the.com/hex
Curse or color code — six characters that either ruin your day or paint it.
means A spell or curse meant to bring bad luck — and, in computing, a base-16 number system using digits 0-9 and letters A-F.
from The curse-sense comes from the Pennsylvania Dutch, who borrowed it from German Hexe, 'witch' — a word with deep Germanic roots tying it to old notions of fence-riding hedge-spirits (related to 'hag'). The computing sense is unrelated: it's simply a clipping of 'hexadecimal,' built from Greek hex, 'six,' plus Latin decimal — six and ten making sixteen. Two different sixes, one spooky and one mathematical, that happened to collide in the same three letters.
- base count
- Sixteen symbols: zero through nine, then A to F
- color magic
- Every web color is a six-digit hex code
- old curse
- Comes from German word for witch
- byte friendly
- Two hex digits perfectly encode one byte
- dead beef
- Programmers spell real words in hex memory addresses
hexadecimal numbering system — base-16 system using digits 0-9 and letters a-f, standard in computing since the 1950s
the hex curse — alleged supernatural curse placed on the bambino (babe ruth) by boston red sox in 1920, lasted 86 years until 2004
witches hex signs — decorative barn symbols in pennsylvania dutch country (lancaster county), historically believed to ward off evil