marzhall
@marzhall@lemmy.world
- Comment on Do it 3 days ago:
Every Time We Touch In My Ass
- Comment on Am I entitled to compensation? 1 week ago:
Someone has calculated the first 100 Trillion digits of pi, so if I understand the equation you’re suggesting they means it is possible to know if pi contains all permutations of all phone numbers.
Yep, it definitely means we’re above the average chance we could find a given 10-digit number in what’s been looked at so far, if we’re up to 14 digits! But here’s the trouble: that calculation gives the “average” chance.
In the same way you could see the number “1” more than once in pi, you could see “11” more than once in pi, and so on for all sizes of patterns, as long as they’re part of a larger not-yet-seen pattern (and as long as mathematicians’ as-of-yet unproven guesses about pi are accurate). So if you’re unlucky, even if pi does turn out to contain all numbers, we still may not have hit exactly your number yet, because larger patterns have been ahead of it that include things that aren’t your number. But the odds are in your favor as far as I know.
- Comment on Am I entitled to compensation? 1 week ago:
Does pi contain my phone number?
We can’t yet answer this because we don’t actually know whether or not Pi contains all permutations of all numbers. It’s conjectured that it does, however.
Didn’t say anything about compression.
You didn’t, but “compression” using pi actually asks the same question you do, iiuc, of " How far do I have to search in order to find a thing of a given length?" And the answer is - if pi truly does contain all permutations of all numbers - probably 10^length/2 - for phone numbers, 10^10/2, or half the length of all of the permutations of 10-digit phone numbers next to each other.
Which, coincidentally, and the reason I was aware of this, is why indexing into pi doesn’t save you space on average if you’re being a nerd and trying to use it for compression.
- Comment on Am I entitled to compensation? 1 week ago:
If you explore compression using pi - i.e., giving an index and a length of pi as your compression method - what you’ll end up finding is that the length of the data you want to compress is about the same as the length of the index in pi your data is at.
So if you wanted to “compress” five digits by just linking to its index in pi, you would most likely need a five-digit index into pi to find the spot where pi has that number. So, you save nothing on average.
There’s a good blog post that goes into this, but I’m having trouble finding it. The rough explanation I can remember is: if you have every permutation of a given length n in a row with an even distribution, then a random string you choose is likely to be in the middle of that length. Using our numbers 0-9 as our base, that puts you at index 10^n/2. Given our example of 5 digits, that’s 100000/2 - 50000, itself a 5 digit number, saving us no space.
In the mean time, you can use pifs to “store” your data using similar ideas.
- Comment on Anon's little cousin plays with MLP toys 1 week ago:
Can confirm. I remember my seeing a first “hey, did you guys by any chance happen to see the new episode” post on /b/ back in 2010, quickly followed by it exploding on 4chan and people setting up the first pony tf2 servers, moot creating /pony/ as a containment board, and everyone saying “don’t post on /pony/ or you’ll get IP banned in two weeks” - because a decade prior, moot had created the /furry/ containment board when furries got big, let it sit for two weeks, then IP banned everyone who had posted to it and deleted it.
Of course, he didn’t replicate the action with /pony/, which is still around. And early brony culture was fascinating, because on a site where shock humor ruled and the experience was like digging through a sewer to find gems, suddenly a subculture emerged that was heavily anti-irony, kind, and genuine. Absolutely bizarre to watch.
Worth noting, as others have, that this was pre-gamergate, which was the social movement that took 4chan and turned it from a place that let Nazis post (usually “iRoNiCaLly” under the premise of being part of the ocean of piss that was the shock humor on /b/) and rolled it into a full Nazi bar.
- Comment on Shit...go back. 5 weeks ago:
Also kills the opening line of snowcrash,
“the sky above the port was the color of television tuned to a dead channel”
Not to mention the small joys of tuning to the “encrypted” 18+ channels in the hopes of seeing a nip in the fog
- Comment on Anon fixes their games 5 weeks ago:
The number of times I’ve broken this one out…
After having lived through it, if I never play a gritty brown bloom game again, it’ll be too soon.
