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Re: 999999999999999 - 999999999999997

#81

Post by modeless »

calcnerd256 wrote: post #78
bdr wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in non-standard models of arithmetic, where you could use infinity as an operand, the value of that expression would have to be undefined (not 1, as you seem to expect).

What about limit as x goes to infinity of x - (x - 1)? We do the algebra first, right? Now, that's a special case of y - (x - 1) where y = x, so can we get a different residue by going about the limit in two dimensions?

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=limit+of+x+-+(x+-+1)+as...

Also, http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=infinity+-+(infinity+-+...

If nothing else, Wolfram Alpha is useful for math. I'm impressed that it understood my syntax for limits that I made up on the spot, first try.

Re: 999999999999999 - 999999999999997

#84

Post by mikeyur »

eru wrote: post #39
bd wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, you also created a top Google result for this search term (indexed in around 10 minutes): http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls...

Google loves Hacker News.

Not hard to get a page indexed with only 700 other competing pages. lol

Re: 999999999999999 - 999999999999997

#86

Post by randallsquared »

calcnerd256 wrote: post #77
randallsquared wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ability to ignore and avoid thinking about certain things is essential when visiting 4chan. If you practice, you can read sentences like the above without having mental images of the described event. More advanced filters can prevent you from thinking about it with imagery even after seeing something you wish you hadn't seen. ;)

I would rather have never been to /b/ and not have that ability and miss out on all the counterculture, because that ability is also a curse.

Really? How so? I don't find any difficulty imagining things, just an absence of difficulty in choosing not to.

Re: 999999999999999 - 999999999999997

#87

Post by randallsquared »

unalone wrote: post #44
jacquesm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Impressive. I find that extremely hard, it's like things play on an internal monitor that I'm forced to watch and can not ignore no matter how much I want to. I run a webcam site and over the years we've had some pretty weird stuff happening there and I really wished I had not seen any of that.

It's a combination of ignorance and desensitization. My generation grew up with tubgirl and 2girls1cup. I first saw tubgirl/lemon party when I was 13. When I was I think 17, I came across goatse for the first time; by then, a man * his wide wasn't enough to faze me. I wrote an essay about how this widespread desensitization will affect society and culture. It'll be interesting to see the world in twenty years.

After browsing around your site for a few minutes, I didn't find this essay. Link?

Re: 999999999999999 - 999999999999997

#88

Post by jey »

_cbsz wrote: post #31
bdr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about: 4) It's not obvious how this bug could happen! Let's think about it!

Well, apparently, it was obvious. AFAICT, no one has come up with a better explanation than using IEEE floating point where bignums should be used, which I pointed out in my original comment.

The guy who was the maintainer of Google Calculator from 2005 to 2007 confirmed that this is the correct explanation. He said he wanted to switch it to use bignums, but wasn't able to (and not due to technical reasons).

ZorbaTHut (http://mandible.net) said:

  it's 80-bit ieee floats internally, but there's some specialized code
  to clamp it to zero when it looks like it ought to be zero.
  as far as I know it should otherwise behave exactly like 80-bit ieee
  (it wouldn't surprise me if the clamping code is being a little overzealous
  in this case)
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