Earlier quoted context omitted.
I imagine this is why the parent poster mention enabling two-factor authentication first.
Sweet, now someone has to get into parent's google account AND swipe his phone!
You can't google 9999999..99999999999999999999999
71–80 of 84 posts
Re: You can't google 9999999..99999999999999999999999
#72Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. Please try your request again later. Why did this happen?
You searching for credits cards (via that ranged query) is a flag that the search is possibly automated and they display the warning and catchpa as a mitigator.
Re: You can't google 9999999..99999999999999999999999
#73See these from May: https://twitter.com/mikkohypponen/status/72545823916961792 https://twitter.com/mikkohypponen/status/72574386430939136 https://twitter.com/mikkohypponen/status/72738322702802945
Re: You can't google 9999999..99999999999999999999999
#74On a faintly related note, I once was calculating partitions, using a relatively inefficient method (memoization: if f(n,k) is the number of distinct ways to express n as the unordered sum of integers no greater than k, then f(n,k) = f(n-k,k) + f(n,k-1)). My computer started to feel the strain in the thousands (this algorithm is O(n^2) in space and time). I then googled for the partition of, say, 1034, which is: 9136…
Ridiculous in what way? Ridiculously good compared to alternatives, or ridiculously complex or? Asking out of pure ignorance here.
Incidentally, here's a fun little trick. If you have a sequence defined as the values of a polynomial at consecutive integers, then if you take the differences of consecutive terms of the sequence, you'll get a sequence that is the values of a polynomial with degree 1 less. For example, I'll think of a random quadratic. The sequence is:
3 12 39 84 147 228 327 444 579
And then the consecutive differences are: 3 12 39 84 147 228 327 444 579
9 27 45 63 81 99 117 135
You might notice that the second row is a straight-line function. If we take another set of differences... 3 12 39 84 147 228 327 444 579
9 27 45 63 81 99 117 135
18 18 18 18 18 18 18
We end up with a constant function. (And I guess taking differences on a constant function yields another constant.) Then, if we say that the sequence started at index 0 (i.e. f(0) = 3, f(1) = 12, and so on), then I can tell you, by looking at the leftmost elements of each row, that the polynomial was f(n) = 3·(n choose 0) + 9·(n choose 1) + 18·(n choose 2), which comes out to be 9n^2 + 3. [1] That is in fact the polynomial I picked. This method is what Martin Gardner called the "calculus of finite differences"; taking differences is an analogue of taking derivatives, and the result is an analogue of Taylor series.Anyway, pentagonal numbers are defined like this [this is the only way that makes sense to me, anyway]:
0 1 5 ...
which gives us some differences: 0 1 5 ...
1 4 ...
3 ...
and we know that the bottom is a constant, because it's the second difference on a quadratic: 0 1 5 ...
1 4 ...
3 3 3 3 3 3 3
--> ;now the bottom row is the differences of the row above it
0 1 5 ...
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22
3 3 3 3 3 3 3
--> ;and *that* is the differences of the top row
0 1 5 12 22 35 51 70 92
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22
3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Incidentally, this is the method of calculating values of polynomials that Charles Babbage's Difference Engine was designed to do. It's nice and easy. Anyway, back to theory about pentagonal numbers. Using the pseudo-Taylor series method, we can read off "0·(n choose 0) + 1·(n choose 1) + 3·(n choose 2)" as our formula, which comes out to n(3n-1)/2. By the way, we can also plug negative numbers into this formula (or, equivalently, we could take the differences backward), which yields what are called the "generalized pentagonal numbers": n ... -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...
pent(n) ... 57 40 26 15 7 2 0 1 5 12 22 35 51 ...
-->
pent(n) sorted: 0 1 2 5 7 12 15 22 26 35 40 51 57 ...
Now, we define P(n) to be the number of partitions of n, i.e. the number of distinct unordered ways to express n as the sum of positive integers. The first several terms look like this: P(0): 0 = --> 1
P(1): 1 = 1 --> 1
P(2): 2 = 2, 1+1 --> 2
P(3): 3 = 3, 2+1, 1+1+1 --> 3
P(4): 4 = 4, 3+1, 2+2, 2+1+1, 1+1+1+1 --> 5
P(5): 5 = 5, 4+1, 3+2, 3+1+1, 2+2+1, 2+1+1+1, 1+1+1+1+1 --> 7
P(6): 6 = 6,5+1,4+2,4+1+1,3+3,3+2+1,3+1+1,2+2+2,2+2+1+1,2+1+1+1+1, --> 11
You could compute several more by hand. Then the recursive formula I originally described might occur to you, and you could make a computer calculate it, perhaps up into the thousands. Now, what if I told you this: P(n) = P(n-1) + P(n-2) - P(n-5) - P(n-7) + P(n-12) + P(n-15) - ...
where that sequence "1 2 5 7 12 15" is the "generalized pentagonal numbers" I described above? How the hell are pentagonal numbers connected with partitions? That's what I mean by ridiculous. ... The Wikipedia article in the sister comment describes a proof of the connection. I still find it counterintuitive.[1] "Choose": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binomial_coefficient
Re: You can't google 9999999..99999999999999999999999
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
care to explain?
He might be referring to this: Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. Please try your request again later. Why did this happen? IP address: x.y.z.t. Time: 2011-09-01T19:03:40Z URL: http://www.google.com/search?q=9999999..99999999999999999999...
Re: You can't google 9999999..99999999999999999999999
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correct. Instead it returns some generally useless results that are likely not at all what the user desired. Truthfully this seems about what I expect from Microsoft.
The point is that Google crashes and Bing returns somewhat useless results. It's better, though only incrementally.
Re: You can't google 9999999..99999999999999999999999
#77On a faintly related note, I once was calculating partitions, using a relatively inefficient method (memoization: if f(n,k) is the number of distinct ways to express n as the unordered sum of integers no greater than k, then f(n,k) = f(n-k,k) + f(n,k-1)). My computer started to feel the strain in the thousands (this algorithm is O(n^2) in space and time). I then googled for the partition of, say, 1034, which is: 9136…
This is why I love Hacker News. The pure hack value of some comments is mind-blowing.
Re: You can't google 9999999..99999999999999999999999
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ridiculous in what way? Ridiculously good compared to alternatives, or ridiculously complex or? Asking out of pure ignorance here.
See how http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagonal_number_theorem strikes you ;-) At the bottom there's a bit of Python code for the partition numbers, incidentally.
Re: You can't google 9999999..99999999999999999999999
#79Re: You can't google 9999999..99999999999999999999999
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
A problem might be that as soon as you discover that number, you can't tell anyone on the web about it. This for example has no results as of now: http://google.com/search?q=813115181452319
As of now, it has 3 results (all 3 pointing in some way or the other to your own remark). Damn. That was fast!