Nerds and numerologists get ready: the last binary date of the 21st century is approaching.Friday is 11/11/11 — a highly significant date if you believe in the power of numbers. No doubt thousands of us will see the preponderance of ones as a good time to turn over a new leaf — start that new diet or exercise routine, perhaps. There is some logic to this: as a memorable date, it makes it easy to celebrate your profound change of direction in years to come.
Friday is also Veteran’s Day, of course, and thus imbued with solemn significance. The First World War ground to a halt at 11 a.m. local time on the 11th of November 1918. This, then, will be the first time the world has ever gathered to remember the fallen at a time when every last number on the clock — including the two-digit year — is 11.
But it’s also a date to celebrate, at least for programmers who think in binary code. One group of hackers has dubbed it “Nerd New Year.” They’ll be lining the streets of Redwood City, in the heart of Silicon Valley, for an outdoor hackathon and party, including the countdown to Nerd New Year itself at 11:11 p.m. “It is ON,” organizer Adam Rifkin told Patch. (That’s a binary joke, by the way.)
Meanwhile, the makers of ChannelCaster — a media-sharing app for Android — will be marking the occasion by launching a channel dedicated to the movie This Is Spinal Tap, and screening the film more than 11 times during the day. The startup got its name, OneLouder, from the movie’s classic scene where the fake rock band reveals its amps are able to “turn up to 11.”
Android fans have another reason to celebrate: 11/11/11 marks the release of the highly-anticipated Droid RAZR. Verizon Wireless shops will open at 11:11 a.m. to start selling the device. If you feel like taking a stroll from the phone store to the multiplex, you may be able to catch a screening of Saw director Darren Lynn Bousman’s new horror flick: 11/11/11.
And if you’re more interested in contributing to a movie than passively watching one, check out the 11/Eleven project, which is inviting digital submissions of every kind — audio, video, blog post, tweet — from the big day. The planned result: a two-hour documentary to be screened in September 2012.
It isn’t just the tech and entertainment worlds taking note. Las Vegas has been swamped with nearly 4,000 wedding applications. South Korea has seen a similar rush — but in the delivery room, with expectant mothers demanding c-sections on the lucky date.
If you miss the festivities, the next binary six-digit date will be here in slightly more than 88 years — on January 1, 2100. So if you’re planning on sticking around for that, it may be time to start that diet and exercise plan.
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