This can be proven, if somewhat bizarrely, by showing that since pi is the sum of an infinite number of rationals, and there are an infinite number of them that have decimals which repeat forever, that for a hypothetical digit position that is infinitely far away from the decimal point, each digit from 1 through 9 would occur infinitely many times. The sum of 1 through 9 is 45. Since each digit occurs the same number of times, the sum in this column must be 45 times some number which has a last digit of 5 or 0. Since this hypothetical infinityith digit is the last digit of pi, there is no carryover from following digits sums, so the last digit must either be 5 or 0. If it were 0, then you could drop this digit and perform the same task as before, but this time since you are adding an extra 4, the sum must either end in a 4 or a 9 for this digit.
QED
Two big problems (in addition to the fundamental issue that since pi is irrational it can have no 'last' digit):
First, just because each digit occurs infinitely often doesn't imply that each occurs equally often. For a simple example, it's trivial to write an inifinite series of digits that contains each digit an infinite number of times and never sums to a multiple of 45: 1 0123456789 0123456789 0123456789 0123456789...
Second, you later state that the final non-zero digit of any multiple of 45 must be a 4, 5, or 9, but this is also false: 180, for example. In fact, the last non-zero can be any digit (except for zero, of course): i.e. 90, 180, 270,...
In the future, sir, please remember that you are allowed only one completely outrageous statement per post, and comport yourself accordingly.
Me, too posts can serve a valid function--they serve to alert the rest of the slashdot community the person posting them cares enough to have an opinion, although not enough to try and support it. I guess it's kind of lind a multiple-choice poll in that respect...
Only the highest few essays would get seen by the larger community (only moderators would see all the essays).
I don't necessarily agree with this method of doing things and would prefer a method that worked similar to the way comments currently do. Maybe start each essay at a ranking of -5 or so and allow the moderators the ability to move this up until at 0 it would be visible to the 'average'/. reader (maybe have separate thresholds for comments and essays). Also, essays should probably have their own category so that just as I can filter out all Star Wars Prequel articles, essays in general could also be filtered out.
Still, I think that all readers should be able to see all essays if they are willing to spend the time and set their threshold low enough for a couple of reasons. First, now that the moderators are drawn from nearly the entire reader pool, the difference between readers and moderators is not so great that it would justify limiting access to most essays. Second, by allowing all users access to all essays, the possibility of censorship, no matter how remote, is entirely removed from the realm of possibility.
Anyway, that's my viewpoint; you're free to disagree.
I found the C|NET blurb to be less than enlightening, and would like to read the original Wall Street Journal article mentioned by/. Could someone provide the date/page of this article, please?
As compared to the ORB drive, you're only paying about 3x more, not 23x. The $700-$900 is the cost of the drive, nto the media (vs. $300 for the ORB drive). The media cost has not been set yet. I do agree that a new hard drive is still a better value, though.
Slashdot Mirror
Two big problems (in addition to the fundamental issue that since pi is irrational it can have no 'last' digit):
First, just because each digit occurs infinitely often doesn't imply that each occurs equally often. For a simple example, it's trivial to write an inifinite series of digits that contains each digit an infinite number of times and never sums to a multiple of 45: 1 0123456789 0123456789 0123456789 0123456789
Second, you later state that the final non-zero digit of any multiple of 45 must be a 4, 5, or 9, but this is also false: 180, for example. In fact, the last non-zero can be any digit (except for zero, of course): i.e. 90, 180, 270,
In the future, sir, please remember that you are allowed only one completely outrageous statement per post, and comport yourself accordingly.
But nine times six is forty-two (in base thirteen).
> Although the US has the best claim since its the only one to ever go there.
Actually, I believe that the Soviets also placed several cosmonauts on the moon.
Me, too posts can serve a valid function--they serve to alert the rest of the slashdot community the person posting them cares enough to have an opinion, although not enough to try and support it. I guess it's kind of lind a multiple-choice poll in that respect...
I don't necessarily agree with this method of doing things and would prefer a method that worked similar to the way comments currently do. Maybe start each essay at a ranking of -5 or so and allow the moderators the ability to move this up until at 0 it would be visible to the 'average' /. reader (maybe have separate thresholds for comments and essays). Also, essays should probably have their own category so that just as I can filter out all Star Wars Prequel articles, essays in general could also be filtered out.
Still, I think that all readers should be able to see all essays if they are willing to spend the time and set their threshold low enough for a couple of reasons. First, now that the moderators are drawn from nearly the entire reader pool, the difference between readers and moderators is not so great that it would justify limiting access to most essays. Second, by allowing all users access to all essays, the possibility of censorship, no matter how remote, is entirely removed from the realm of possibility.
Anyway, that's my viewpoint; you're free to disagree.
I found the C|NET blurb to be less than enlightening, and would like to read the original Wall Street Journal article mentioned by /. Could someone provide the date/page of this article, please?
As compared to the ORB drive, you're only paying about 3x more, not 23x. The $700-$900 is the cost of the drive, nto the media (vs. $300 for the ORB drive). The media cost has not been set yet. I do agree that a new hard drive is still a better value, though.