This site is for the Mark & Naomi Iliff family. For Mark’s work persona go to Talespinner
When your parrot says “pieces of seven”
Computer nerd riff on parity error
M & N – 1980s
Mark & Naomi
It’s an error detection measure. Of the 8 bits¹ in a byte, 7 carry information whilst the only role of the 8ᵗʰ is to make the total number of 1s in the byte even². The integrity of the byte can then be checked by counting the 1s.
Meanwhile, parrots are reputed to be fond of saying “pieces of eight”.
¹binary digits, 0s or 1s
²or odd, according to system