such domain. If you have a background any near to my background you are going to appreciate it.
If 0b denotes binary representation, 0xFFFFFFFF can be 0b11111111111111111111111111111111. It is still possible to register such long domain however I registered the 0xFFFFFFFF.com and 0xFFFFFFFF.info (.info is better if you studied Theory of Information).
Do you know about the Year 2038 problem? There is a good article in Wikipedia about it [2]. The essence it that the time in 32-bit systems which represent time as 32-bit signed integer rolls from 0x7FFFFFFF to 0x80000000. The leftmost bit represents the sign (1 is minus). This brings it from positive number to negative number with all the side effects of it. For example if you compare a timestamp of the past with the current timestamp, and the transition happens, suddenly the current moment becomes years ago for the machine that makes the comparison. Are we going to be prepared? What will happen with your accounts, with your money assets? How interest will be calculated? Can interest be calculated so that the amount in your account decreases. What about the debtors – are they going to have an advantage? Will the legal system sustain an eventual pressure created by large number of suits and consumer complaints?
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
P.S. And, by the way, the decimal representation of 0xFFFFFFFF is 4294967295. The decimal representation of 0xFFFF is 65535, and the decimal representation of 0xFF is 255.The decimal representation of 0xF is 15. The decimal representation of 0xFFFFFFFE is 4294967294, the decimal representation of 0x7FFFFFFF is 2147483647, as well as the decimal representation of 0x80000000 is 2147483648. I am not going to present here the roman numeral representation, as it should be quite long and as far as I know the line over the script not fit in the Unicode table 😉
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