- Comment on wrong again 1 month ago:
tl;dr: price gouging sparked by bird flu. Shame their ticker isn’t $SCAM
- Comment on Murica 1 month ago:
Epileptic here: my e-bike is a godsend. That, and my city having at least decent bus infrastructure. With those two combined, even while I’m working on getting my license back, I don’t think I ever want to own a car again.
- Comment on HELP! How do I help educate my son about his body when I know nothing about boys?? 1 month ago:
If he suddenly really wants to do his laundry one morning, don’t ask questions. (Wet dreams and embarassment being the context here.)
That’s about all I can think of that’s gendered, really.
I was ~9 when I got the talk from my Dad, and it was basic stuff about just the mechanics. It set things up so that, around 13, I went to him with questions about how I was feeling re: puberty. So even now it’ll be helpful to do the talk and show that you’re available as a resource.
In your case, your son likely has some idea from internet pornography and whatever he got in school, but it would still be helpful to go through the basics with him. I’d frame it as “I’m sure you know most of this, but i just want to make sure you know what’s important.” It might also be helpful to make clear that pornography is as much acting as TV is - don’t set his expectations on it, it’s people faking things for money.
Going over the importance of condom use also helpful at his age. Keep in mind, it’s not necessarily about what he’s going to use right away, but making sure he knows when he does need to know.
Then, I’d just be there for him and ask if he has any questions, and answer them frankly. Tell him he can come back later if he’s unsure.
It’s awkward and tough I’m sure, but it’ll be a help not just now, but going forward. Good luck!
- Comment on I'm old 2 months ago:
It’s meant to inspire a brief moment of dread and surprise for those of us who are not quick at math.
- Comment on Excellent anti smoking ad 3 months ago:
forced to pay for the cost of their own healthcare if they develop any disease that has even a minimal chance of being related to smoking.
Fun fact: smokers on average die much younger than non-smokers, and so end up being cheaper over a lifetime vs. the amount they pay into the system than non-smokers.
So the next time you see a smoker who’s on the same health plan as you, you can thank them, knowing their self-inflicted early demise will likely end up lowering costs on your plan.
Even more fun fact - same with the obese: a heart attack or stroke at 45 is way cheaper than paying for all the end-of-life healthcare healthier people are more likely to get in their 60s-70s when half of them aren’t even working anymore, lazy PoSs.
Really makes me reconsider how I think about those selfish in-shape non-smoker bastards who won’t just smoke or overeat so they die young and make my healthcare cheaper
- Comment on what a moment to live 4 months ago:
A dance-for-charity event at The Pennsylvania State University whose name I personally haven’t heard in a minute
- Comment on What are some video game quotes that is stuck in your head? 4 months ago:
Iiin the pipe, five by five
- Comment on [Même] Which movie was this for you? 5 months ago:
Just had this experience with The Men Who Stare At Goats. Thought it was a good watch, like 6.2 on IMDb. Would recommend
- Comment on Most of the trick-or-treaters have been skipping my house, and I finally figured out why 5 months ago:
I leave a bowl out, and this year I had a trash can out in case anyone needed it. At the end of the night, the only thing in it was an empty hard cider bottle. Had a laugh
- Comment on Posting the shopping cart theory because people had questions in a separate thread 7 months ago:
I did this as a kid at a place with cart corrals. Because, y’know, someone still needs to move them from the corrals to the front.
- Comment on Regain Control in my ass 7 months ago:
Beneath the Mask in my ass
- Comment on Congrats to all 2024 college graduates! 11 months ago:
I absolutely loved my apartment, but I pulled myself out of it because it was just far too much money and I knew that nearly all of that money was going into a hole.
Lived with a buddy for 2 years to save up a down payment, and got a house that’s nice - but honestly the renovation bit that I couldn’t do with an apartment that I really like is that I put solar panels on it. I wouldn’t have that option if I was still in my apartment.
And of course I pay people to mow the lawn, so some money still goes in a hole for sure, as it is with paying mortgage interest. But I have way more control now over how much, and whenever I plan to move I can trade a lot of that money going into the mortgage for wherever I go next, or pass it on.
- Comment on Two distinct eras of television 1 year ago:
what do millennials use as sleep aids
I got hit by a “are you still there?” after 15 minutes of Futurama last night and they were almost right. They’re on to us