Live data from Hacker News

999999999999999 - 999999999999997

google.com

101–107 of 107 posts

Re: 999999999999999 - 999999999999997

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So much of what we do is subconscious. Turning off an automatic tool means you have to devote cognitive load to enabling it manually.

Re: 999999999999999 - 999999999999997

#103
post #70
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).

Maybe we could just define "infinity = 999999" or something like that ...

I've actually seen that kind of definition in the source of one game.

Re: 999999999999999 - 999999999999997

#104
post #3

Maybe I'm just getting incurably academic, but I think "I found a bug!" is not nearly as interesting as "I found a bug!" and one of: 1) It affects millions of people! 2) It affects large amounts of money! 3) It is a great example of a new or rare class of bug. Here's how you can avoid introducing similar bugs into your code! Here's how we can detect these things automatically! etc. Here, the only thing that springs t…

I agree. My first thought was "who cares?" After reading all the comments, my thought was "who cares?" Now, my thought is "who cares?"

Spoken like a true "business guy". It's technically interesting behavior.

Re: 999999999999999 - 999999999999997

#105
post #68
post #66

Is there anything that can do infinity - (infinity-1)?

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).

Yeah ... I was suggesting that a more sophisticated algorithm for arithmetic on very large integers could eliminate substantial similarities, leaving the 'zone of difference'. A limited 'bit window' needs to be more versatile.

For example, a while back a man got a bill for $35 billion ... that wouldn't happen with more intelligence built into routines. (OUR minds look at 999...999 and 999...997 and see quickly what can be eliminated.)

Re: 999999999999999 - 999999999999997

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When I asked it to show its work, it demonstrated that it did the algebra first. I was asking if that's legal here.
Post reply on HN