Post #2941157

Longer explanation: Because most computers use *two's complement* to make negative numbers. To produce -*x*, you take *x*, flip all the bits, and then add 1. Conveniently, this process works both ways, so if you have an `int` with a positive MSB, i.e. `1*******`, that's a negative number, and if you invert and add 1, you get the positive number. So if you take `11111111`, and apply this process, you get `00000001`, which equals 1. Thus, `11111111` = -1 Secondly, the gestation period of humans is 9 months, and there are 12 months in a year. So if you have binary candles and all of them lit, that can suggest, which it does in my previous comment, that you're celebrating a child's -1st birthday.