Plotting out vacations and other important items on your 2013 calendar? Here's a handful of crucial geek celebration days worth making sure you don't miss once the year starts to whiz by.
Data Privacy Day (Jan. 28): According to the National Cyber Security Alliance, Data Privacy Day "is an effort to empower people to protect their privacy and control their digital footprint and escalate the protection of privacy and data as everyone's priority." Noted privacy backers such as uh, Facebook, are among the awareness day's supporters.
Pi Day (March 14): This annual March 14 event (3.14 ... get it?) is pretty much the only day on which masses gather to acknowledge the number that represents the ratio between the circumference and the diameter of a circle. Fun antics include trying to recite as many Pi digits as you can from memory and making Pi pies. And if you can't wait to celebrate it again in 2014, there's always Pi Approximation Day on July 22 (22/7 = 3.14). And for those of you who don't want part of either of those days, then Tau Day is the one for you (June 28).
RELATED: 10 ways to celebrate Pi Day
MORE: 10 ways to celebrate Star Wars Day
Free Comic Book Day (May 4): One of two big reasons to celebrate this day in 2013, as participating comic book shops give away free comics this day. Find which nearby stores are taking part here. If you're lucky maybe you can even get a free "Star Wars" comic book and also celebrate ...
Star Wars Day (May 4): Another cutesy play on the date (May the fourth be with you ...). As described on Wookieepedia, "Typical festivities consist of inviting fellow Star Wars-obsessed friends to stay over, and then watching the series in succession. Lots of snacks, bring lightsabers and Star Wars-themed toys. Lightsaber fights in the early morning hours optional."
Towel Day (May 25): This obscure celebration day pays tribute to the late Douglas Adams, author of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," referencing this passage in the book: "A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have."
Geek Pride Day (May 25): Another two-fer. This "holiday" celebrates geek culture and got its start on the day the film "Star Wars: A New Hope" was released in 1977. Geek Pride Day got its start in Spain.
SysAdmin Day (July 26): This year marks the 14th celebration of these unsung heroes who keep corporate networks and systems up and running around the clock. It's the brainchild of Ted Kekatos, an IT pro.
International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19): This always has the potential to be one of the more annoying days on the calendar, and can have double meaning nowadays, referring to scurvy mates of the sea as well as computer software thieves. (Here are some ways to celebrate the day.)
Software Freedom Day (TBD): This worldwide celebration of free and open source software (FOSS) has the goal of educating the world about the benefits of using FOSS in education, government, home and business. The nonprofit Software Freedom International orchestrates activities, and the likes of Canonical, Google and others support it.
And for those of you who need one more thing to look forward to: The next Square Root Day will take place on April 4, 2016, as the numbers of the month and day are the square root of the last two digits of the year. March 3, 2009 was the last one.
Bob Brown tracks network research in his Alpha Doggs blog and Facebook page, as well on Twitter and Google +.
Read more about infrastructure management in Network World's Infrastructure Management section.